What are resistance bands useful for?

Resistance bands are used very differently within the fitness industry. This is mostly due to their versatility and their ability to provide tension and resistance to the muscle. Regardless of what you are trying to achieve, ‘resistance’ is going to be the factor that causes stress to the body which it then adapts to and becomes stronger. 

Whether you are just using bands as a safe way to start exercising or using the bands as a different variation in your training, resistance bands are generally a very popular tool used in and out of the gym.

Activation
A very popular use for the bands is when warming up before a weight training session. Due to the progressive increase in tension and the safety that the bands provide (you can’t go wrong when using the bands), it is a great way to promote blood flow to certain areas of the body and get them ready for the exercises you are doing in the session. This not only helps with reducing injury due to being warm but also primes your muscles for increased preparedness to exercise. Click here to watch our videos on different types of band activation exercises.

Exercise
You can use bands to exercise too! Many people do and they are getting great results from this. The versatility and movability of resistance bands make it easier to workout anywhere. As long as you have something to tie the bands around you can essentially workout from anywhere. This is particularly popular with beginners as it is light and many of the exercises are easy to implement. You can work the entire body with a bunch of different strength resistance bands (as different muscles are stronger/ weaker than the other). If you are looking for some ideas on different exercises/ workouts that can be performed, click here for our Home Workout Program.

Variation
There is an increasing number of people who are now using the bands as variations to many movements in the gym. Bands attached to barbells, machines and dumbbells are becoming more and more common. These variations help many people push more out of an exercise and essentially increase the difficulty or tension throughout a lift, therefore driving more progress (generally). Don’t make it too complex as this does not make it better. A simple banded deadlift or squat may help you break through that plateau you’ve been stuck at!

Rehabilitation
Due to the low risk of injury that the bands provide, they are a great tool to use for rehabilitation of different injuries and are used commonly by physios and chiropractors to help rebuild strength in vital areas that are causing injury for their patients. Bands have a wide range of difficulties from very light to very heavy and different sizes to suit the application- glute bands are used very differently compared to the longer resistance bands. In the realm of rehabilitation, you must get the exercise right before progressing the movement. So, start light do it right and work your way up. Physiotherapists and Chiropractors do source their bands from PPP to help their clients with their rehabilitation as well as some of the rehab items that help their patients in between visits such as trigger balls and foam rollers.

There are many different uses for bands, however, these are generally the most popular (and most beneficial way to utilise the resistance bands). Happy training and just remember- the small things add up. Attention to detail regardless of your goal will go a long way.

We are happy to help out our customers with their prevention and preparations needs. We are sourcing new products frequently to add to the list of items we have on deck to help our customers with all aspects of exercise. Feel free to head over to our store to pick up an item to assist you with your training.