The resistance band seems like an unglamorous piece of equipment to many seasoned lifters, but they’re leaving a lot of auxiliary benefits on the table by avoiding this simple piece of equipment.
There’s almost stigma involved around using the resistance band as it is often deemed a beginner’s or elderly person’s go-to.
However, aside from using the resistance band to increase tension near lockout or peak contraction to make an exercise more challenging, there are several ways this elastic equipment can supplement your training.
Granted, you won’t get more significantly more jacked, but it will help lay down a sturdier foundation upon which you can construct your best physique.
Resistance Band Pull Apart
Like the name suggests, this classic resistance band exercise is very simple to perform, easy to recover from, and can be done every day to keep your shoulders in peak health.
A lot of pressing movements — bench press, overhead press, dips, etc. — can wear down the shoulder joint.
A simple rule of thumb to prevent imbalances from creeping in is to do twice as many pulling repetitions to each pressing repetition.
Your shoulders are a gentle/fragile joint; injuries can take a long time to recover from — which is why you’d want them to be in the best shape possible.
In the past, we have strongly advocated for prioritizing your rear deltoids in your shoulder training for a variety of reasons. The band pull apart can help complement your training where necessary equipment is unavailable.
Furthermore, you can do this exercise at home as resistance bands are fairly cheap.
You can program Band Pull Aparts into your workout as a warm-up, cool down, or just to get the blood flowing to the joint.
Banded Good Morning
The Banded Good Morning is another one of those exercises you might see newcomers or casual lifters doing.
But this exercise can help you, a serious lifter, make significant gains.
The Banded Good Morning can help with improving hamstring and hip mobility, activate your Central Nervous System (CNS), forge mind-muscle connection in your posterior chain, help you unround your lower back, and warm you up before a strenuous set of Squats or Deadlifts.
I, personally, much prefer this exercise as a warm-up before taking on some heavy lower body exercise due to the aforementioned benefits.
Some lifters struggle with activating their glutes; the Banded Good Morning can assist with promoting gluteal activation and teaching an up-and-coming lifter proper hinge pattern movements.
Like with Band Pull Aparts, these can be done every day and are low impact.
Banded Crab Walks
Again, this is another exercise you might see casuals and newbies perform, but is perhaps one of the better warm-up and dynamic mobility exercises out there.
By tying the resistance band just above your knees, walk from side to side with an emphasis on activating your glutes and abductors.
Powerlifters and strength athletes could benefit enormously from this warm-up exercise as it aids with hip mobility, CNS activation, and inducing blood flow to muscles that will soon be used in working sets.
Sumo deadlifters and squatters have the most to gain from this easy dynamic Resistance Band exercise as it mimics the starting positions of each movements.
Unlike the Banded Good Morning, we recommend to use this exercise as a warm up for heavy lifting or sports.
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