The Benefits

Progressive Overload : Resistance bands offer exactly what their name implies – elevated resistance.  Traditional weights only use gravity to apply downward force.  By contrast, resistance bands progressively increase resistance as you move through the range of motion for any given exercise, inherently forcing your muscles to compensate by recruiting more muscle to facilitate the motion.

Time Under Tension : Time under Tension refers to how long your muscles are activated to complete a repetition of any exercise.  Let’s take a traditional bicep curl.  On the upward motion, you would have muscle activation to complete the motion since you’re providing force against gravity.  However, on the downward motion, gravity is assisting you in completing the motion.  With a resistance band, your muscles continue activation since the resistance (or stretch) of the band is always trying to revert back to its natural state (unstretched/at rest).

Better Motor Unit Recruitment : Big words, bigger results!  In layman’s terms, motor units refer to the amount of muscle used/needed to perform a particular movement (think Motor Skills).   Essentially, by incorporating a resistance band into your workout, your muscles essentially “call up” more muscle fiber to facilitate a firing sequence, aka reps in a set.

In summary, resistance bands incorporate all 3 of these functions in a cumulative fashion, meaning they all work together to give you a MUCH more effective workout in a lower amount of time.  The best thing about it, is your UpFit Athletics bands can also be combined to increase resistance!