By Michael J. Rudolph, Ph.D.
Elastic bands provide a unique form of resistance that places significant stress on muscle tissue, causing significant gains in muscle mass and strength comparable to free weights.
I’m always looking for unique ways to improve my training and change it up a bit. Well, I surprisingly found some great articles that highlight the unique muscle building properties that resistance training with elastic bands provides. These studies clearly show that resistance training produces a fundamentally different training stimulus compared to free weights or machines, making it an excellent alternative for muscle growth and strength.
More Muscles Activated
Free weights and resistance bands are fundamentally different because free weights provide constant resistance throughout the range of motion, while resistance bands provide more resistance throughout the range of motion. This is because the band is stretched throughout the movement, causing increased tension within the band that creates more resistance as the range of motion increases. This form of dynamic resistance from elastic bands provides benefits over free weights that can be clearly demonstrated in exercises such as the bench press. Since more muscle strength occurs in the initial phase of the bench press, more momentum is generated throughout the rest of the movement when using free weights. Once the weight gains momentum in the initial phase, the muscle fibers do not need to be maximally activated to continue moving the weight throughout the rest of the movement, thus reducing the training effect. However, the increase in resistance created by the elastic bands negates the production of momentum – preventing momentum-based pushing of the bar through the rest of the movement and creating a demand for greater muscle activity that ultimately stimulates greater muscle growth. This effect from elastic resistance was clearly demonstrated in a study by Jalal et al.1 who showed a 15% increase in muscle activity during elastic resistance training compared to free weight training. Furthermore, the comparison between elastic training and free weight training also showed a significantly higher level of muscle activation in the later phases of the movement – ​​supporting the idea that the upward force from the elastic bands reduced momentum, causing muscle activation throughout the concentric phase. of the movement.
Greater Muscle Intensity
Elastic resistance naturally produces more tension in the muscle compared to free weights because, as mentioned earlier, it has the ability to minimize momentum – causing greater muscle activity throughout the movement, which effectively increases the time the muscle is under tension. In addition, elastic bands also produce resistance independent of gravity, which fails to produce tension in the muscle during certain phases of some lifts. For example, free weight bicep curls produce very little muscle tension at the top of the concentric phase due to the obvious horizontal movement of the weight that no longer creates gravitational resistance. On the other hand, the precise placement of elastic bands – which causes the elastic material to stretch throughout the movement – ​​places resistance on the biceps throughout the range of motion. The sustained tension from resistance training should stimulate greater muscle growth, as has been well documented2 that longer time under tension dynamically increases the mechanical tension in the muscle cell. Increased mechanical stress on the muscle cell causes greater muscle cell damage and/or increased metabolic stress, which potently enhances lean muscle mass. Clearly demonstrating the ability of elastic bands to build lean mass, a study by Colado et al.3 found that elastic resistance is just as effective if not better than free weights or resistance machines at increasing both lean body mass and strength.
Muscle damage promotes lean muscle growth
Exercise-induced muscle damage stimulates many different cellular and molecular mechanisms that cause the muscle cell to grow and become stronger.4 For example, muscle damage activates the inflammatory response – causing different immune cells, such as macrophages, to migrate to damaged muscle tissue, thereby facilitating muscle cell repair and growth.5 In addition, exercise-induced muscle damage stimulates the activation of the mTOR enzyme by IGF-1, which activates muscle cell protein synthesis6enhancing the hypertrophic response to resistance training.
While muscle damage after eccentric contractions and bouts of unusual exercise is well documented7,8,9, just recently a study looked at the effect of elastic resistance training on muscle damage. This study by Aboodarda et al.10 showed that elastic resistance training caused a similar amount of muscle damage compared to Nautilus machine resistance. While the underlying mechanism of these findings is unknown, a possible explanation for this result may have been revealed in another study by Cronin et al.11, which showed a significant increase in muscle activity in the quadriceps muscle during the eccentric phase of leg extensions while elastic resistance was used. Because the forced lengthening of the muscle cell that occurs during the eccentric phase creates the most extensive muscle damage12,13, this greater level of muscle contraction during the eccentric phase while using elastic bands probably encourages significant muscle damage. Interestingly, this greater level of muscle activity during the eccentric phase of leg extension may be due to the tremendous recoil force generated by the fully stretched elastic band that occurs right at the beginning of the eccentric phase. Taken together, these results demonstrate a similar potential between elastic bands and free weight/machine training to generate enough muscle strain to induce muscle damage and ultimately muscle growth.
Elastic bands provide a unique form of resistance that places significant stress on muscle tissue, causing significant gains in muscle mass and strength comparable to free weights. Additionally, because elastic resistance force is so fundamentally different from free weight resistance, both approaches can be used simultaneously during your training to create a combination of forces that place greater initial stress on the muscle while maintaining maximum stress on the muscles throughout the entire movement – ​​creating noticeable gains in strength and size.14
Bibliographical references:
1. Jalal FY, et al. Resultant muscle torque and electromyographic activity during high-intensity resistance and free weight exercises. EJSS 2013; 13(2): pp. 155-163.
2. Pinto RS, et al. Effect of range of motion on muscle strength and thickness. J Strength Cond Res 2012;26(8): pp 2140-5.
3. Colorado JC and Triplett NT. Effects of a short-term resistance program using elastic bands versus weight machines for sedentary middle-aged women. J Strength Cond Res 2008;22(5): pp 1441-8.
4. Schoenfeld, BJ Does exercise-induced muscle damage play a role in skeletal muscle hypertrophy? J Strength Cond Res 2012;26(5): pp 1441-53.
5. McGinley C, Shafat A and Donnelly AE. Do antioxidant vitamin supplements protect against muscle damage? Sports Med 2009;39(12): pp 1011-32.
6. Guillet C, et al. Impaired muscle protein synthesis anabolic response is associated with S6K1 dysregulation in the elderly. Faseb J 2004; 18(13): pp. 1586-7.
7. Clarkson PM and Hubal MJ. Exercise-induced muscle damage in humans. Am J Phys Med Rehabil, 2002;81(11 Suppl): pp S52-69.
8. Linnamo V, et al. Neuromuscular responses to explosive and heavy resistance. J Electromyogr Kinesiol 2000;10(6): pp 417-24.
9. Newham DJ, et al. Ultrastructural changes following concentric and eccentric contractions of human muscle. J Neurol Sci 1983, 61(1): p. 109-22.
10. Aboodarda SJ, et al. Muscle strength and damage after two modes of variable resistance training. J Sports Sci Med, 2011; 10: pp. 635-642.
11. Cronin J, McNair PJ and Marshall RN. The effects of capsule weight training on muscle function and functional performance. J Sports Sci 2003;21(1): pp 59-71.
12. Clarkson PM, et al. Muscle soreness and serum creatine kinase activity after isometric, eccentric and concentric exercise. Int J Sports Med 1986;7(3): pp 152-5.
13. Gibala MJ, et al. Myofibrillar disruption after acute concentric and eccentric resistance exercise in strength-exercising men. Can J Physiol Pharmacol 2000;78(8): p. 656-61.
14. Anderson CE, Sforzo GA and Sigg. The effects of combined elastic and free weight resistance on strength and power in JA athletes. J Strength Cond Res 2008;22(2): pp 567-74.
