3 tips to get the best results with a resistance band

Resistance bands can be a great piece of equipment to help you keep your body healthy. It is most often used for strengthening muscles but can also be used for stretching.

With strengthening being the most common use for resistance bands, here are some tips to help you get the best results.

Posture

Whenever you are doing any form of exercise, posture is very important. This is particularly important when you are adding resistance to movements. So before you begin any exercise with a resistance band, make sure you set your posture first. This way you will use the muscles in the best way to help strengthen them.

If you have poor posture during an exercise, you won’t use the muscles in the best way, you may use muscles not normally used for that exercise and joints may not be able to function as they should. All of the above may lead to pain in the short or long term.

Control

With the majority of strengthening exercises there are two phases to the movement. The first is the concentric phase where you are shortening the muscles against resistance. As an example, with a bicep curl the concentric phase is when you bend your elbow. The second phase is the eccentric phase when the muscles lengthen out. In the example of a bicep curl this is when your arm straightens back out.

Making sure your movements are controlled through both of the phases is important. Most people already know about being controlled in the concentric phase but a lot of people don't control the eccentric phase. The eccentric phase is when the resistance band snaps back to it’s shorter length, a lot of people just let their body relax and let the band snap back. This is the time when you need control. By controlling this movement, you will gain strengthening benefits.

Start with resistance

To get the full benefit of resistance bands, you need to make sure you have resistance through the whole movement. If the first third of your movement doesn’t have resistance you won’t get any strengthening benefits for that part of the movement. Therefore you need to have some resistance in the starting position of the exercise so there is resistance through the whole movement.