Style of training that enables women to target the specific muscle groups at the gym or in the home using bands. With varying percentages of tension, this style of training will make you better at doing heavier lifts and all other movements that will be done in the future. Bands add a great twist to this method, as they are more flexible and easier to use than traditional barbells.
How can we think about training?
Training for good looks or function in life, or simply training for fun, can be achieved by more tension. Tension is the driving force of muscle involvement since it requires a muscle system such as the lower body to be neutral with the spine, if the movement is to be done with good form. For the upper body, it requires stability in the core, and the good amount of scapula retraction, which is important in every heavier lift, such as farmers walk or bench press. With that being said, the more tension we can create and hold, the stronger we are. In reality, if we can’t even hold the weight (in a clean position with a kettlebell), we certainly won’t be able to lift it overhead. In an example of good leg movement, we would have to enumerate a few necessities:
- Neutral spine
- Proper position of the hips
- Quality contraction
- Bracing
Why is training the right way important?
All of these are important to uphold, even if the weight we use is not that imposing, or we are just training with our own bodies. We want to make sure that we can keep and repeat the pattern of movement that we want, such as greasing the groove, and to succeed with it in the future training sessions.
If we constantly ‘’butcher’’ the movements and exercises we do, it is really hard to advance and get any benefits. Only person that will benefit from such bad training techniques is our doctor, and that should not be the case.
Making better training
To make sure we have ingrained the pattern of quality reps, there is a nifty little method of training called isometrics. In isometric contraction, muscle doesn’t change length for any noticeable difference. Instead, it is being held in that position for a prolonged period of time.
Stability
This is great news for increasing stabilization and strength in one particular position we want to strengthen, especially when considering how the muscle has to remain in that position with great contractile force. Adding isometrics to a desired training regime will make it noticeably different as far as stabilization goes.
Bracing
With such high amounts of tension that isometrics produce, we have to learn how to brace. For those that are unaware of this technique, this will be a major game changer for everyone.
We are talking about abdominal bracing, which serves to stabilize the spine. In the sense of training with isometrics, it is futile to expect that we can rock like we are fighting with a huge fish, twisting and turning all around the place. No. We have to stay in place when training movements like these. Otherwise, it is all good for nothing.
Proper breathing and bracing will increase your performance and your lifts significantly. And they can be used on everyday weights; such as family members, boxes, groceries, and whatnot.
Core
Your core is not just a set of abs that you see in the mirror. It also includes hips and glutes, and erector spinae, among many others. To hold properly an isometric contraction would mean to engage all those areas, and we will show you how.
Why does this work?
This means that the intensity is fairly moderate, especially so when not doing holds with any substantial weight on the barbell. Basically, isometrics is holding a position of a movement in a single place, without performing mechanical contraction. If we do isometric holds with bands, we can get a good result from much shorter workouts.
One may ask itself, why does this method work? Well, in the case of Olympic rings athletes, the answer is self explanatory.
Of course, we don’t have to spend years of grueling work to get to the elite levels of Olympic athletes, especially so on the highly demanding tools such as rings. Other proof of isometrics are farmers that carry a lot of things throughout the day. When they apply a load in that manner, they have to inadvertently do an isometric hold so they don’t roll over or bend over because of the weight. In a sense, we are constantly holding ourselves in an isometric position, because if we didn’t, we would melt like jelly.
Where the bands come in
Approaching this methodology with more focus and intensity would yield greater results than just doing it with body weight. For men, body weight on complex movements such as dips or pull ups can be used when talking about isometrics. For women who are strong enough, the same thing applies.
Bands are ideal here since they are less cumbersome to do this with than barbells, and they can serve for a more complete training session, because they can be used in twisting and turning motions in a more natural manner.
Building muscle with bands
For the purpose of hypertrophy, we will focus more on the actual reps with the bands and the isometric application of them.
Best way to utilize bands in an isometric fashion is to pick antagonistic group muscles. That means we pick front and back muscles, like quads and hamstrings, chest and back, biceps and triceps. The overall tension is equally distributed without any unnecessary imbalances. If we are training chest and back, the approach is very simple and straightforward. You tie a band around some solid structure (to make sure it doesn’t fly to your private parts) and then you perform an exercise. Trick is to hold position for a desired position of time, depending on strength.
Measure how long you can hold it for a set of 5, so you have a good baseline to move forward.. Let’s say that you want a really good burn. You would do 5 reps and hold that position for 10 seconds after every 5 reps. Do 15 reps, and you will get enough burn that will stimulate hypertrophy. The benefit of training isometrics is that muscles need to provide enough stabilization, and this will ensure that you have more fluid movements in the future.
Make sure you pick bands that you can do 20 normal reps without any problems. This way, you will be in full control throughout the movement, which was the primary goal of isometrics. Controlling your body in a way that you wish.
Take rock climbers for example. They have to perform isometrics constantly to stay alive, quite literally.
For chest exercises, you simply turn around from that anchor point of the band. And you do a pushing movement, perhaps a similar one to standing horizontal press. You do the same process, depending on the strength of your pushing muscles, versus the pulling ones.
Different bands
All of this has been performed with light bands. You can take heavy bands and do holds. Press the band in a military press fashion, and hold it there for 10 seconds while maintaining a neutral spine and braced core. Do 5 sets of these, and you will definitely feel the burn. Isometrics are not the best method to do solely on its own. It works best when coupled with some other training method.
Training examples
Other than two movements aforementioned, you can do yourself a favor and get a great set of abs with bands and isometrics. Let’s get started.
Tie a band to something around waist level. Stand sideways. Take the band with arms at full length, and perform a twisting motion until you have reached a motion similar to chopping a tree. If this seems easy, don’t worry, it isn’t. Don’t overestimate this tricky method. Stop at beginning or the end position for a few seconds. Stop for both if you are feeling devilish. You will have a great set of abs and obliques, as well as lower back in no time.
Do this exercise on both sides for 5 sets of 8 to 10 reps.
Along with abs, this will target biceps and shoulders. Make sure you can do these routines often, as they have a tremendous amount of corrective power. You will feel straightened and with a better posture for everyday tasks.
Variations
Tie a band on the higher position than your head. Stand behind it, and perform movement similar to a barbarian hitting someone with a club. Extend arms to full length, and hold them there. Slowly extend so they are leveled on eyes level. Hold it in that position, and after a few seconds, come back to the starting position. Again, 5 sets of 8 to 10 is more than enough.
These two exercises are full upper body oriented, but it is really easy to convert them into isolation movements.
From band tied to waist level, stand opposing it, and perform rows. Hold at the end of the movement for that quality contraction. All while maintaining braced abs and neutral spine. 3 sets of 8 is enough.
Chest variation is that you stand behind the band, and press it horizontally. Hold the end position. Beginning position can be held as well, if the pressing is a weaker movement than pulling in a trainee.
Lesson from today
We can do biceps like a smiling lady up there. And we wouldn’t be wrong in any way. But we will achieve much more with just these three exercises for our biceps than simply doing this one. Reason for that is that we are holding positions, and we can’t hold any position without biceps involvement. So it is better to focus on compound movement that can be followed by a progressive overload method once the full body composition is made, rather than doing an isolation exercise without realising that it is not that effective. At least not in the beginning phase where we have to achieve a sufficient level of strength in multi joint movements before we attempt to isolate muscles.