Why Resistance Bands Outperform
There are plenty of benefits to working out at home. The convenience of being able to out on your terms and turf goes a long way — wear what you want (or wear nothing at all), listing or watch whatever you want without having to worry about someone complaining to the manager. But the largest set back to working out at home is the amount of money you will have to put to properly equip your home facility. Of course, there are ways around this, but you will still want to make sure you have the right tools.
For experienced and rookie home-gym members alike, core-strength equipment is an absolute requirement. Most folks already have a exercise ball and most of them sit in a corner gathering dust. This has nothing to do with the ball’s quality as a workout piece — in fact, the ball has some clear benefits. Instead, the problem with the ball is that it is highly specialized and most people need variety in their workouts. Resistance bands like the ones used by personal trainers and fitness gurus not only allow for variety, but for expanding the strength routine to include other strength areas.
Most, if not all popular brands of bands (also called tubing) have different resistance levels, but you will have to buy several sets. For example, an orange band might make for more resistance and a blue band for less. The different colors typically have different tubing thickness, which is really where the resistance levels come into play. Regardless of the resistance coding, to properly equip your home facility with the bands, you should stock more than one resistance type in order to add variety and completeness to your workout.
Higher-end brands are manufactured with clips. This means one set of grips and a variety of bands so that you change your resistance band from one level to another, or even add several resistance bands to your grips of an ultimate workout. Although having the flexibility to change bands certainly proves to be a benefit, it also allows you to stick with one set of grips for all of your workouts instead of having to switch from one pair to another. This, of course might be nothing more than a personal preference. Here are some other considerations:
The benefits of elastic resistance over traditional free weights is that the bands eliminate the joint pain that traditionally follows a good, deep free weight session. As well, there is no momentum with elastic bands as the resistance increases as the elastic stretches. By the way, it is this momentum that leads to free weight injuries.
Compared to bow resistance that machines like the Bowflex use, elastic resistance is more direct. Does this matter? To some, it might. For the same reasons that some bodybuilders will not use Nautilus-type equipment at the fitness center, some might prefer the elastic over bow resistance machines. The reasons might vary depending on personal opinions, but the similarity between the two is that the bow machines use fly wheels and pulley systems just as those machines at the gym use. Therefore, it is save to conclude that some prefer a more direct workout. Just as the free weights provide a more direct workout, so do the bands.
Finally, gravity workouts and systems also lack the main benefit of resistance bands in that their weight (e.g. your body weight) remains consistent. Whether executing pull-ups or sit-ups or anything else that relies on gravity the consistent weight factor does not allow for proper strength and muscle building. Where elastic-based bands outperform is in their resistance. See, since bands increase in resistance as they stretch, the muscle gets more of a “workout” where it needs it most (at its extended stages) whereas consistent weight remains the same; the muscle is getting the same workout in the full range. This benefits both strength and muscle gain.
Bodylastics is a system that FitChimp.com endorses. For $45.95, you can purchase a starter package that is fairly comprehensive with four bands and up to 44 lbs of resistance on each side. The most expensive rings in at $99.81 and adds three more bands and can go up to 127 lbs of resistance on each side. With any of their systems, you can expect to enjoy a more comprehensive workout at home.
