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Band Training for Big Gains

by Christian Thibaudeau

Rubber bands have been used as a source of resistance in one shape or another for a long time.
Rehab specialists have been utilizing this tool a lot in the past and now it’s worked its way into the
hardcore powerlifting crowd who use mega rubber bands that provide several hundred pounds of
added resistance on top of the free-weight they’re lifting.

This method—popularized by the Westside Barbell Club (the strongest gym in the world)—is now
widespread throughout strength sports. More and more strength coaches are also using this tool in
the training for their athletes. The efficacy of this type of training on power and limit strength is
well established; however, is there a way to use that method to launch your bodybuilding progress
in the stratosphere? Well if there wasn’t I wouldn’t be writing this article, would I?!

To understand what a combo of elastic and free-weight resistance can do to help you in your quest
to look good nekkid, we must first understand what these bands are and exactly how they affect the
resistance being lifted

What are resistance or strength bands?

If you walk into a sporting goods store, chances are that you’ll find those cute little elastic tubing
with handles. These are not the strength bands I’m talking about; they are best suited to children,
rehab purposes and Richard Simmons followers. No, what I’m talking about are big continuous
rubber bands that can be wrapped around a bar.

There are two companies making these resistance bands: Jumpstretch and Iron Woody. Each
company makes several bands which, depending on their width, provide more or less resistance.
Here’s a comparison of the products available:

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Jumpstretch Iron Woody

Band Resistance Band Resistance
Mini 5-25lbs/band No.1 5-35lbs/band
Monster mini 10-35lbs/band No.2 10-50lbs/band
Light 30-50lbs/band No.3 25-80lbs/band
Average 65-85lbs/band No.4 50-120lbs/band
Strong 80-100lbs/band No.5 60-150lbs/band
Monster 200lbs/band

Both products are of equal quality. I have used both and liked them equally. Jumpstretch is the
company that started it all, but Iron Woody seems to have better prices.

Benefits of the bands

Adjusted mechanical load

One problem with regular lifting is that the load doesn’t change during the movement. This is
because you’re lifting an object (in this case a free-weight) of a constant mass. The problem with
this is that this constant load will not place a maximal stimulation throughout the whole range of
motion.

Let me explain: we all know that we’re stronger in a quarter squat than in a half squat, and we’re
stronger in a half squat than in a full squat. This is nothing groundbreaking. But this means that the
constant load will not provide the same impact during the whole range of motion. It will place the
greatest overload in the initial portion of the lift because that’s where the relative importance of the
load compared to the strength at the specific joint angle is the largest.

If you’re an athlete, this is an obvious problem because it deemphasizes the most important portion
of the range of motion. And if you’re training to gain muscle it’s also a shortcoming of free-weight
exercises since you’re basically using about half the rep to stimulate muscle growth while the other
half doesn’t do much.

By using a combination of free-weight with additional band resistance at the same time, you can
overload the whole range of motion since the bands will increase resistance as they’re stretched
(toward the finishing portion of the movement), while the free-weight places the greatest overload
in the initial portion. Thus the whole movement becomes effective at stimulating muscle growth!

Magnified eccentric loading

Another good thing that comes from using bands is the accentuated eccentric stress they provide.
You see, the bands don’t just add resistance at various portions of the lift. They’re actually trying
to throw the bar down to the ground! Thus they try to increase eccentric acceleration. By trying to
lower the weight slowly against that additional eccentric stress, you place a tremendous growth
stimulus on your muscle since the eccentric portion of the movement is what causes much of the
growth to occur. What we mean is that the greatest the eccentric loading is, the greater the growth
will be!

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Ways of using the strength bands

When using the bands in conjunction with free weights, it can become difficult to imagine how to
place the bands on certain exercises. For example, for a squat it’s easy: you loop one end of the
bands on the bar and the other end around the base of the power rack or around two big hex
dumbbells. But what about barbell curls and dumbbell triceps extensions, for example?

To make this simple we will first describe the "basic band positions". By understanding these BBP
you’ll be able to easily figure out how to perform any specific exercise you like.

Position 1. Bar and object: This is our squat example; one end is looped around the bar
and the other end on an object (heavy hex dumbbell or power rack) close to or on the
floor.

Position 2. Around the back: To take this position you pass the band behind your back
(scapular height) and grab one end of the band with each arm. This position can also
be taken lying down to perform exercises such as lying triceps extensions and bench
presses.

Position 3. Stumping: You once again grab one end of the band with each hand. This
time the middle portion of the band lies on the floor and you stand on it. This position
can be used for standing curls, upright rows, front deltoid raises, bent over laterals and
side lateral raises.

From these three basic positions you can do a wide variety of combo exercises.

Position Exercises
Bar and object Back squat, front squat, split squat, bench press (flat, incline and decline)
Around the back Dumbbell flies (flat, incline, decline), dumbbell bench press (flat, incline,
decline), lying triceps extension (barbell or dumbbell), bench press (flat,
incline, decline), push ups
Stumping Standing curl, upright rowing, front raises (all with a barbell or dumbbells),
lateral raises, bent over raises, bent over rowing (barbell or dumbbells)

The Jettison technique

If you want to gain a lot of muscle real fast you can try this simple training technique. It can be
used with any exercises performed from positions 2 and 3, although it’s much easier with position
no.3 (Stumping).

Each set has three phases:

1) a combo phase where free-weight and bands both provide resistance

2) a free-weight phase where the bands are removed leaving only the bar/dumbbell

3) a band phase where you only use the bands as a source of resistance

There is obviously no rest interval between each phase; no more than 5-10 seconds are allowed to

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make the necessary adjustments. You want to work to muscle failure (or close to it) for each of
these three phases.

Bands as a stand-alone

Resistance bands can also be used alone, without any additional free-weight resistance. This is
interesting if you go on a trip and won’t have access to a proper gym for a few days/weeks. Again,
any exercise from position 2 and 3 can be performed with the bands only. You can also perform
various rowing motions by attaching (or wrapping around) a band to a solid anchor in front of you.
You can even do seated leg curls by sitting down on a bench or chair. Standing triceps extensions
can also be done by attaching the band above you.

By being creative, you can come up with a lot of various exercises to perform!

Some guidelines

1. For maximum hypertrophy keep the reps between 6 and 10 reps while using a bar
weight of 65-75%.

2. To reap maximum benefit from hypertrophy band training you should use a slow
eccentric tempo (lowering the bar in 4-6 seconds) and try to lift the resistance as fast
as possible.

3. Because of the high degree of eccentric stress from this method, the volume of
training for each muscle group should be slightly lower than with your regular training.

4. Only use this combo method for, at most, 4-6 weeks in a row as it’s very stressful
on the body and nervous system.

5. Because of the high trauma this approach inflicts on the muscle fibers, a proper
post-workout shake like Surge is an absolute must if you want to progress at an
optimum rate.

Conclusion

By applying the techniques presented in this article you’ll be able to spark new muscle growth at an
amazing pace and you’ll rediscover the meaning of being sore! So give them a try and see for
yourself how fast you can progress!

© 1998 — 2004 Testosterone, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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