Bands for Building Muscle?
A band can be a great tool to build muscle. Also very practical for those who are into home workouts or travel often, as it’s doesn’t take too much space and is very lightweight compared to any other gym equipment.
But how exactly can it be used for muscle building purposes?
In almost any way, but mostly indirectly—however, there are a few exceptions you’ll see later. In general, bands are best used to strengthen smaller, stabilizer muscles and this way indirectly support big muscles. The often stated saying “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link” holds true for your body as well. If these little accessory muscles are not firing optimally you won’t be able to use your big muscles to their full potential.
Also, bands are accommodating resistance. What does that mean and why is it good for you?
It means that a band provides constant tension as opposed to a barbell squat or a barbell curl for example, where, as you reach the top of the movement you lose muscle tension. With cables, this force remains constant whereas with bands it even increases.
You Need Endurance
Your core, shoulder, back, and accessory muscles need to have endurance in order to allow you to maintain good posture or provide a stable base for your bigger muscles during heavy lifts. This is where accommodating resistance comes into the picture. During this type of training, there is basically no rest between the repetitions of the exercise, which means there is more buildup of metabolic by-products as a result of prolonged muscle contraction—which translates well to muscle building.
As opposed to brief and high-intensity movements, this rather works the endurance of your muscles, and rather locally, which suites better to their inherent function.
Other Uses of Bands
The above advantages don’t mean though that bands cannot be used for building serious whole-body strength or power. No, not even a little, just watch this video. Truth is, the way you should incorporate bands into your training really depends on the exercises you want to use them for and the goals/training effect you want to achieve with your training.
Bands range from the lightest finger/wrist extensor type to the heaviest ones used for deadlifts and squats. How thoroughly you incorporate them into your workouts is really only limited by your skill set and creativity so long you know the underlying training principles.
