Band Together and Workout For Less

By Joanne Sgro HERWriter September 17, 2009 - 7:50pm Rate This

In these financial times, many people are looking for less expensive ways to workout. Unfortunately, people have been giving up their gym memberships and personal trainers to reduce spending. But those of us in the fitness industry do not want you to give up your commitment to exercise.

A nice way to continue your exercise regimen or introduce your body to exercise is with resistance bands or tubing.

Resistance bands were typically used in a physical therapy or rehabilitation setting, but have now come mainstream. Bands are convenient if you travel often and are looking for an inexpensive way to get started on a fitness regime. Tubing is a great way to learn resistance training because it allows the body to focus on both the beginning phase of the exercise and the ending phase of the exercise which are consecutively referred to as the concentric and eccentric movements. This is different from using a traditional free weight because gravity decides where the weight comes from, and so you get more resistance during the concentric movement than the eccentric. With bands, the tension is constant, which makes it feel harder.
Depending on how you use them, bands can be great for beginners as well as more advanced exercisers. You can use them for basic moves or to add intensity to traditional moves. You can do similar exercises with bands that you can do on a cable machine in a gym or at home based piece of cable equipment, without the cost. Bands also offer more variety because you can create the resistance from all directions, the side, overhead, below, and in front. Because there's tension throughout the exercises, you have to stabilize your body. This adds a functional component to the exercise assisting with coordination and balance. With weights, you're often limited as to how many exercises you can do and are not involving as many muscle groups as you can with bands. I like to implement both bands and weights when training my clients, for that reason. Resistance bands allow you to change your positioning in multiple ways which in turn changes how your body works and how an exercise feels.

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