10 Benefits of Using Resistance Bands During Exercise

Resistance bands are made of strong, thin rubber with handles at the end, and come in a variety of resistances depending on your fitness level. With resistance bands, you can do just about any type of strength training exercise -- chest presses, rows, shoulder presses, tricep extensions, bicep curls, and even squats -- without the need for heavy weights. 

If you've never tried resistance bands, or you're new to them, you may be surprised at how much benefit you can get from what is essentially a reinforced rubber band, but as is often the case, the simplest tools are often the very best for your health.

10 Benefits of Adding Resistance Bands to Your Workouts

1. Incredibly Cost-Effective

Resistance bands are inexpensive and can be purchased for under $10. Even more extensive kits, which may include DVDs and other exercise equipment, can be found for under $40, including Kathy Smith's Stay Firm Upper Body and Core Kit, which comes with a "figure 8" resistance tube that is specifically designed to challenge your core muscles. 

2. Adaptable for Multiple Fitness Levels

Whether you're a beginner or an expert, resistance bands are for you. They come in a variety of resistances, including light, medium and heavy, and you can further adjust the intensity of your resistance-band workouts by giving the band more or less slack. You can even use multiple bands at once to increase the challenge.

3. Used with Familiar Exercises

You can often use familiar strength training moves with resistance bands, which means you don't need to learn a complicated new routine. For instance, resistance bands can replace the weights you use for biceps curls, or can increase the intensity of your push-ups.

4. Whole-Body Exercises

Resistance bands can be used for a comprehensive, full-body workout that challenges virtually every major muscle group in your body.

5. Save on Storage Space

Resistance bands take up virtually no space to store them, which means you can use them at home even if you have very little extra space. When your workout is done, simply stash them in a drawer until your next session.

6. Excellent for Travelling

Resistance bands are lightweight and easily portable. You can stash them in your suitcase when travelling and use them to get a good workout right in your hotel room.

7. Add Variety

Your muscles quickly adapt to movements you do often, which is why adding variety to your workouts is key for challenging your muscles. Resistance bands can be alternated with free weights and exercise machines for ongoing variety.

8. Easy to Use Alone

It's not a good idea to lift heavy weights without an exercise buddy, but resistance bands can be safely used on your own. They're ideal for exercising any time, at home or on the road.

9. Can Be Combined with Other Equipment

Resistance bands are so versatile that you can even use them along with weights, allowing you to get the benefits of two types of exercises at once.

10. An Effective Workout

Resistance bands are incredibly simple, but they're also extremely effective at working your muscles. Additionally, resistance-band training can help you boost stamina, flexibility, range of motion and more.

Resistance-Band Exercises You Can Try Out Now

In the video above, Mercola.com's personal trainer Jill Rodriguez shows you a variety of resistance-band exercises that you can easily incorporate into your workouts. Below are more instructions for some of the more popular resistance-band exercises as well, as explained by ResistanceBandsX.com:

• Squats: While standing with your feet at shoulder width distance, hold the handles of the bands using both hands and stretch it up to shoulder level. Do a full squat but prevent your hands from moving. Do this gradually, then stand back up, and repeat the same routine.

• Bent Over Rows: Place your left or right foot on the band while the other foot is kept at the back. Slowly bend forward until you are at 45-degree angle position. Gradually pull the band up to the level of your waist while your elbows are kept in. Proceed with the rowing motion while you are squeezing your shoulders. Go back to your starting position and do the same using the other foot.

• Horizontal Chest Press: While lying with your back on the band, take both ends of it and hold it in. Slowly raise your left or right hand towards the ceiling and then bring it down slowly. Repeat the same motion using the other hand.

• Biceps Curl: While standing on the band, hold both ends using your hands. Slowly curl up your hands towards your shoulders. Ensure that both elbows are bent backwards. Keep the position for a couple of minutes before going back to your starting position and repeating the same routine.

• Vertical Chest Press: Get a chair, attach the band to it, and then stand on the band while your back is facing the chair. Take both ends of the band using your hands and then gradually extend both hands outwards. Bring your hands back to its starting position and repeat the same procedure.

• Overhead Press: Stand over the center of a tube band with feet shoulder-width apart. Grip each handle, positioning your hands at shoulder level with palms facing each other so your thumbs touch your shoulders. Press straight up, rotating your palms forward as you fully extend your arms. Lower back down slowly and repeat.

• Overhead Triceps Extension: Sit on a chair or bench, placing the center of a tube band beneath your glutes. Grab a handle in each hand, and stretch your arms up, bending your elbows so that your hands are positioned behind your neck. With palms toward the ceiling, press your arms straight up until they fully extend. Lower back down and repeat before switching sides.

Why Strength Training Is Important

I've explained why resistance bands make a smart addition to virtually any strength training program, but perhaps you're wondering why you should be strength training to begin with. Strength training will improve muscle and bone strength, which can help prevent falls and fractures, but it also increases your body's production of growth factors, which are responsible for cellular growth, proliferation and differentiation. Some of these growth factors also promote the growth, differentiation, and survival of neurons, which helps explain why working your muscles also benefits your brain.

So, while weight-bearing exercise, like resistance or strength training, can go a long way to prevent the loss of bone quality and density, and can help reverse the damage already done, interestingly enough, strength training also has brain-boosting side effects, which can help you avoid age-related dementia. You can use either gym equipment, resistance bands, free weights or a combination for your workouts. Gym equipment or resistance bands may be safer if you're a novice, as free weights will require better form and control. Whichever one you choose, I recommend having a trainer take you through each exercise to make sure you have the proper form performing the exercise, to avoid injury.

Try Super Slow Movements with Your Resistance-Band Workout

Finally, if you want to take your strength training up a notch, try super-slow weight training, which actually produces many of the same health and fitness benefits as high-intensity interval training, which is a key aspect of my Peak Fitness program.

These two forms of exercise may at first sound like complete opposites—super-slow versus high-intensity—but the combination of slowing down your lifts and lifting to failure turns it into a high-intensity exercise that generates a cascade of metabolic adaptations that improve your muscle strength and fitness level.

By Dr. Mercola

http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2013/09/06/resistance-bands-benefits.aspx

Shoulder Injuries & The Importance of Shoulder Health

Injuries are a part of life, as frustrating as they might be, often forcing you to change your routine and schedule its important to learn from them. Often they come from training beyond the limits of your current capacity. This however also tells you that your moving in the right direction. Provided that its not a common reoccurrence that you see with many sports. Its a fine line that you alone can make a judgement call on.

"What doesn't break you, makes you stronger" Today after two days of hoping with bated breath that the mysterious shoulder pain, that appeared in the evening after a good workout session earlier that day failed to subdue and stop aggravating me. There was no obvious moments within the training where it hurt or I became pained, so I was confident it would settle itself. During the night however I genuinely thought that my shoulder may have become dislocated. Waking with excruciating pains through the Deltoid, Lats, Scapula and down the arm. Giving me a weakness in normal arm movement, meaning I couldn't even lift my own arm without pain and the assistance of my other hand. At about 4 am struggling to sleep I began googling how to self reset dislocated shoulders, somehow during this process I managed to fall asleep with with the comfort of my arm hanging over the edge of the bed. Being the xmas holiday period, it took me about 7 or 8 phone calls to find a Chiropractor that was working and available this morning. As some of you might be aware I'm not a fan of conventional mainstream medication and medical practices. Most doctors or hospitals would of prescribed rest and pain relief tablets which doesn't help much, rather just mask the problem and hope that it gets better. When a doctor tells you to quit lifting and to get on NSAIDS (Non Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs), you should consider finding a new doctor. Consider that over 16,500 people die/year in the US from reactions from those simple over the counter drugs. (British Medical Journal, June, 1999.) Short-term use of Advil, Aleve, Nuprin, Motrin, Asprin (white willow bark) and other NSAIDS (less than three weeks) are usually safe, but continued use will destroy your protective lining of your stomach and your heart. Ref. http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/drryan9.htm

With that in mind think think about how to maintain good shoulder health, if a standard doctor diagnoses 2 weeks of pain relief and rest your over 2/3's of the way through the safe zone. Find a utilise specialists to aid your recovery. The Chiropractor was great. After a consultation which is standard practice when visiting a Chiropractor, he began assessing my structure and before even addressing the shoulder released the surrounding tensions in my back and neck. Allowing him access to massage and work the deep tissue around the Deltoid muscles, having diagnosed this as the dominant pain centre. So with todays session out of the way it feels slightly better but I have to ice it to reduce the tissue inflammation before returning tomorrow for more work on the shoulder. So Ice pack and deepfreeze cream putting a frozen edge on me all day. Within my areas of training (gymnastic strength training and movement training) there is a lot of emphasis on doing as much as you can to maintain good shoulder health. To me it is now super apparent why. I know its touched on in many training methodologies but I don't think people fully understand how important the shoulders are. They are the most complex joint in the body to rehabilitate. Due to it having more mobility and speed than any other joint. Moving 5370 degrees per second (dps), approximately 80% faster than the knee with a top speed of 2000 (dps).

"Prevention is the best cure" My shoulder will recover fast due to the time I spend ensuring their health, through training my shoulders in a capacity that ensures optimal health. However I felt it important to raise this today, given my current predicament surrounding the importance of shoulders.  I'd advise everyone to pay attention to training your shoulders through complete range of motion. Always ensure that you listen to your body. Focus on structure and form before adding weight to any exercise and be consistent with your training schedule.  For more information be sure to check back to the blog, where we have regular updates with; training, health, fitness, weight loss and so much more. With the aim of helping you become the best version of you that you can be.  Stay healthy Craig W. the Real Fitness Ninja http://therealfitnessninja.blogspot.co.uk

How to Reverse Age Related Strength Loss NOW!

As one ages, especially after the age of 40, strength is lost. So for example, a man 55 years young, even if he was an Olympic gold medal winner in weightlifting at 24, will typically lose 30-33% of the strength levels he had three decades before.

A great resource on this matter is Brooks Kubik’s book.

Of course, it kicks the ego in the balls…what if you could reverse some of that loss? Yes it is possible to a degree through 2 mechanisms:

1. Soft tissue work.
2. Herbs that help regenerate the brain.

Lets look first today at soft tissue. I will get into the herbs next week.

For example, in the upper body, releasing the anterior neck flexors can immediately increase maximal strength 3-8%. Pretty good, considering the person has regressed in age 3 to 8 years. No one in his right mind would scoff at those results.

Which techniques work best?

Actually I have seen a lot of techniques work equally as well: Rolfing, Active Release Technique, Kinetic Chain Enhancement,
Anatomy Trains, dry needling, etc… to name a few. However, the practitioner ‘s skill matters more than the technique used. The same goes for martial arts….

For example, I have seen Dr. Gerry Ramogida D.C, who worked with the Seattle Seahawks, and the British Olympic Track Team, increase colleagues strength levels after an hour of treatment up to 8%. Why? He uses a many different techniques that work synergistically. It is a case of 1 + 1+ 1 = 8.

The effect being greater that the sum of all parts.

Some other factors may make the gains even better. For example, if you have a forward head carriage because you live on your computer and smart phones, the percentage of improvement may be greater, but the absolute gains may be small since a bad chronic posture make you weak. To make it more simple, Arnold Schwarzenegger has great posture, so he may get 5% back of a present 350 lbs bench press: 17.5 pounds. While a forty year old airlines computer terminal employee, with the neck of a vulture, may get 8% more on his 150 : 12 pounds.

Where I have seen the greatest improvements in percentage is in hand strength. I personally saw Dr. Mike Leahy D.C. increase the hand strength of Triple Gold Club (winner of Olympic Gold, World Championship gold, and Stanley Cup winner) member, Joe Sakic by 25% in just two treatments. In fact, by that time his hand strength level was the same as the heavyweight US weightlifter who represented his country at the Olympics. Of course, the quality of the treatment was very high, Dr. Leahy invented Active Release Technique.

Hockey fans now know why Joe had such a killer wrist shot.

In conclusion, if you want to back to a more youthful levels, hire a qualified soft tissue practitioner. Going back in time 5 to 8 years does not make you a bad person.

Enjoy the path,

By Charles R. Poliquin

http://www.strengthsensei.com/can-you-reverse-age-related-strength-loss/