How To Maintain Muscle With Resistance Bands

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For those of us who love to exercise, stay healthy, and maintain muscle, it is worth spending time researching the best ways. Generally, the cost of workout equipment, gym memberships, and a busy lifestyle prevents most people from staying fit and maintaining their muscles. Can resistance bands help strengthen muscles? If so, how to maintain muscle with resistance bands?

Resistance bands can be used to maintain and gain muscular strength, according to a February 2019 review in ​SAGE Open Medicine​. Resistance bands are great exercise equipment tools that can help you improve muscle strength and get toned and ripped. 

Read on to find out the most effective exercises to build and maintain muscles with resistance bands, along with the advantages of using resistance bands. You might also enjoy reading: Here Are The Reasons Why Resistance Bands Are Effective In Maintaining Muscles.

Is Resistance Bands as Good as Weights?

If you have a busy lifestyle or are always on the road and can’t get to the gym as often as you like, resistance bands are great to supplement your workout and tone your muscles. In addition, resistance bands are safer than using free weights.

Resistance bands are not only portable and simple to use, but they are also quite effective at strengthening as well as gaining muscle. The key is to focus on a technique known as progressive overload and to exercise near to or at muscular exhaustion.

Free weights only offer higher rewards for developing muscle and strength; however, the risk of injury is much higher when compared to using resistance bands. Using larger and stronger resistance bands for exercises, including lunges, squats, press-ups, and seated rows, will keep your muscles in good shape.

Even though resistance bands can help you build muscle, mainly if you are a beginner, free weights are a must to build serious muscle mass.

Free weights offer an easier alternative to do progressive overloading than resistance bands. However, there is a certain threshold with resistance bands, and when you reach it, you need to switch over to weights for continued muscle growth.

See also: 6 Reasons Why You Should Set Fitness Goals?

Can You Get Ripped With Just Resistance Bands?

In general, when it comes to muscle development, stretchy resistance bands are great for getting ripped compared to weight because they provide resistance so your muscles struggle against and resist. You can use resistance bands to develop muscle and get ripped.

Although resistance bands might help you get ripped, you must first figure out which activities will successfully challenge your body.

How To Use Resistance Bands To Get Ripped?

• Create a workout plan that fits your daily and weekly schedule and ensure each workout targets different muscles group in your body. For example, you can target your upper body on Mondays and Wednesdays while you work out your lower body on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
• Choose resistance bands that also meet your current physical condition and fitness goals.
• Choose a resistance band that allows you to do eight to ten repetitions for each workout. Select a higher resistance when you can easily complete more than 10 reps and a lighter band when you can’t do at least eight reps.
• Use your upper body to get a good workout.
• Grasp the resistance band’s one end in each of your hands while you stand in the center of it. Curl your arms up towards your chest to work your biceps, or lengthen them behind you to work your triceps.
• To work the chest muscles, twist the band behind the back and extend your arms out in front of you. Three sets of eight to ten reps should be completed.
• Exercise your lower body. Loop the ring around your ankles just by tying the band’s ends firmly. Push it against the resistance band when standing and extending your left leg in front, towards the side, and then behind you within a week of repeating on the opposite side.
• At least three sets of eight to ten repetitions are recommended.

See also: Top 6 Best Workout and CrossFit Gloves

Advantages of Resistance Bands 

You can perform strength training with resistance bands without the risk of dropping a heavy weight on your foot or smashing your fingers between weight plates. Here are the advantages of using resistance bands.

1- Resistance Bands Promote Flexibility 

With resistance bands, you can perform deeper stretches, get into positions for joint mobilization, and increase your range of motion. In addition, resistance bands are incredibly efficient for shoulder and hip mobility.

2- With Resistance Bands, you can target specific muscles

With resistance bands, you can target or emphasize specific muscles, such as hamstrings, quads, or glutes, during your workouts by simply attaching your resistance band at a different angle.

For instance, if you want to do a standard squat, you will change how your resistance bands target your muscles.

3- Resistance Bands Give You More Control Over Your Workouts

If we compare resistance bands with weights, there’s no denying that resistance bands give you more control over your workouts.

When we talk about control, we are referring to the fact that as a band is stretched across the range of motion of an exercise, its resistance strength increases.

If you are a beginner, resistance bands allow you to set your ideal resistance strength safely. In addition, they can help you prevent any nasty injuries by not getting too heavy too quickly with this.

If you are also more advanced, resistance bands can also help you in your training since they are a secure way to control how and when your muscles attain tiredness or their entire range of motion.

They are also an excellent way to supplement free weights since you can use resistance bands for the last few reps to attain exhaustion and enhance your range of motion safely!

4- No cheating!

Another aspect to consider in the resistance band vs. weights debate is that many people unintentionally cheat while using free weights for strength training.

Because the direction of resistance for free weights is usually downwards (according to the laws of gravity), they tend to stay in motion once they are mobile unless the user stops them. Because of their weight, they gain velocity and become more difficult to manage.

For example, when you perform bicep curls with a dumbbell, this is an illustration of this in action. When things start to go wrong in terms of muscle depletion, some people try to lift the weight with the help of momentum.

This is ‘cheating’ because it relies on leg and back strength. When momentum is being used, the biceps do not benefit from the workout, making it nearly ineffective.

Resistance bands have one benefit over overweights: they don’t allow you to employ momentum because they act on resistance levels of strength instead of mass/weight. 

5- Resistance Band Help Maximize Muscular Endurance

With resistance bands, you will have constant tension for the entire exercise, which maximizes muscular endurance.

Even though resistance bands aren’t necessarily as heavy as free weights, they still create resistance and tension in your muscles. Therefore, they help strengthen your muscles over time, mainly if you are a beginner at strength training.

Resistance training with resistance bands provides similar strength gains compared to resistance training performed from conventional devices, according to a 2019 review in ​SAGE Open Medicine​.

6- Resistance Bands Promote Rehabilitation 

Visit any rehab facility, and you will notice people using bands for rehabilitation. Bands are a safe way to build strength and variety of motion after an injury.

In addition, resistance bands place significantly less pressure on your joints. Furthermore, because you can create elastic force in any direction, you can target stabilizer muscles more efficiently, which is crucial for rehabbing joint injuries.

Resistance bands are excellent for preventing injury when doing heavy lifts, playing sports, or practicing martial arts. Even though both weights and resistance bands could be used for rehabilitation, one benefit of resistance bands overweights is that they are unquestionably easier and safer to use.

Resistance bands, like free weights, allow users to steadily raise the resistance as they stretch them while also allowing them to maintain better control of the band at all times.

With bands, things are considerably more stable, and users are far less likely to incur pain or further harm!

Another thing to keep in mind is that resistance bands are far less expensive and more portable than free weights, making them much easier to use throughout rehabilitation without having to go to the gym.

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7- Resistance Bands Are a Great Way to Spice Up Your Workouts

In addition, resistance bands are an excellent addition to your workout when you hit a plateau in your training. They are a great way to spice up your workouts, especially if you are looking to strengthen up a particular part of the body.

Resistance bands are great workout accessories to build muscle and tone up the body. The best part of using resistance bands is that your body weight adds intensity and creates tension in the muscle engaged. In addition, it helps you focus on specific muscles and work on them.

With One resistance band, you can work on all body parts and adjust the intensity according to your needs. It activates the muscles and helps in toning up the body. It is excellent for fat loss, as the exercises are focused on a particular body part, using more energy even after working out throughout the recovery period.

8- Resistance Bands Are Portable

If you like lifting weights, keep it up. However, if you are always on the road, then resistance bands are an excellent way of supplementing any “bodyweight” workouts, and you can carry them out in any hotel room anywhere in the world or even store them easily for your daily at-home workout.

One of the benefits of using resistance bands is that they are very portable because they are lightweight, small, and foldable, making them your ideal travel companion.

Resistance bands are excellent for people who regularly travel because they are easy to take on the road. You can just throw them in your bag and hit the park for an excellent high-intensity workout and pump, with the added bonus of vitamin D under the sun.

9- Resistance Bands Offer a Cheaper Way to Stay Fit

Resistance bands are portable and save space for travelers, and most importantly, they are a cheaper option for staying fit. For example, you can invest in good resistance band sets for about $12 on Amazon (a complete set of 5 loop resistance bands).

In addition, resistance bands are just a one-time purchase; you will save money on ongoing costs such as yearly gym memberships.

Is It Bad To Use Resistance Bands Every Day?

You can use resistance bands every day; however, you don’t need to spend your whole day in the gym to build muscle. Weight training for about 25 to 35 minutes, 4 to 5 times a week, is enough to see results.

Throughout your workouts, aim to target all the major muscle groups at least twice. The best way to use resistance bands is to split your workout routine using different muscle groups every day.

As you can resistance train each day, most people will find that training three to five days per week would provide them with more benefits in terms of achieving their goals. Taking planned days off from weight training is usually suggested to allow the body to recover from the pressure of the workouts.

Resistance Bands Vs. Free Weights: Which One Should You Choose?

• Resistance bands are great if you are looking to get slim, increase muscle mass, and burn fat, and they will provide you with the same effects with regular use (especially when you work up to the higher resistance levels).
• On the other hand, weights will bring you better results if you want to gain real muscle and dramatically reshape your body (and faster).

Best Exercises To Maintain Muscles With Resistance Bands

Here are the best exercises with resistance bands.

Wall Lateral Pulldown With Resistance Band

Targeted muscles: Lats, upper back.

How To Do Wall Lateral Pulldown With Resistance Band

• Stand with your back against the wall. 
• Put the resistance band around your wrists or thumbs and extend your arms straight up over your head. 
• Pull your elbows and arms down to the side, bent at a 90-degree angle, while extending the band and bringing your shoulder blades back together. 
• Go back to your original position.

Bicep Curl With Resistance Band

Targeted muscles: Biceps.

How To Do Bicep Curl With Resistance Band

• Stand on your resistance band, your feet at shoulder width, and a handle in each hand with your palms forward.
• Bend at the elbow to uplift your hands to your shoulders and slowly and gently back down.
• Maintain your elbows tucked to your sides.
• Stand with both feet on the resistance band, keeping handles long next to your sides with palms facing forward.
• Slowly curl your hands up to your shoulders, pressing your biceps and maintaining your elbows next to your sides.
• Gently release your arms back down to starting position.

Triceps Extension With Resistance Band

Targeted muscles: Triceps.

How To Do Triceps Extension With Resistance Band

• Stand with one of your feet slightly in front of the other while putting the center of the resistance band under the back foot.
• Gently bring both handles together straight up over the top of your head.
• Slowly and gently lower handles behind the back of your head till your elbows are bent 90 degrees while keeping your elbows close to the side of your head.
• Press your hands back up overhead gently and slowly.

Shoulder External Rotation With Resistance Band

Targeted muscles: Shoulders, upper back.

How To Do Shoulder External Rotation With Resistance Band

• Attach one end of your resistance band to a sturdy object. 
• Grasp the other end of your resistance band in your right hand with an overhand grip.
• Stand tall and bring your right elbow up to your upper arm in line with your shoulder. 
• Then bend your elbow 90 degrees so your forearm stays parallel to the ground. 
• Begin your exercise by rotating your arms against the resistance band until your forearm is perpendicular to the floor.
• As you rotate your arms, ensure you keep your elbows even with your shoulders.
•  Slowly reverse the movement back to starting position.

Wrapping Up

Building and maintaining muscles with resistance bands will require a lot of determination, dedication, and consistency. But If you use resistance bands properly, you will develop some new strength and maintain your muscle mass and strength.

In addition, ensure you get all your needed nutrients to maintain and let your body rest. Doing resistance band training, body exercises, and keeping your nutrition will help you build and maintain muscles in the long term.