Band Training

           I have been doing this program for some 89 weeks and during this whole time, I had never used those elastic bands with the handles in my workouts. I just assumed they were wimpy resistance training with little old ladies with artificial hips. And then I read an article regarding the science behind them.

           Now, I am not saying that you should train exclusively with bands. There is no way a band is ever going to replace good old fashioned dumbbell work. But let’s looks at some science here. I want you to imagine performing a Barbell Bench Press with chains hanging off the ends of the bar. This is not just a length of dangling chain. It is a length of chain that is piled on the floor. At the bottom of the lift, there is more chain making contact with the floor (therefore less weight) and as the bar is lifted high, there is more chain being suspended in the air. This way, the higher up you lift the weight the heavier it becomes.

           Bands are the exact same way. The farther you stretch them the more resistance is created. Typically, with Dumbbell Curls, the hardest part of the curl is the start of the lift. If failure is going to occur, it is going to happen between the start of the lift and halfway up. Typically, if you can get that weight past that “point of no return,” you should be able to complete the rest of the lift because you have made it past the crux of the lift. Everything else is “downhill” so to speak. Another way to classify the rest of that lift is with the term “garbage time.”

           Band training offers you the exact opposite. The further up you get with a curl using the bands, the harder it is going to be to complete. This allows you to achieve maximum contraction and you will feel the difference in the morning.

           Obviously bands are not something to build a workout around but, holy cow, what a way to finish a workout. You can achieve multiple lifts very quickly which is going to fire those fast-twitch muscle fibers. 

           Remember what I have stressed from the beginning: attacking from multiple angles. This is an entirely different muscle attack because the resistance is unlike what you can get through dumbbell or barbell lifts. It is very easy to rip out as many reps as possible, going to failure, and really exhausting those muscles with a technique that cannot be achieved through dumbbells.

           Now, it is tough to feel manly working with bands. Again, it feels like the same tool that little old lady with hip replacement uses but if used correctly to finish off your workout, they are phenomenal.

Fast Twitch Muscle Fibers?

           Yeah, I don’t want you to think I am just going to throw a term out there and not define it. You have two different types of muscle fibers in your body – fast twitch and slow twitch. Fast is for burst of speed. Slow is for endurance. Think of a chicken. Dark meat (legs) is slow twitch. White meat (wings) is fast twitch. Legs carry the chicken around all day requiring stamina but wings give it a burst of speed when it needs it.

           Most humans are about 50/50 split between fast twitch and slow twitch and if you have just been working to develop those endurance muscles, imagine the gains achieved when you start training those fast twitch muscles! Boom!