Although the goal of fitness is always the same, the methods to reach personal goals can be very different. Some shy away from using external weight to perform exercises and prefer to use their own body weight in each of their sets. For this reason, elastic bands are so useful for this type of person.
What are elastic bands?
Elastic bands are ropes that take advantage of their elasticity and their corresponding physical phenomenon to create a type of training in which the body own weight and the tension generated by these bands becomes the barrier that will allow us to exercise and be able to train all the muscles. In fact, despite its simplicity, it can be put into practice in practically all the main muscle groups of the body. With just two bands, oddly enough, wonders can be carried out.
In fact, one of its main peculiarities is the little equipment that is required to be able to carry out this type of routine. In its simplest forms, an elastic band is hardly necessary, although it is also known in other contexts as a fitness band, stretch band and stretch tube. Its price is really low, if we compare it with the rest of the equipment to be able to carry out load training. In fact, due to its great effectiveness, it is present in practically all gyms or sports centers in the world.
Fatigue in this type of training comes progressively. The load will always be the same, but by using our own body weight, fatigue is coming exponentially. Although it may not seem like any kind of problem, for some it can be a complication. In fact, it can cause complications when assessing the progress in the strength of your muscles. In addition, the material must be taken care of since a simple tear can ruin any type of elastic band.
Benefits of performing exercises with elastic bands
Training with elastic bands has numerous integral benefits for those who bet on this type of routine. The most prominent are the following:
- Perform exercises with your own weight. Although the progress may be slower than adding external weight to your exercises, it prevents the appearance of injuries. Training mobility is as or more important than being able to lift a good weight in the gym.
- Its cost is really low. Buying elastic bands is really cheap. In addition, its useful life is really long and, above all, the renovation costs are also very low. Therefore, investing in this type of equipment does not have a really high risk.
- They can be used in many places. While fitness rooms are usually found exclusively in gyms or sports centers, this type of training can be done in many places.
- They are ideal for rehabilitation programs. They are used as part of the training of those people who come out of an injury. Exercises with elastic bands are especially effective for toning your muscles, while you recover their strength and load capacity.
Obviously, whether it is part of rehabilitation or the beginning of the routine, any type of new training is recommended to be reviewed by a specialist. Before the start, go to your trusted doctor to undergo a medical check-up and an evaluation of your physical condition. In this way, you can prevent the appearance of injuries and increase your performance in your muscles.
How to perform exercises with elastic bands
Another of the main advantages, mentioned above, of exercise training from elastic bands is that with this simple equipment it is possible to include all muscle groups. Thus, it would even be possible to carry out a complete routine of the whole body without leaving your home, with the convenience and comfort that this entails. For the pectoral we will perform the two traditional exercises, although varying the angle of inclination. The chest press is also performed with weights on pulleys. In this case, forming an angle of ninety degrees, we will pull our arms forward. It can be done straight, inclined or declined depending on whether you want to work the upper or lower chest. Finally, the chest fly will allow you to work your inner pecks. If your goal is volume or strength, you will perform sets with more or less number of repetitions. Back exercises and legs are other large muscle groups that we will also train with elastic bands. For the dorsal, we will use the rowing exercise for the upper one, while with the pull we will affect the lower one. The extensions of arms and legs, together with the opening of the back, are really useful to work the upper part of the back and the lower back. As the back is usually trained for strength, we will perform series of few repetitions. As for the legs, we will take advantage of the pressure exerted by the elastic bands to perform squats and thus affect the gluts and hamstrings. Leg extensions target the quads, while calf raises work the calves. There will also be time for the hips. As in the back, a large number of repetitions will not be performed in order to work the legs in the form of strength.
The final part of the elastic band routine will be aimed at working the smaller muscles such as the arms, shoulders and finally the abs. Both the biceps and the triceps are worked in a push-up fashion. Thus, we will start with a biceps curl to exercise the muscle, in addition to the triceps pull-down, which consists of the inverted movement that we perform with the biceps. The type of grip also varies. With wrist exercises, we can work the forearms. Wrist curls will be ideal for the inner forearms, while wrist extensions will work for the outer forearms. In this case, you can choose whether you want to work volume or strength, and adapt the number of repetitions that your sets will have to your objectives. As in the arms, we will perform flexion movements, depending on the shoulder part of the exercise. The front flights will allow us to work the front part of the deltoids. If instead, we perform this movement of ninety degrees to the sides, we will exercise the lateral deltoids. Rear deltoid flies, on the other hand, will work the back of the shoulder. As with the arms or the chest, you can choose the type of training you want to do. We will close our exercise routine with elastic bands, performing abdominal. Two sets of crunches with 25 repetitions will be the first exercise we will do. Another series will be directed to the rotation of the trunk with the bands, performing up to 25 repetitions per side. Kneeling, we can also do twist shrugs to complete the entire abdominal part. In this case, they can also be combined with normal sit-ups. Do not forget the stretching exercises at the end of the training to recover.
All in all, exercises with elastic bands allow you to break down your muscle fibers with basic and low-priced equipment, being able to train anywhere. In this way, it is possible to achieve great objectives by investing little and gaining flexibility. When training without external weight, it is also more difficult to injure yourself.
