Hi

I little while back a briefly touched on resistance bands as a simple, but useful piece of equipment to have, whether or not you've a home gym.  I thought I'd expand on that in the next couple of emails.

Resistance training has several benefits beyond building muscle. It also strengthens your bones, burns calories and helps protect your joints from injury. You can reap those benefits no matter whether you train with weights or resistance bands, so selecting which method to use will depend on your personal preference and goals.

Muscle Endurance and Fat Reduction

You may think that resistance bands look flimsy, especially in comparison to heavy weights, however, they're actually proven as being as effective for building muscle mass and endurance and reducing fat provided that you train at the same level of perceived exertion. A study published in the September 2008 issue of the "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research" found that resistance bands offer comparable results to those obtained from weight machines.

Muscle Strength

If you're a beginner or intermediate exerciser, you'll also gain comparable strength benefits from resistance bands and weightlifting. A study in the February 2010 issue of the journal "Physical Therapy" found that both resistance bands and dumbbells can produce high levels of muscle activation. Weight training is, however, a better choice if you are an advanced exerciser and your goal is to increase your existing strength. Heavy resistance bands are often very rigid. This limits your range of motion and prevents you from getting full strength benefits.

Convenience

Resistance bands also have other benefits that you won't get from training with weights. Bands are versatile, lightweight and use up little space so you can travel with them or exercise wherever you want. They're also a lot cheaper than weights or weight machines, so you can buy several bands to fit all your needs. If you're a beginner, you may also find that the bands are safer to use than heavy weights.

Versatility

Resistance bands are also more versatile than weights. Weight machines are often limited to a couple of exercises. Weight offer more versatility because you may do a wide range of exercises with each, however, you'll still need to use dumbbells or barbells of different weights for different exercises. Resistance bands however, offer the most versatility. They usually come in three or four tensions, from light to extra heavy, but you're likely to suffice with just one or two bands to perform hundreds of different exercises.     


Next time we'll go over the sort of exercises that you can do with resistance bands.

Paul