Resistance Band Training … Your Differentiator
Resistance band training is more than just another piece of exercise equipment. It can help you quickly differentiate yourself, your business and your adult fitness classes from the competition .
As a fitness professional and coach, getting your clients moving better with greater strength, balance, and movement quality as well as less pain, has to be goal #1 if you wish to create a life-time client. However speaking as a physical therapist as well as a coach of adult fitness, this is not an easy thing to do.
With individuals that have a long history of poor movement patterns, core weakness, significant muscle imbalances, weak stabilizing muscles and poor muscle reaction, it can quickly become overwhelming to try addressing everything.
Questions as a Fitness Coach I want you to think about…
- How often do you talk to your clients about the effects of gravity, momentum and ground reaction forces?
- Do you create workouts that challenge your clients to handle increased momentum and more aggressive ground reaction forces?
- How often do your clients work against horizontal force vectors?
- How many of your clients consider good core strength as something accomplished in a standing position versus doing 100’s of crunches, sit ups and leg raises??
- How many of your clients understand what shear force is and how to get stronger controlling it?
- How many of you are willing to build an entire program around elastic resistance training?
Unfortunately, the answer to most of these questions is “Very Few or NO”.
Most trainers or fitness coaches understand that lifting a weight or doing a body weight exercise will improve strength and the ability to deal effectively with gravity.
However, when it comes to training “to own a movement” the understanding of how the body learns to handle momentum, gravity and ground reaction forces is lacking. I know it was for me just starting out as a physical therapist. Most fitness coaches figure if they get people stronger and in better shape they will be fine and that is what the general consumer thinks as well.
Strength is just one component that is needed to deal with momentum, gravity and ground reaction forces.
Momentum can occur in a vertical direction but most of the momentum forces our body has to overcome each day occurs from forces hitting the body from a horizontal direction. These same horizontal forces create ground reaction shear forces on our joints as our feet or hands land into the ground.
Without going into a long explanation on why this is a big deal, I can factually say that 95% of all injuries to joints, ligaments and cartilage occur because of poor shear force deceleration control driven by momentum.
After viewing this short video the answer to this question should begin to make greater sense.
What Resistance Band Training will do For Your Clients and Ultimately Your Business that Free Weights Alone Can’t
- Implemented correctly, bands can reduce shear force and momentum force on joints by being an “assistance” rather than a resistance on the body. Free weights can’t assist movements.
- Implemented correctly, bands will train the body how to react to horizontally driven forces at varying speeds. Free weights can’t create horizontal forces in standing positions.
- Implemented correctly, resistance band training will increase joint mobility and muscle flexibility by allowing the body to move through multi-planes of motion. Free weights are a single plane training tools.
- Implemented correctly, bands will improve peripheral stability using an ascending resistance that challenges joint stability the further arms and legs are lengthened out. Free weight resistance is constant and does not challenge end range stability any differently than at any other point of the range of motion.
- Implemented correctly, bands will teach muscles how to work together to handle the effects of momentum, gravity and ground reaction forces by performing any functional movement while being placed under a resistance. Free weights cannot simulate true functional movements like running, crawling, towing, throwing, jumping, or swinging.
Summary
Free weights are not wrong and have historically proven without a doubt to increase strength. Unfortunately, for our body to perform at a high level it requires more than just strengthening a muscle in a single plane.
Resistance band training successfully fills that void and provides the body with the training stimulus needed to become 3-dimensionally strong and reactive.
Dave
I just had to take the time to send you this message! What you are doing and all the resources you provide are nothing short of fabulous!! You make band workouts fun, accessible and appropriate for ALL! That’s what fitness professionals ought to do…share their passion with the masses who, on their own, would likely not take the initiative to design a regimen for themselves or push themselves out of a comfort zone and into a higher level of progression and transformation. You are a tremendous contributor to the fitness field!
Tracy S, Fitness Professional
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