Using Resistance Bands for Muscle Building: Exercises for Bodybuilding Beginners

For over a century, bodybuilding has been practiced with dumbbells and bars, in other words, with additional weights. More or less advanced (and more or less effective) devices and machines have then supplemented these basic training elements. In all cases, the principle of additional load for stimulate muscle growth has remained dominant for decades. Until now, everything had been planned to allow the muscular and physical development of bodybuilders, but another means of bodybuilding has come to complete this sporting arsenal, that is to say, elastic bands.

While additional weights remain one of the best tools for building a physique, resistance bands offer additional advantages over barbells and dumbbells. Having appeared on the fitness market for over 10 years, resistance bands apply different progressive and degressive resistance to the muscles. They usefully complement the stress already provided by more traditional weights. Today, there are resistance bands of different resistances (from 5 to 40 kg and more) that allow you to perform a large number of bodybuilding exercises . Should we therefore advise beginners to use resistance bands to build muscle, to the detriment of barbells and dumbbells?

Can resistance bands be used by beginners in bodybuilding instead of additional weights?

Truth be told, nothing will ever replace weights, discs, barbells, and dumbbells, given the infinite combinations of exercises they allow you to perform. The use of additional weights has been at the center of a vast majority of strength training for centuries. Barbells and discs are also at the heart of basic multi-joint exercises in bodybuilding and powerlifting. Logically, it is not possible to imagine doing squats, bench press or deadlifts without additional weights, although free weight exercises also have their benefits in bodybuilding. However, elastic bands have the advantage of being perfectly complementary to traditional weights and dumbbells while being practical to transport.

In some cases, elastic bands can also be used to perform exercises that are difficult to achieve with weights alone. They can also complement or increase the difficulty of an exercise with weights or by being placed on a machine. Thus, they can be combined with a leg press or a bench press, for example. In fact, the exercise possibilities with this type of accessory useful for developing muscle mass seem endless. The stress placed on working muscles by resistance bands is quite different from that of barbells and dumbbells. This adds another advantage to the muscle-building work offered by these accessories.

You can consider using the rubber bands alone for beginners or using them with traditional additional weights.

The fact remains that exercises with bars and dumbbells are known or can be learned by everyone, while the use of elastic bands still requires a little imagination to perform exercise variations as numerous as for standard weights. In this regard, the position of the body (foot at the level of the bust, placed in front or behind, etc.), the use of an elastic band per limb or both limbs for an elastic band already offer many exercise options. In this way, the pectorals, back, shoulders, arms, abdominals, lower back or thighs can be worked with these tools.

An impressive number of exercises can be performed with rubber bands to stimulate muscle development

For example, for the pectorals, a unilateral pulling exercise can easily be imagined by attaching a resistance band to a support and then bringing it towards the inside of the chest. By using both arms with the resistance band behind your back, you can achieve the movement of the bench press. Conversely, a fixed resistance band will allow you to work the back muscles by pulling the resistance bands backward. Equally simple exercises for the biceps and triceps can be envisaged by holding the resistance bands with one foot ( biceps curl or rear triceps extension), as well as performing lateral raises for the shoulders.

Starting bodybuilding with elastic bands is entirely possible...

Let's just say that the movements possible with elastic bands are quite simple to perform, which is an advantage for beginners in bodybuilding. However, the muscle tension they impose is different from exercises with additional weights. This is a definite advantage for muscle hypertrophy . because they require varied stress on the muscle fibers to be optimized. On the other hand, it is imperative for young weightlifters to learn a large number of classic exercises such as the bench press, the barbell pulldown, back rowing variations such as the T Bar which require precise positioning or the practice of bicep curls with dumbbells and bars. Unless you really want to, practicing bodybuilding with elastic bands alone would be quite limited. It would be a shame not to take advantage of standard additional weight exercises that have proven their worth for over a century on muscle development and strength. Both poly-articular and localized exercises must be practiced recurrently but elastic bands also offer an additional and particular advantage on muscle development.

Beginners and experienced athletes alike benefit from the strength and muscle building benefits of resistance bands.

We could therefore recommend that beginners train with elastic bands with the help of their coach, but also learn the basic movements to perform with weights because the sensations and stress placed on the muscles are completely different. Naturally, elastic bands cannot replace weights, dumbbells and weight machines. However, it is clear that more advanced bodybuilders can benefit from muscle activation . very specific that elastic bands offer them, in addition to traditional barbell and dumbbell exercises. The muscle development obtained by these two types of exercises complement each other perfectly. In a future article, we will return in more detail to the possible combinations between elastic bands and weights, in order to allow you to benefit from the best of both worlds. But whatever your training mode or method, take care of your diet as well as to benefit from sufficient rest between your workouts.