Resistance bands and free weights are different ways to achieve hypertrophy and power. One style of training is not necessarily better than another; however, both have advantages and disadvantages. Consult your physician before beginning any diet or exercise program.
Benefits of Free Weights
Barbells are easier to stabilize and allow you to use a great deal of weight on many exercises. This allows you to develop strength and power better than many other methods. Although barbells may occasionally limit the range of motion you can utilize on certain exercises, you can use dumbbells when this occurs. And it's fairly simple to alter the rate at which you perform an exercise. Research by Dr. Morrissey of Boston University has shown that changing the rate of acceleration of the barbell can have a significant effect on your vertical jump as well as your ability to generate power in other areas. In order to produce power, you need to train for it, and free weights are one of the best ways to do so.
Disavantages of Free Weights
Free weights have few disadvantages. On some exercises, a competent spotter is required, and finding someone who meets this description can be difficult at times. Otherwise, a squat rack or power cage to catch the bar if you drop it is required to avoid injury. Also, many of the best lifts are fairly skilled activities and take time to learn, including qualified instruction for some lifts. So it becomes easy to add weight when you should be working on improving your technique.
Benefits of Bands
The obvious benefit is that you can use resistance bands just about anywhere. Assuming you have your own, it's simple to train at home. You may just need somewhere to tie the bands to, depending on the exercise. The need for skill instruction is less, and there's never any worry about dropping the bar on yourself. Also, the small muscles that help stabilize your joints against resistance are also more heavily taxed, which is one of the reasons they're often used in rehabilitation.
Disadvantages of Bands
Some exercises cannot be performed with bands -- such as Olympic lifts, which include the snatch and the clean and jerk, or any of the popular derivatives such as the power clean. It's difficult to squat or dead-lift effectively with bands alone, as well as when doing the large, compound exercises that promote hypertrophy, secondary to the increase in testosterone, the primary anabolic, or growth hormone. This is based on research by Dr. Andrew Fry of the University of Kansas. Your ability to stabilize the bands will fail before you achieve optimal loading for hypertrophy on certain exercises.
Best of Both Worlds
Use both bands and free weights. For example, it's fairly simple if you're bench pressing to anchor bands to the floor using dumbbells or plates, and fasten them to the bar. Then you get the advantage of more weight using free weights and also have to work harder to stabilize the load because the bands cause a slightly less balanced training environment. Many power lifters do this to strengthen the lockout, or last third, of the bench press, as it also heavily taxes the triceps. The same can be done for the deadlift or squat, or pretty much any other exercise.
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