Author: Laura B Cornely, NASM Certified Personal Trainer
Introduction
So, there are many health professionals who have addressed the whole “Weights vs Resistance Bands” debate. Instead of trying to prove which is better, I would like to help shed some light on their individual benefits and mention what to be aware of regarding the two. I want to help make clear the science behind each method and the physiological response your body has to either of them. Looking at your personal fitness level and athletic pursuits, decide which benefits you prefer to take advantage of. So, first thing first, what does physiological mean?
Health & Wellness
Weight and Resistance Band Training : What’s the Difference? on the type of stress or force we put on any particular muscle or muscle group. When applying stress to a part of the body in exercise, muscle fibers contract or shorten when generating force and then relax or lengthen when releasing that force. Both weights and resistance bands create levels of force through movement and exercise.
For example, imagine you are doing a squat to overhead press with one dumbbell in each hand, or while standing on a resistance band and holding the handle on either side. Throughout the initial descent of the squat with dumbbells, the weight is positioned by your shoulders in preparation for the over head press and that weight is essentially added to your body weight.
When using resistance bands, a line of pull is created to your feet connecting the bands resistance to the surface you are standing on and doesn’t really add anything to your body weight. Now on the way up from the squat into the press, the challenge is in the weight of the dumbbells against gravity being overcome by the force generated in your shoulder and upper back muscles pushing upward until your arms are straight over head at completion.
You may notice a short period of rest or relief at the end of the press. When coming up into the press with resistance bands, you begin pushing up against gravity and the band adds additional force downward as it stretches to provide its challenge and upon completion of the motion overhead, your muscles are isometrically contracting. his means force is still being generated against the pull of the band without movement in the arms. The same occurs with the dumbbells, however, the stress is on your extremity or hand and not throughout your arm in the downward direction.
This all basically means that free weights or dumbbells provide the same level of force throughout a motion and resistance bands provide a changing level of force throughout a motion as the band stretches. What does this all mean? This distinction between weights and resistance bands affects our physiology in different ways. Weight, which causes a consistent force on our muscles, causes the force generated by the contraction of those muscle fibers to remain at a particular maximum.
With resistance bands, those muscle fibers generate more force the further the band is stretched. When exercising using free weights like dumbbells, you are able to strengthen muscles in one dimension or plane, creating slack or allowing targeted muscles to rest during certain parts of a motion.
Resistance bands are flexible and therefore a multi-dimensional pull throughout movement forcing the target muscle group to work at all points of the exercise.
As previously mentioned, when exercising, results are gained after muscle fibers generate enough force to surpass that of the weights or resistance bands. Weights tend to allow for a great potential for muscle gain as weights are heavier than bands and therefore are likely cause more micro tears because of a larger stress that will heal and build strength.
Benefits of Both Sides
This method of building strength with weights is especially effective regarding muscular hypertrophy. Hypertrophy is the increase of cellular mass which causes muscles to grow larger and therefore improves muscular potential.
Resistance bands more so assist in improving muscle activation for everyday functional movements while weights assist in building maximum muscle potential in order to increase muscle mass.
Both forms of exercise have potential to add variety to an exercise routine, and each has its specific benefits and level of convenience when implemented.
Our bodies are up for the challenge either way. From personal experience, resistance bands seem to be more convenient in improving muscular endurance, as weights are more advantageous for muscular strength. Muscular endurance is defined as how many times or for how long someone can perform aparticular action against resistance.
Muscular strength is defined as how much resistance someone can lift, pull or push. Although both muscular endurance and strength are gained through using either weights or resistance bands, the shape and mass of weights favors building strength through a particular movement and the shape and size of bands favor keeping muscles contracted throughout an entire movement building endurance.
Muscular Strength and Endurance
To better understand the difference between the two, think of the difference between squeezing a rubber ball in the palm of your hand trying to make it as flat as possible(strength) and then compare that to the feeling of squeezing that rubber ball for as long as you can. Which do you think is harder? Depends on your perspective. Both types of muscular efficiency are important when exercising and contribute to being at your best level of health.
There are many physical and mental benefits to improving your muscular strength and endurance. The physical benefits are of course easier to track and include; adding ease to you day to day activities like lifting boxes or other objects, being less likely to have injuries, weight loss, grabbing and holding knobs and doors, and strengthening your muscles and even your bones.
The mental benefits are; increasing your confidence and mood, and giving you a sense of achievement when you consistently challenge yourself and see improvements. It’s difficult to say which is better not only because you can accomplish different objectives using either, but also because there’s overlap.im some of their benefits. It’s neither all black or white.
How it all comes together
The human body was created so intricately and wonderfully so that all of our body systems are connected. There are several things happening at once in motions as simple as a step and motions as multifaceted as a burpee.
Ultimately, it is our responsibility to remain knowledgeable and careful with the choices we make concerning our own health and wellness. Being well and healthy is definitely connected to how we exercise, but is in no way limited to that alone. Diet, rest and mental health are all key to maintaining and improving our physical health.
With that foundation, its also helpful to recover regularly as an athlete or active person. Stretching regularly and massage therapy will complete your overall health care and improve muscle activation while strengthening. Knowing the benefits and advantages of these different tools and systems lay the foundation to help us add variety and efficiency to our health and wellness lifestyle regimen.
Disclaimer: All information published on this site is for educational purposes only.
Do not attempt without your physician’s clearance. If you are in pain or injured, see your physician.
Sources
- https://www.google.com/search?q=physiological+definition&oq=physiological+&aqs=chrome.1.6 9i57j0l3.5052j1j7&client=ms-android-mpcs-us-revc&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8 – Definition
- https://www.livestrong.com/article/449239-what-is-happening-during-a-bicep-curl/
- https://www.verywellhealth.com/isometric-muscle-contraction-31203544. https://www.ryanandalex.com/blog/resistance-band-benefits/
- https://www.healthline.com/health/muscular-hypertrophy#how-to
- https://www.google.com/search?q=hypertrophy+definition&oq=hyp&aqs=chrome.0.35i39j69i57j0l2j69i60.1520j1j7&client=ms-android-mpcs-us-revc&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8 -Definition
- https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/physical-activity/muscular-strength-and endurance.
