man by the name of Gustav Gossweiler requested a patent for an elastic exercising device?

To be used as a “gymnastic apparatus” to replace other apparatusesses, Gustav’s

invention laid the foundation for other patents to follow up to this day.

And yes, these rubbery tubey porta….bly things has become pretty popular over the

years.

Question is, do they actually build muscle?

Let’s get one thing out of the way first.

If you’re a beginner, absolutely positively you will see results using bands.

Beginners, you guys are lucky.

You’ll pretty much respond to any type of exercise, including band exercises.

Let’s also get a few more other things out of the way.

Bands are great for people going through physical therapy, rehab, and the elderly, since it’s

lower impact, easier to control, for the most part, and something easy to do at home.

And yes, bands are extremely portable.

You can get all different colors of the rainbow with very different resistances that can do

a bunch very different exercise.

Awesome!

BUT!

Now let’s get to the good stuff.

Can it give you all of them beautiful gainz?

We know the research definitely show a whole bunch of muscle growth and strength benefits

when it comes to beginners.

But as you get out of the phase athletes call “newbie” gains, making sure to use progressive

overload and providing proper stimulus to your muscles is mucho importante for growth.

So, what does that mean for bands?

Well, let’s talk a little bit about the physiology of muscle contraction first.

Warning: boring science ahead!

Contraction occurs within a sarcomere via the sliding filament theory, where cross bridges

are formed by a reaction between the elements of contraction, actin and myosin.

The head of a myosin filament attaches to an adjacent actin filament and forms the so-called

“bridge” and then pulls the sucker towards the center of the sarcomere.

The more it pulls, the shorter the muscle fiber becomes.

Such as when you go from straight missiles to gun show!

Now, based on different lengths of the muscle fiber, the amount of force you can produce

changes.

At its longest, force production is lowest due to low contact between the contractile

elements.

In the mid-range, force is the highest with the most contact occurring.

And then weak again at its shortest length, where you’re fully flexed, due to overlapping.

Here, take this funky scenario for example.

A guy is pulling a stone towards him attached to a rope.

As he creates slack on the rope, another guy decides to join in behind and help, producing

more pull power.

The more they pull, the more and more people help out, and produce more power!

Eventually, they run of rope space and start stepping back.

But, little did they know there was another group pulling another stone right behind them.

The two groups get in each other’s way, forcing some people out, and force production

dwindles.

Now, apply this to muscle force production, and you’ll see a chart like this.

Weakest in the beginning, strongest in the middle, and weak again at the end.

I’m not sure if that made any sense…

Anyway!

You’re probably wondering, “How the heck does this have anything to do with resistance

bands?”

Well…I’ll tell you!...

After I explain what that means for your traditional dumbbells!

Now, if I were to take a weight where I can lift pretty confidently at the middle range

of motion, where I’m the strongest, the weight is probably still no good because I

can’t lift it for reps at the weakest part of the range.

That means I have to go lighter, of course.

But now, the weight is too light in the middle and I’m not getting the maximal stimulus

I need for growth.

And as far the bicep curl, I’m not getting much of a stimulus at the end neither.

I know, I know, I said that you’re weaker at the end of the movement, too.

But in this case, something in biomechanics known as a moment arm, is very short, meaning

the line of resistance is very close to the axis, or your joint or elbow in this case.

The shorter the moment arm, the less force needed to move an object, thus, in the bicep

curl, not a lot of force produced at the end.

I probably confused you even more than before, but let’s continue…

Okay, now let’s FINALLY look at resistance bands.

The resistance applied from elastic bands are different from that of traditional weights.

Duh!

The WAY it is different is that it applies a growing level of resistance the more you

pull through the range of motion.

That means, at the very start, the amount of tension and resistance is at its lowest,

and then at its highest at the end of the movement.

That’s good though, in the case of the bicep curl, because that’s what you want!

A growing resistance since you’re weakest in the beginning, strongest in the middle,

and weak but low moment-arm at the end!

But, it’s not great for ALL exercises.

Take the side raises, for example, where you’re super struggling towards the top of the movement

because the moment arm is much greater.

And some bands, especially loop bands that are stronger, has an extremely wide range

of resistance, like this one, where it goes from 50 to 125 pounds of force, almost 3 times

as much from start to finish!

So, this is a huge disadvantage to resistance bands, along with the fact that you’ll grow

out of the very light bands really quickly and then using the heavier bands will be tough

because it’ll start pulling YOU instead of you pulling it.

As far as gains, it looks feasible, but only up to a certain point.

Hold on a minute…

We know weights have a constant load, which can be good but it also means not enough resistance

for the middle range of motion to create an optimal stimulus.

And we know bands are good because of a continuous load, but is too low in the beginning and

too tough at the end.

So, why not combine them together?

(windows ta-da!)

That’s right!

Adding bands onto your weights is probably the best way to go to compensate for the differences

in muscle force production.

That means greater stimuli, greater volume, and greater gains!

In fact, the studies back this up, where one even found, as far as strength, subjects improved

their one rep maxes twice as much with bands than using weights alone.

(results may vary) So, the “smart” way to use bands is to

simply use them with your exercises now.

But, if you do choose to use bands alone, maybe you can use it as a warm-up set before

jumping into weights.

Some people even find it useful to supplement a workout with band exercises at the end to

push volume up a bit more and creating a heavier pump.

And you probably even have some awesome ideas to use with your bands.

And if you do, share it in the comments!

Anyway, I hope this video was more helpful than… confusing, and if you enjoyed it,

please like, share, and subscribe!

As always, thank you for watching!