It's time to Rock out with your bandout!

Resistance bands are a great way to increase your muscular strengthand are the perfect addition to any strength training routine. Theyand come in a variety of sizes, lengths, and strengths and you cando this whenever and wherever you want.
This portable exercise equipment is also easily stored, making itperfect for home use, hotel workouts, or when you’re tight on spaceat the gym.

Resistance band exercises are widely used by a variety of healthand fitness practitioners - both for general strength andconditioning and rehabilitation or injury prevention.

Resistance band exercises are ideal for home exercise programs andcan easily be incorporated into a circuit training format helpingto condition cardiovascular system as well as strengtheningspecific muscle groups. Because resistance tubing is so compact andlightweight, it can be used while away from home.

Resistance tubing is extremely adaptable and a large number ofresistance band exercises can be developed with very littleadditional equipment. Smaller muscle groups that are hard to trainwith more traditional free weight exercises can be targeted withresistance tubing. This makes it particularly appealing to athleticconditioning.

Sports-specific conditioning involves training movements ratherthan individual muscle groups. The versatility of resistance bandexercises allows the athlete to mirror very closely the movementpatterns in their sport with varying degrees of resistance. Perhapseven more important is the role they can play in injury preventionand rehabilitation...

Resistance Band Exercises for Injury Prevention &Rehabilitation
Few studies have examined the effects of resistance band exerciseson strengthening a specific muscle group. As a result no definiteguidelines exist as to the number of sets, repetitions and amountof resistance that should be used. However, many health and fitnesspractitioners use resistance tubing routinely to prevent andrehabilitate overuse injuries by strengthening often smaller,neglected muscle groups.

For example, athletic movements such as a baseball pitch can placeconsiderable demand on the posterior rotator cuff muscles (externalrotators, supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor). These musclesundergo eccentric contraction during the declaration phase of thepitch (1,2), which places considerable strain on the shoulder(3,4). However, the same muscles may not be effectively worked withtraditional isotonic exercises (5). If larger muscle groups, suchas the deltoids, become stronger and are able to cope with andapply greater force, this may further compromise the rotator cuffmuscles.

A program of resistance band exercises to compliment regularstrength training may be able to improve the strength of moreisolated muscle groups such as the rotator cuff (5,6).Additionally, training these otherwise neglected muscles may evenimprove performance (6).

Resistance Band Exercises
Of course resistance band exercises can be used for more thansimply strengthening more isolated muscle groups. The exercisesbelow work the major muscle groups are only a small sample of themany hundreds of variations that have been devised.

Athletes may want to incorporate them into an off season trainingprogram when recovery and regeneration is the most importantgoal.

Resistance bands are available in a range of colors that relate totheir stiffness or resistance. Color-coding varies between thebrands but it typically as follows:

Yellow (thin)
Red (medium)
Green (heavy)
Blue (extra heavy)
Black (special heavy)
Silver (super heavy)