Steve Howard Improve your lifts (strength and power) with the use of elastic bands.
Makes the final part of the movement difficult in the various basic and multi-articulation exercises .
Force-speed
The following graph indicates that the greater the weight we manage in a exercise, the lower the speed with which we will lift that weight.
That is, if we raise percentages very close to 1RM, what will happen is that we will lift that barbell with a very slow speed.
However, as we move away from those percentages, we can perform these movements faster.
In the intermediate point is the maximum power, that is the maximum force exerted at maximum speed.
Exercises with Elastic Bands
When we train in the gym something very curious happens, namely that the lifting does not happen in a uniform .
This means that the initial part of the movement, as rego the general is the part that costs more (as in the deadlifts ).
In the pull-ups it would be the opposite, but when joint extension occurs a mechanical advantage and a faster movement speed.
That is, the initial part is the one that costs the most to lift and when the different joints are extended, lifting becomes much easier.
Consequently, we could say that we are limited from the beginning of the cycle.
This means that if you raise 200kg deadlift (in the early part of the movement) , no matter how hard you try, you will never lift 210kg in the final part , because you have to go through the first part first.
Benefits of Bands
The method that I use to counter the graph I explained above is to use resistance bands (elastic bands).
It’s a very fashionable method, especially in powerlifting and which is very useful because it allows you to break out of that linearity and exercise a greater explosion in the lifts .
This means that we can do a lift where we manage the weight correctly in the initial part (which is what c he limits us), but since the bands stiffen , the force is greater, therefore, we can handle more weight in the final part .
Why-to-use elastic-bands
They are very useful mainly for:
Learning to accelerate weights
We learn to get more explosiveness , more power and, as a result, we greatly improve our 1 RM, our maximum strength.
If we cannot accelerate the bar at the beginning, we will never finish the movement .
Avoid injuries
Because, for example, in deadlifts we know that it is in the initial part that the greatest number of injuries occur, but once we get past the knees we can generally move more weight .
In this way we avoid overloading the initial part , adding a lot of tension at the end.
Applications to other exercises
Elastic bands can be used in practically all exercises.
Bench Press and Squat Press
For example , using them for bench presses or squats would help us work with greater intensity in the lower part ale of movement and we could use the initial part to add pauses (eliminate the myotatic reflex) and improve simultaneously in this section.
Tractions
They are also used for Pull-ups , where they would produce a similar effect (they would help to simplify the lift in the initial part of the path and to obtain a higher initial speed, since the band would be placed on the barbell and our knees on it).
