Exercise Bands

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by JBF Mentor Meredith on February 9, 2010 at 11:30pm

YES - There are exercise modifications / substitutions at the end of the book for use with bands - they start on pg 71. TB will stand for Tension Band, which is the exercise you will want to select.

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Permalink Reply by John Mulcahy on February 16, 2010 at 11:55pm

Absolutely. I use bands from Bodylastics. You can do pretty well any exercise with them that you would normally do with free weights or machines. You might have to problem solve around some leg exercises, but it can most definitely be done.

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Permalink Reply by Markku Niilo-Rämä on February 18, 2010 at 6:30am

I have used adjustable weight dumbells and a regular bench for a very long time and that is sufficient.

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Permalink Reply by JBF Coach Sarah on February 25, 2010 at 8:13am

Finally got one myself - to do assisted chin-ups on the P90X bar (hubby has the videos but never uses them, the bar however is good) - help! 3-2-1 reps only! But it's a start, I'll nail them yet!

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Permalink Reply by JBF Mentor Meredith on February 25, 2010 at 12:17pm

You'll get them - they just take practice, and lots of it. It's taken me over a year and a half (almost 2 years) to get up to 6 un-assisted (finally broke my 5 plateau last week!)

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Permalink Reply by JBF Coach Sarah on February 25, 2010 at 5:56pm

Yayy! Good for you :)

I've been trying the bench-assisted, jump-up and doing negatives only ... if the elastic help doesn't do it I'll just stick to pulldowns and rows :)

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Permalink Reply by Markku Niilo-Rämä on February 25, 2010 at 11:12pm

I personally use a Gymstick which is a pole with exercise bands when I'm on holiday and can't go to a gym.
A really cool thing about Gymstick is that you can change the resistance of the stick by rotating the stick so your workouts are more effective. http://www.gymstick.net/

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Permalink Reply by JBF Coach Sarah on February 26, 2010 at 8:30am

Looked them up. A trainer I work with had taken their workshop at a local fitness convention a couple of weeks ago and liked it; except the price :) they do look better than just the bands ...

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Permalink Reply by Markku Niilo-Rämä on February 26, 2010 at 1:39pm

I would rather get something that works.. and the difference in price compared to a product that doesn't work so well is probably less than a price of a meal in a restaurant.. or maybe you'd rather eat at McDonalds a couple of times instead ;)

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Permalink Reply by John Mulcahy on February 26, 2010 at 6:19pm

The Gymstick looks pretty good, but I believe bands can be just as good or better.

I think when most people think of exercise tubes/bands, they are referring to the single bands that Walmart and others sell. I agree that Gymstick is definitely superior to those. However, when I talk about tubes/bands, I'm talking about a high quality product with very high levels of resistance - much higher that Gymstick's max resistance of only 30lbs - at least that seems to be it's max as far as I could tell looking at the website.

Two examples of bands that are, in my opinion, as equally effective as Gymstick, if not better, are:

Lifeline Gym
Comes with a bar - same as Gymstick - but the Lifeline one is collapsible so the whole thing can be stuck in a backpack for transport. Is Gymstick's? Thinking about convenience of transport if not traveling in your own car.
Can roll the tubes around the bar to increase resistance - same as Gymstick
Can attach multiple tubes to the bar (there are 5 I think) for even greater resistance - possible with Gymstick?
Resistance tops out at around 200lbs or so if memory serves. Haven't looked at their website in a couple of years. - Gymstick only goes to 30 as far as I can tell.

Bodylastics
No bar - Gymstick is better in this aspect. I'd like to seem Bodylastics come out with some kind of bar similar to the one Lifeline has. All the same, I imagine it might be not all that hard to rig one up.
Multiple bands - just one for Gymstick as far as I can tell.
Resistance tops out at 127lbs PER ARM when using all 7 tubes. Link both hooks on all 7 tubes to one handle and you can go to 254lbs for one arm (good luck with that) - is Gymstick's 30lb max per arm or total(15lbs per arm)?

Sorry if I sound like I'm ranting a bit.
Can be stuck in a backpack

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Permalink Reply by JBF Coach Sarah on February 27, 2010 at 6:40am

From what I saw on the web site, there is a line of Gymsticks that is telescopic, so I suppose it's a question of what you can afford: the basic straight stick, or the collapsible.

I still prefer weights :)

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Permalink Reply by Markku Niilo-Rämä on February 28, 2010 at 4:53am

I really don't know how you can do 7mm effectively with rubber bands - how can you really monitor how much weight you use.. Gymstick is handy if on holiday and there is no gym available but I really can't do 7mm..
I prefer adjustable weights and a basic weightbench. The only things you need besides them is a pull up bar and an exercise ball (not essential if not enough room) and maybe a handy push up contraption (handles which you can rotate as you are doing your push ups).
If you have those things 7mm is completely doable. Jon Benson disagrees with this in his 7mm book but I think he is wrong :).

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