| Lifting weights and other means of resistance training can help athletes improve their sports fitness level. Rubber bands are great tools for helping athletes improve strength in weight lifting training. These tools have many uses like stretching, adding resistance and reducing resistance.It is quite often that beginner level athletes do not have enough strength to perform body-weight movements like dips and pull-ups. These are great exercises for athletes to perform to build size and strength. These exercises also force the body to recruit many other stabilizing muscles that would not be recruited by using machines or other non-body weight movements. I am a firm believer in using movements that make the whole body go through space for developing size, strength and functional power. Rubber bands allow beginner athletes to use these body-weight movements by assisting power to the range of motion. When the athlete puts a part of their body into the rubber band the band stretches to accommodate the athletes weight. As the athlete performs the movement the band shortens and helps the athlete complete the motion. The stretching of the rubber band acts like a spring that is pushed down and then allowed to uncoil and provide energy. For example on a pull up an athlete can attach a rubber band to the bar on a pull up station then let the other end hang down. The athlete can then put their knee or foot into the band and stretch it. By performing the pull up the band will shorten and add assistance power for the athlete similar to having a spotter push the athlete up. The opposite can be done for advanced and very strong athletes by adding resistance. For example, a rubber band can be put around the shoulders and the hands. When the athlete does the push up the band stretches and it adds resistance to the motion. This can also be done on dips by putting the band around the athlete's waist and then attaching the band to a fixed or very heavy object on the floor. As the athlete lowers their body down into the stretched portion of the dip the rubber band will shorten. When the athlete pushes and contracts to move the body up in the air the rubber band will stretch and add resistance. The great thing about rubber bands is that they come in all different resistance levels. There are bands strong enough to assist up to 140 kg, and ones small enough to assist only 1 kg. This is great for all different types of athletes and can be helpful for the very overweight beginning athlete to the ones who are almost ready to use their body weight with no assistance. Color: - Red (resistance 1-30kg)
- Yellow (resistance 4-40kg)
- Blue (resistance 6-60kg)
- Green (resistance 15-80kg)
- Orange (resistance 25-140kg)
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