DazeBlog

Heck, Brady gets it too.I was like every other American kid, Brady tells Men's Health . I believed if you want to get good, you gotta go squat and bench, and its all I ever did.

Not since hes started training with Alex Guerrero. For the last several years, Bradys moved bands ahead of dumbbells, kettlebells and barbells in his fitness pecking order, and both he and Guerrero say they love using bands for functional, athletic moves.

Mainstream media, limited in its fitness understanding and subject to gym stereotypes (ya gotta lift!) assumes its some kind of sales gimmick, but, truth be told, resistance bands actually do deliver their share of fitness advantages. Thats why youll frequently see me using them in my own workouts my Eb and Swole series , and its why resistance bands now hang in almost every CrossFit box in America.

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The narrative around resistance bands has changed. Brady gets it. Heres what you need to know about them, too. (And if you want some bands, grab them here.)

Bands Offer Variable Resistance

Heres the best thing about resistance bands: Theyre offer uniquely inconsistent resistance. At the bottom, when youre starting a rep with a band, you feel almost know resistance. As you reach the top of a rep, flexing the muscle youre working the hardest, the band is suddenly at its tensest.

This quality of resistance bands is partly why theyre low-impact; when youre muscles not working, neither are the bands. (Weights, meanwhile, never stop offering resistance, so when your muscles relax, your joints must still bear that load.)

Variable resistance offers unique qualities with banded training, something youll see in the resistance band kneeling fly variation below. The core challenge you get with bands doing this fly is impossible to achieve with free weights, or even a standard weighted cable machine.

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