Do Resistance Bands Actually Work?

There’s a lot of ways to build muscles and strength. Battle ropes, bodyweight workouts, resistance bands and weights are a few. Some people focus primarily on free weights, since they’re a time tested technique, but you can exercise muscles on a variety of planes when you use resistance bands. Unlike weights, you don’t simply use gravity as the resistance. It’s all about the stretch. At One Love Fit Club in Chino Hills, CA, we help you with a variety of ways to boost your fitness and help you with ways to do it when you can’t come to the gym.

Let’s start with some of the benefits of resistance bands compared to free weights.

Free weights are good, they’re time tested. As noted before, you use the stretch as the resistance, so you can pull and push in all directions or at any angle on both horizontal and vertical planes. Resistance bands come in a wide range of resistance, levels. Each band has a different color, which indicates a different amount of resistance. Unlike a collection of free weights that require at least a corner of a room, storage is very easy. A whole range of options can be folded and put in a drawer, with room left over for other items.

Do you want to build large muscles?

Some people love the strength-building options, but aren’t necessarily looking for bulk. Resistance bands are perfect. If you want to build large muscles, it’s doable with resistance bands, but requires a little more thought that it would be with free weights. You need to focus on progressive overload, increasing the intensity, while also increasing sets and reps as you improve.

It’s all about working your muscles to failure or close to failure.

Whether you use dumbbells, barbells, sandbags, resistance bands or weighted medicine balls, the theory is the same. Use your muscles to move something that provides resistance. That resistance can come from the rubbery stretch of resistance bands or the weight of the object against gravity. Focus on pushing your muscles to failure or close to that level, which is progressive overload. How you get your muscle to that point isn’t as important as getting it there and making it work.

When you workout with weights or kettlebells, your muscles are being worked the minute you lift them. That doesn’t occur with resistance bands, you only get a workout when they’re stretched to the max.

You’ll train differently with resistance bands. Resistance bands provide a more well-rounded workout, since they include stabilizing muscles. They’re versatile and can be even added to bodyweight workouts.

You can use resistance bands for flexibility training, too. There’s extremely versatile. They’re also good to use when traveling, since they take little room in your suitcase.

People who are more seasoned at fitness may want to add resistance bands to their workout for variety. I’m always finding new ways to challenge my muscles with this tool. They can provide variety.