You THINK You Know Bands

Recently I had a martial artist contact me saying he was already in possession of one of my sandbags and a few kettlebells. He had no idea what else to get and he gave me quite an extensive list of other pieces of equipment. I had no hesitation in recommending him, no, really telling him he should get his hands on some resistance bands.

Resistance bands are nothing new, the concept is very old, however we often think of those horrible aerobics classes when we think of bands. Thanks to strength coaches like Louie Simmons, bands are now a part of serious strength and conditioning programs.

However, it seems that many people are still lost at the purpose of using bands for training. It would seem the trendy thing to do, but let me speak about a little of the true power of their use.

The most commonly espoused benefit of band training is their use of accomodating resistance. This means that in most lifts after you hit the hardest part of a lift (the sticking point) the lift becomes significantly easier and the body spends more time decelerating than pushing through. Bands make it so that the body has to keep pushing and turns off the breaks later. Turning off the breaks later typically means more power, speed, and strength. Therefore, many lifters have applied bands to their strength training for lifts such as squats, bench press, and deadlift (although you can use it for many more).

However, the benefits don't stop there. Bands are also amazing for developing reactive strength. The ability to accelerate and decelerate very quickly leading to less injury and and better athleticism. Many people spend a lot of time trying to develop more maximal strength, but fail to realize it is the ability of the person to change direction quickly and safely that leads to better athletic performance.

Bands are also a vital tool for flexibility development. Many people are familiar with using bands to stretch, but using PNF patterns and concepts you can great improve flexibility in a short amount of time. Yet, lately I have also found that bands can help flexibility during training as resisting the "pulling" effect of bands causes dormant muscles to become active and relaxes overactive muscles.

If you like what I have to say, then you are going to love our upcoming teleconference with band expert, Dave Schmitz. If you want to attend and ask your questions go to the link below. I have added some amazing videos of Dave so you can see why is one of the hottest coaches.

http://sandbagexercises.com/teleconference.html