Using Resistance Bands

When it comes to strength training, most people go to the gym to use weight machines or free weights. But have you ever considered training without weights or machines? Do you want to develop a stronger core, more lean muscle mass and get rid of fat faster? Have you ever tried resistance bands or tubing? If you haven’t and you would like to improve your strength and power then you definitely should give resistance bands a go. This is not to say that you should not lift weights but there are alternative ways to improving your physique without going into the gym 5 days a week.

Resistance bands are being used by elite level trainers and professional athletes around the world to help develop functional strength and power. The great thing with resistance bands is anyone can use them. They are relatively cheap, easy to store, light and portable so you can travel with them. This gives you the flexibility do your workouts wherever you like (i.e. at home, outdoor training).

Versatility of Resistance Bands

Resistance bands can be used by anyone no matter what your fitness goal. Whether it is toning, strength training, speed and agility training or training for a particular sport there are resistance band workouts and exercises that will get you results fast. If increasing your metabolism to get leaner is your fitness goal then doing total body circuit workouts will help. Resistance bands are very versatile and make performing these kinds of workouts easy.

They are also an awesome stretching aid which if used correctly will improve flexibility and mobility of joints and muscles.  Muscle recovery is made easier by using bands which is  important for any sport or exercise program . The  bands used for stretching are most commonly known as Therabands.

How Resistance Bands Work

Resistance bands are different to weights in that they are not dependant on gravity. Weights like dumbbells, kettle bells and medicine balls are good for certain things but they only provide resistance vertically (i.e. one plane).  Resistance bands differ in that they can effectively provide resistance in all different directions. Our muscles have fibres that go in various directions so it is important to train our muscles in different planes. Training our muscles in multiple planes of motion will impact the entire muscle and create leaner, longer and functionally stronger muscles.

Finally, as mentioned previously they are great for improving functional strength and specific movement for sport and are being used by the world’s top athletes today because of the results they get with resistance band training. The reasons behind this are that they simply improve your ability to decelerate more efficiently.

Why is deceleration important?

Most injuries happen because of the inability to decelerate and change direction effectively. Functional exercises which involve a combination of acceleration, deceleration and change of  direction, forces the muscles to constantly react and adapt. This leads to muscle  strength in all planes of movement improving stabilisation, balance and control during movement.

This workout is a very intense circuit workout which really gets the heart rate up and the blood pumping. Circuit training is an efficient and challenging form of strength and conditioning.This helps in developing strength, endurance (both aerobic and anaerobic), flexibility and coordination.

I completed the circuit workout routine in 9 min.  I do 9 different exercises for a total of 1 minute per exercise. I had no rest in between sets but you may want to add a rest period in between depending on your fitness level and how many circuits you want to complete.

Below are the exercises with my score next to each one.  I counted how many repetitions I got for each exercise. See if you can beat it!

1. Diamond Push Ups - 47
2. V-sit Sit Ups-  48
3. Squat Jumps- 43
4. Skipping- 100
5. Knee Tucks- 56
6. Alternating Split Squat Jumps- 50
7. Regular Push Ups-34
8. Bicycle-70
9. High Knees-140

I would love to hear what score you guys got and please let me know what you think about this workout!

Circuit workouts are an excellent way to improve your overall fitness, strength, stamina, speed and agility. As the name suggests it is done by performing several differnet exercises one after the other. Each exercise is usually performed between 30 and 60 seconds before moving onto the next exercise. In between exercises a break may be needed of up to 30 seconds depending on the intensity of the workout and the fitness level of the person performing the workout.

Another way to do it is to perform each exercise for a certain amount of repetitions before moving onto the next exercise. Once you have completed your circuit it is important to rest for a few minutes before moving onto another circuit or the same circuit again. In between circuits I like to do active recovery which helps to keep me loose. This can be walking around or a little jog on the spot for 10-15 seconds. The total number of circuits performed during a training session will obviously vary depending on your level of fitness. It is important to plan your circuit well and have a log of all the exercises you would like to do in order. That way if you forget what is next you can quickly look down and figure out what you have do.

A circuit is most effective if you incorporate exercises that work on different parts of the body. It is important to alternate which body part you work on within your circuit. So you might do A total-body exercise (eg.burpee) followed by a lower body exercise (eg. squat), then an upper-body exercise (eg. push ups), followed by a core exercise (eg. v-sit ups) and finish off with a cardio type exercise (eg. skipping). It is very important to conduct a warm up at the start of the workout and stretch at the end.

Other benefits of circuit training are that it develops strength and endurance, it is a great form of strength and conditioning for most sports, it can be modified to suit age, fitness and health of the athlete perofming the exercises, you can include many different types of exercises in one workout, it can save time if you are very busy and you can always make it more intense by cutting rest times down which may help you lose body fat and tone up.

This is  a high intensity workout circuit that I managed to complete in 12min 30 sec. It can be done in two ways. Firstly you can complete each exercise 30 times before moving on to the next exercise or do 10 repetitions per exercise and then repeat the circuit of exercises 3 times.

Try and break up your pushing exercises ie. push ups and shoulder raises with a core exercise otherwise you just won’t get through the set.

High Intensity workouts like this one really get the juices flowing and the heart rate up and are great for those who don’t have time to get down to the gym.

It would be great to hear your thoughts about this workout and and what time you got for completing it.