What Do Resistance Bands Do?

Since the early 1900s, elastic resistance bands have been used for fitness training purposes. A couple of decades later, the use of resistance bands expanded to physical therapy for injury rehabilitation and sports training to improve power and speed. Not only do they have a variety of uses, the bands are cheap and portable.

Properties of Restance Bands

Methods of muscle strengthening generally fall into one of three categories: isometric, isotonic or isokinetic. Resistance bands offer a variability of resistance and provides the exerciser with the ability to change the rate of muscular contraction. These two properties put resistance bands into their own classification of muscle strengthening. The elastic material provides a progress resistance that is determined by two variables: the stiffness of the material and the length at which it is stretched. The stiffness of the material is determined by the thickness of the elastic.

Effects

A study published in a 2008 edition of the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research compared exercise with weight machines to exercise with elastic resistance bands in two groups of women. Both groups trained two times a week for 10 weeks. At the end of the 10 weeks, body composition was assessed using an eight-polar bioelectrical impedance analyzer. Both groups showed a decrease in fat mass, along with an increase in fat-free mass and strength tested by a pushup and squat tests. This study demonstrates that exercising with resistance bands can illicit similar changes in strength and body composition to standard weight machines.

Speed and Agility Training

Resistance bands can be used to increase sprinting speed by providing either resistance or assistance without significantly interfering with running technique. Assistive sprinting can be used to help increase a runner's top speed while running or develop acceleration from a starting position by having someone in front of them sprinting while connected by an elastic band. This method helps the neuromuscular system adapt to the assisted high speed and increase stride frequency during sports performance. Similar results can come from resistive sprinting drills in which you have someone running slower behind the athlete attached by an elastic band. This helps develop leg strength and power, which can result in faster sprinting speed.

Rehabilitation of Injuries

Strength-training indirectly influences the cardiovascular system by increasing blood flow to the working muscle, which is associated with a systemic cardiovascular adaptation. These adaptations include lowered blood pressure, increase stroke volume and improved peak oxygen uptake, all important for an individual who recently suffered a heart attack or stroke. Resistance bands can also improve range of motion and stability in joints after an injury through stretching and strengthening exercises. The progressive resistance of the elastic provides small increments of increasing resistance for any level of exerciser.