Resistance Bands: The New Home Gym?

do resistance bands work

If you’re like me, you’ve probably spent more time at home this past year than ever before, perhaps even exercising in your house instead of the gym or clinic. But a home workout doesn’t have to be a compromise. If you’re looking for a smart way to achieve new levels of at-home fitness or rehabilitation, resistance bands will do the trick!

Why Resistance Bands Work: Progressive Resistance Training

If you ever review exercise research, you’ll come across a very specific type of exercise shown to increase muscle strength, reduce arthritic pain, and improve basic activities such as getting up from a chair.

What is this wonder of all exercise wonders? It’s something called Progressive Resistance Training. 

Progressive Resistance Training is a fancy term for exercises that use resistance bands or similar equipment that naturally progress in difficulty. Picture the thickest rubber band you ever met. Stretching it is easy at first, but as you widen the range, it becomes more difficult to sustain such high tension. 

Maybe you always thought of resistance bands as “sissy weights” and not real exercise equipment. I beg to differ. Don’t be fooled by their appearance; despite being lightweight, resistance bands can achieve a range of 5, 10, or even up to 100 pounds of resistance, depending on the number of bands and the point of tension.  

Research shows you can get as good of a workout stretching resistance bands as you would throwing around heavy weights. But resistance bands offer an additional benefit. 

Compared to a static weight of, say, 15 pounds, bands give your workout progressive resistance training. Unlike dumbbells, a resistance band challenges your muscles to work progressively harder as you pull the band through its range.  

Benefits of Progressive Resistance Training in Elderly Patients

Bands are not just for heavy-hitters. In fact, the benefits of using resistance bands is particularly well-researched among elderly patients.

Everyone knows that elderly people lose muscle as they age. What’s more remarkable is the astounding effect progressive resistance training has on muscle strength in the elderly, as demonstrated in over 120 studies of 6700 elderly participants.

Many of these studies used resistance bands to execute resistance strength training a few times each week at progressive intensity. By using resistance equipment, such as simple elastic bands, participants achieved an increase in muscle strength. These exercises also strengthened simple activities like walking, climbing stairs, or standing up from a chair. 

Aside from these benefits, progressive resistance exercise improved complex tasks such as preparing a meal, bathing, and dressing. Participants with osteoarthritis reported less pain as a result of the exercise. 

Besides all the great benefits identified in those studies, I have my own reasons for why I prefer resistance bands to traditional free weights.

Why I Like Resistance Bands

I think resistance bands are the best tools for progressive resistance training. Here are just three reasons why: 

1. A Truly Free Range of Motion

With free weights, you achieve resistance by coordinating with gravity. For example, during bicep curls, gravity pulls on the heavy weight and makes it harder to flex the bicep as you pull the weight to your shoulder. 

In order to work a different muscle or the same muscle in a different way, you have to get really creative in the gym, enlisting nearby benches to achieve the right angle for gravity to do its job. Because gravity is unidirectional, free-weight resistance isn’t as “free” as you think.

With resistance bands, however, you can achieve a resisted exercise in any direction, or “plane of motion,” regardless of gravity. If you want to strengthen your rotator cuff while standing, stretch the bands outwards, achieving a pull laterally rather than from the ground up.

Were you to do this motion with a dumbbell, you’d actually just exercise the bicep, giving your rotator cuff a free ride. If your goal is to exercise the rotator cuff, then a dumbbell is not going to cut it. You can either try this exercise on a bench, lying on your side (Exhibit A), or you can swap out the inflexible dumbbell for a resistance band that can work in any plane of resistance (Exhibit B).  

Exhibit A
Exhibit B

2. Progressive Resistance 

The second reason I like using resistance bands is the progressive resistance they offer. I mentioned this earlier in the article, but it’s a point worth emphasizing, especially if you plan to get stronger and not just lift the same amount of weight all the time (a sensible goal to have).

Progressive resistance is sometimes called “accommodating” or “variable” resistance, but it boils down to a steady increase in difficulty. It’s not a static challenge, but a constantly increasing challenge, like an old video game that seamlessly gets more difficult as you play. 

This type of progressive resistance is the exercise of choice for those 120+ research studies I cited earlier. If you want the results of those studies, then work out with resistance bands. 

From upper body workouts to trunk and core exercises and even lower body strengthening, there are so many ways to integrate resistance bands into your workouts. Physical therapists figured this out a long time ago, and that’s why when you visit us at the clinic, you’ll see we use therapy bands for virtually every exercise. They’re our go-to gear!

3. Convenience and Cost

Resistance bands are extremely versatile and effective; that much is clear. What I want to emphasize now is how incredibly convenient they are. 

With resistance bands, you can fit essentially an entire rack of weights into a small bag. That means if you live in a tiny studio apartment, you can store a home gym in a drawer. Perfectly packable, resistance bands will easily accompany you on your travels and keep you out of the germified hotel fitness center. Your bag o’ bands allow you to bring your workout anywhere, sparing your back the strain of moving heavy dumbbells around the house. The options are limitless!

Best of all, resistance bands are much more affordable than traditional weights, costing around $40 for an entire set of bands. Each band offers a wide range of resistance (remember, they’re progressive), so even two or three bands will give you a comprehensive workout. 

It’s really unbelievable how many different exercises you can do with just $40 of resistance bands. And there are many different types of bands – they’re not all alike. You can find tube-type resistance bands, complete with handles and attachments for securing them to a door. The flat-sided resistance bands are more versatile, accommodating unique setups. 

bob and brad resistance bands
Bob and Brad Resistance Bands

For the average person who wants the benefits of progressive resistance training, I recommend the tubular set of bands. But for someone interested in heavier weight training, I recommend the flat heavy-duty resistance bands. You can use the flat bands for pull-up assists and other high-intensity at-home workouts. 

Don’t feel you need to choose one set of the other. Remember – they’re cheap! You can have both kinds of bands, effectively an entire gym, for under $100. That’s less than what many fitness centers charge for monthly membership!

Resistance Bands: The Best Solution to Exercising from Home!

The bottom line is that resistance bands are worth a serious look. They’re not sissy weights, and research shows that bands provide just as many workout benefits as free weights. 

Not only are resistance bands great for rehabilitation (which is why they’re so popular in the clinic), they’re safe and effective for people who want an affordable way to workout at home. 

The bands I recommend to my family and friends are the Bob and Brad physical therapy resistance bands, which you can buy online. If you are looking for a way to exercise your rotator cuff using resistance bands, check out this article.

Tim Fraticelli DPT, MBA, CFP®

Tim Fraticelli is a Physical Therapist, Certified Financial Planner™ and founder of PTProgress.com. He loves to teach PTs and OTs ways to save time and money in and out of the clinic, especially when it comes to documentation or continuing education. Follow him on YouTube for weekly videos on ways to improve your financial health.