ADVANTAGES OF USING BANDS OVER WEIGHTS!

RESISTANCE BANDS DO BUILD STRENGTH AND SIZE!

BANDS can replace weights!

Elastic and free-weight resistance (i.e., barbells and dumbbells) have several things in common:

• Both provide some form of resistance.
• Both allow a free range of motion.
• Both allow variable speed of movement.
• Both allow progressive resistance.

However, looking at the cost, storage and space needed Resistance Bands are a FAR BETTER DEAL!

Today with gyms being closed if you are trying to equip a home gym the average 20lb dumbbell cost is around $50. 

A resistance band 20-35 lbs cost is around $17!!

(The inside trick here is to remember that a band has to be stretched around 1 and 1/2 times it's length to equal it's max resistance.)

A GOOD trick is to always split the difference. If a band is rated for 20-35 lbs. consider it a 27 lb resistance.

The most definable characteristic of band training is linear variable resistance. What this means is, as the range of motion of an exercise increases, so, too, does the resistance provided by the band.

Linear Variable Resistance (LVR) means that the load progressively increases as the range of motion increases. Forms of resistance exercise that utilize LVR include resistance bands, chains and some machines. ... For each rep performed, 100 lbs is moved throughout the entire range of motion.

More Planes of Movement

Unlike free weights, elastic-band training doesn’t rely on gravity to provide resistance. This increases its potential for use in more functional movement patterns that mimic both everyday and sport-specific activities.

Because free weights rely on gravity, they can only provide resistance in a vertical plane—the direction of gravity. This means that if you do an exercise with a free weight in the horizontal plane—such as moving your hand while holding a dumbbell from the left side of your body to the right side—there’s no horizontal resistance to that movement.

This isn’t the case with elastic tubing. Horizontal plane movements are fair game. Thanks to elastic bands, you can perform exercises such as twisting your body from side to side, sidekicks and punches, as well as movements that mimic a baseball swing or basketball pass, with added resistance. This is especially useful for athletes looking to enhance performance and reduce injury risk.

Resistance bands provide constant tension through every movement, no matter how fast you move. In fact, resistance bands deliver what is called progressive resistance, which means the resistance actually increases across the concentric phase of an exercise.

One study published in a 1998 issue of the American Journal of Sports Medicine reported that collegiate tennis players who trained using elastic bands significantly increased their shoulder strength as well as the speed of their tennis serve compared to those not using bands. 

Another study—this one from Louisiana State University (New Orleans)—discovered that an elastic-band training program strengthened the rotator cuff muscles of collegiate baseball pitchers better than a program that used dumbbells.