Resistance Bands?

[groundartist]

I tried doing a search, and it's not come up very much recently - just a few mentions.

I wanna start incorporating them into my workouts. I want to improve pulling and punching strength, would bands be a viable addition? As for now I do a few sled pulls and climbing, tire/hammer and med ball exercises, they are the closest things I think I can do to get improvements in those fields.

Any input is appreciated, if feedback permit it being a good idea, would anyone have particular brand or dealer where I could order some from, Thanks.

 

[Klotz]

I've read that punching with a resistance band isn't a good training method because it gets you used to punching slowly. As for strength, I'd recommend training with heavy weights first before you go to bands. Have you read the FAQ? It's got some good stuff.

 

[Green Monkey]

Bands are fine for training pulls, but it would be tricky to train punching with them unless you have some past experience with bands.

The point is that you will most likely tend to focus on the resistance of the band and how to overcome that rather than focusing on making your punches explosive.

Especially if you're training alone, it's going to be pretty hard to focus on maintaining explosive punches rather than grinding them out against the perceived "weight" of the bands.

The best approach would be to use micro bands that you would be able to ignore while you continued to spar or work the bag as you normally would. The gains would have to come in very small increments.

One other problem is that the bands would also tend to limit your punching ROM (length of your arm while punching). With larger/more resistant bands, you'd have a hard time fully extending the punch, which is where you get most of your power. Not sure that would become a muscle memory-type habit, but it's likely that it could.

Instead, why not just focus on getting your core and legs stronger and more explosive since that's where most of your power will actually come from?

 

[groundartist]

Thanks guys, I guess I have a hard time following other peoples circuits - I love ross and some of the other articles I've read - but I think I am a bit hard headed and want to get other opinions. Thanks for the great input, my initial worry was about the resistance bands screwing with my muscle memory and overall follow through and range.

I'll check the FAQ and lurk around more to find some info - hopefully improve my circuit.

 

[Poseidon9]

My favorite exercise to do with resistance bands are explosive snap-downs. Those, combined with weighted russian twists, have helped TREMENDOUSLY with my rotational strength which translates excellently to throws and punches.