Body Weight Training with Bands is your “Secret Weapon” to successfully performing any body weight exercise with perfect form

For most trainers, when I ask them if they do assisted training with bands, they say yes. Then when I ask them what, they reply…“We do assisted pull ups with them.”

I than respond by saying…..   THAT’S IT?????

What about assisted….

• Push ups
• Lunges
• Squats
• Single leg squats
• Hand stand Presses
• Jump squats
• Split squats
• Get ups
• Planks
• Pistol Squats

The fact is, bands can assist any body weight training exercise where gravity is the obstacle.

There are a lot of individuals that cannot do a good push up or lunge.   And hand stand presses or pistol squats are not even a consideration.  However, trainers or coaches rarely consider assisting those exercises.  Instead they allow people to compensate or they go to a free weight exercise.

Why?

I cannot answer that specifically but I can tell you that when you provide the body with a little “gravity” assistance with any body weight training exercise that is challenging, it eliminates inhibition and allows the body to recruit the right muscles, in the right sequence with the right level of stabilization. This, in turn, develops better power with those movements.

One of the Band Assisted techniques I have been using for several years is a high rep volume assisted push up, lunge and squat jump approach where athletes or adult fitness clients perform these exercises for 3 to 5 minutes doing 5 to 10 reps every 30 or 40 seconds.  The goal is to build muscle memory and total body stabilization strength.    What I have seen is a dramatic improvement to full body weight strength when the assist is removed after 4 to 6 weeks.

Assisted Push up 6 Week Case Study

I have been training 20 high school age female athletes over the past 3 months. 16 of the 20 could not do more than 1 good push up and 12 of them could not even do 1 push up

After 6 weeks of doing assisted band tempo push ups using a 30 second on and 60 seconds off interval x 5 to 7 sets, we were able to get 18 of of the 20 girls doing at least 5 or more good full body weight push ups.

By eliminating the inhibiting factors of a push up, the girls were able to teach the right muscles and core stabilizers how to do a push up. Also, it is well documented that to create muscle memory you need to be able to perform 12 to 15 quality reps.

By using the band as an assistive training tool, they were able to build muscle memory which would not have been possible without decreasing the effects of gravity.  I have found this to also be true in my own training where I frequently use a band to assist multiple body weight training exercises to help me create better body movement awareness.

Here is how I recommend doing Independent Assisted Push ups.

 

In a Large group training class we will work in partnerships where the holding partner provides the needed band assistance.

Other Helpful Assisted Body Weight Training Videos

Band Assisted Training for Step Ups and Single Leg Squats

Band Assisted Training for Lunges

 

 

What you need to do Band Assisted Body Weight Training

 

Single Band Package and a Band Utility Strap