I'm With the BAND....

     Hello All!

     It appears here in ol' Vancouver, sporadic monsoon season is upon us ( lasting for the next 365 days), so that begs the question- what do you do when it's raining so heavily that leaving your home could cost you an eyeball? Well..you can workout at home of course! And that blog title isn't because I'm an ex-groupie ( or am I?), it's because the band is honestly, a kick-ass piece of equipment that you can tailor an entire 30-60 minute workout with.

Small, inexpensive ( $5-$15) and incredibly diverse, the band ( also known as the resistance band) is often seen being used by personal trainers and fitness professionals to get their clients long, lean, solid muscles-without adding bulk. The reason the band is so effective is because of its continous tension on the muscle(s). While performing an exercise with the band, your muscles are taken through their entire range of motion while struggling against its' opposing force. The difference between the bands' effectiveness and that of free weights, is that with free weights, you struggle against the weight during the exertion phase ( ie- dumbell raise, upward) and comply with gravity, relaxing the muscle on the downward phase.

To make things simple and lose the trainer jargon, let's  for example, say you are doing a tricep kickback with weights for 1 minute- you do your kick back ( 2 seconds) then you return to your starting position(2 seconds). At the end of the minute, you've worked your triceps for 30 seconds, using the rest of the time to return to starting position between repititions.

Now, lets say you are doing a tricep kickback using the band- both the kickback phase and the return phase are "time under tension" (engaging the muscle), so at the end your minute you have worked your triceps for the whole minute!

Now- the band has a plethora of exercises besides the Plain Jane bicep curl and tricep kickback examples I gave. As I mentioned before, you can devise a whole workout around the band, and because you wont have to trot between equipment, you can cut down your workout time! An efficient 30 minute workout with the band with have you saying      " The gym is thatta way.. Actually I lied, its over there... Actually, there is no gym here I just love my arms" in no time!

Here is a link to some amazing band exercises! Scroll down and there is a cartoon fella' doing the exercises, along with a guide to what band you should be using.

http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/resistance-band-exercises.html

Love love love and some almonds,

Sasha