DUMBBELLS V RESISTANCE BANDS?
OK, so with the launch of my new class I thought it would be a good idea to list the similarities and differences between weight training and resistance band training.
It really is a case of Peanut Butter and Banana …….They complement each other, and FYI – if you haven’t tried this – it’s a must! And a great pre or post-workout food!
Anyway, I could write an essay all about resistance training and weight training, but who got time for that hey, so here are a few pointers which I hope will help you!
SIMILARITIES.
PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD: Both types of training offer this. With dumbbells, you can progress by increasing your weights to really push your body, and with resistance bands, you can use different strengths of bands (called progressive resistance). With bands, you can also use the positioning of your feet or hands to increase or decrease the resistance which is a great advantage of the bands.
In my strength classes, you are often restricted to a set of dumbbells, whereas in the resistance band classes you have a full range of bands so you can really push yourself if you wanted. The only downside to this though is that it is easy to cheat and make the band looser making it easier for you whereas with dumbbells, you have no option to decrease your weight if you don’t have any smaller.
VARIABLE SPEED: With both dumbbells and bands you can control the speed of the reps, however with bands, you can train explosively more effectively so you can build up your fast-twitch muscle fibers quicker (these are the small muscle fibers that help build strength and endurance)
FREE RANGE OF MOTION: Both give us a free range of motion to be able to work our muscles in different paths, (vertical/horizontal). To really train your body, my advice is to forget machine equipment and focus on dumbbells and resistance bands as your body will work much more effectively.
MECHANICAL TENSION: Both force our muscles to work to the same intensity however dumbbells work against gravity and bands work against resistance. In theory, It doesn’t matter how your muscles work, as long as they are pushed against either.
Although there are many similarities, there are slight differences depending on whether you have specific goals in mind. So what is the best option for certain types of training?
BUILDING MUSCLE: (Also known as hypertrophy) Although resistance bands are great at building muscle, if you are looking to build serious muscle mass, free weights are a must! Free weights offer an easy way to do progressive overloading. It is easier to assess progressive overload with free weights as you know what weight you are lifting, with bands it is hard to tell how much overload you are putting on your muscles, and if you are not careful you could find yourself slacking with the bands.
Winner: Dumbbell
MUSCLE STRENGTH: Both free weights and resistance bands are great for building strength, however, if you want to get serious about lifting real heavy (I’m talking heavy deadlifts) then free weights are the king!
Winner: Dumbbell
MUSCLE ENDURANCE: What is this you say? This is the ability of your muscles to perform repetitions for a longer period of time. The greater the endurance, the higher number of reps you can do. Both help you develop muscular endurance but resistance bands provide constant tension. With resistance bands, you will have constant tension for the entire exercise, and that is great for maximizing muscular endurance.
Winner: Resistance bands
BURNING FAT: To burn fat, with resistance bands or free weights, all you have to do is make sure your heart rate is up for an entire workout. The exercises should be intense enough to challenge you, but not too heavy where you can’t continue with the exercises, or you can’t do the exercise with correct form. That said, a little rest is ok for a fat-burning workout, however, you can’t allow your heart rate to drop below a certain level, which depends on your age and max heart rate. Your fat-burning heart rate is usually around 60-70% of your max heart rate. To work out your max heart rate subtract your age from 220.
Winner: Both
Flexibility/Mobility/Stretching: With resistance bands, you can get deeper stretches and you can get into positions for joint mobilization and to increase your range of motion. There are a few ways to increase mobility with free weights, but there are countless ways to do it with bands. Bands are especially effective for shoulder and hip mobility. So, if you want to improve in these areas, resistance bands are essential.
Winner: Resistance bands
Balance and core Training: With free weights, you can load one side (unilateral training) and do exercises to really improve your balance. Nevertheless, you can also train balance with resistance bands by anchoring the bands so tension is pulling you to one side. It is however much simpler to train balance with weights as resistance bands require much more core stability and focus in order to control the bands, so in effect you can get an incredible core workout throughout your band workout.
Winner: both, however personally I would lean towards the bands
You can see there are incredible benefits of both, however, I also wanted to touch on a few more advantages that resistance band training has which will benefit your training and muscle building technique.
ADVANTAGES OF RESISTANCE BANDS.
LINEAR VARIABLE RESISTANCE: This means that the load progressively increases as the range of motion increases, for example in a bicep curl the resistance is easier at the bottom and harder than the top. As we lift the band the resistance closely matches the natural strength curl of our muscles. If we do a bicep curl with dumbbells we often swing or use our body weight to help us as the bottom, therefore ‘cheating’ the curl.
MULTIPLANE – RESISTANCE
With dumbbells, the majority of exercises we do, the resistance is created from gravity in a vertical plane, for example, a chest press you need to lie down in order to lift the dumbbells above your chest. With resistance bands the range of motion that exercises can be done in is greater, for example, the chest press can be done standing up using your core more to stabilize yourself. With this in mind resistance, bands are a great way to really improve your functional fitness.*
*Functional fitness is training that prepares the body for real-life movements and activities such as squatting, reaching, pulling, and lifting, they are those exercises that will help the mobility of your body in daily life.
HELPS TO IMPROVE STRENGTH WITH CONSTANT TENSION: With bands, time under tension is longer, for example, when doing a bicep curl with a dumbbell, as you curl the dumbbell up towards the shoulder, at the very top of the movement the dumbbell is literally falling towards the shoulder. This means that the tension on the biceps has been removed because the dumbbell is no longer being lifted up against gravity by the biceps. When doing a bicep curl with a resistance band, the tension is present throughout the entire range of motion because the elastic material provides constant resistance.
One of the benefits of this is that as the range of motion and resistance increases the number of muscle fibers being used increases which help to increase strength,
One thing to note with each type of training is that it is up to you to put the maximum effort in. In our STRENGTH training classes, it is easy to stay on the same dumbbells and not push yourself, however in the BURN classes it is easy to quickly move your hands to make the resistance easier, however, the BURN classes will give you a wider selection of heavy to light with resistance so you can really work the muscles.
To conclude, both complement each other. Neither is more elite over the other one, and it can ultimately boil down to personal preference. Personally, I am noticing greater changes with the mixture of the two. My core seems more engaged and switched on in the BURN classes, yet I love the feeling of lifting heavyweights in the STRENGTH classes. I guess the choice is your ladies!
Clo x
YOU WILL NEVER KNOW YOUR LIMITS UNTIL YOU PUSH YOURSELVES TO THEM