Does it feel like a lack of consistent access to free weights or gym machines are hampering progress towards your strength goals? Maybe the local gym isn’t for you. Perhaps you travel a lot and 100 push-ups on the hotel room floor feels like the only option. It’s time to start pumping elastic. Resistance bands are a portable, affordable solution for building and maintaining muscle. Plus, they provide a number of health benefits over and above weights.

Building muscle

Yes, resistance bands are effective at building muscle. Pulling those bands requires force and keeps tension on the muscle throughout the full range of motion. This constant tension an mean individual reps are even more effective for some exercises than when using a dumbbell. Progressive overload, the process of continually increasing the force on your muscles, can be achieved by moving to a higher tension band over time and/or by increasing sets and reps as you would with weights.

Improving Mobility and Stability

While dumbbells rely on gravity, resistance bands can work in different planes of motion depending on the exercise. These planes of motion better represent joint and muscle movement in daily life and recreational activity. Consistently applying tension in different directions can help you reach, bend and push to a greater degree, improving sports performance, reducing stiffness and protecting against injury.

How to get started

The most versatile bands to start with are the tube resistance bands with handles as they allow you to hit all of your muscle groups and can mimic dumbbell/machine exercises with the grip. It’s worth investing in a set of 3 bands of different resistance to maximise the variety of exercises you can do. Even if you’ve already got good strength, the lighter bands in moves such as the overhead press can help you get the full range of motion and achieve much higher quality reps than battling with the heaviest option. For progression you can easily increase the resistance of the lighter band by looping it around your feet.

The fast and fresh approach

If you’re ready to jump right in and learn as you go, there are lots of free videos on YouTube to get you started resistance band exercises. Peloton also offer a £12.99/month membership for their mobile app which has high quality instructor-led classes. One top tip is to try out lots of movements you find online in one go at the start, and then to pick 6 to 10 of the ones you enjoyed the most to build into reps and sets. Enjoyment in the early stages often comes from choosing the simplest movements, as setting up something particularly complex with the bands can be annoying and demotivating.

Classic in-person training

For those who prefer to talk things through with an expert face-to-face, a personal training session is a great way to go through your goals and get personalised advice on how bands can help your progress. A personal trainer will be able to demonstrate movements to you at your pace and make tailored recommendations.

Final Thoughts

If you’re still sceptical about the effectiveness of resistance bands, simply try 3 sets of 15 banded pull-aparts with your medium or heavy band to really feel the burn in your shoulders and upper back! Happy training.