BUILD BIGGER AND BETTER BACK MUSCLES USING RESISTANCE BANDS
Resistance Band Training expert James Grage gave up the gym completely more than 2.5 years ago. No weights, no machines. He made the decision to train exclusively with Resistance Bands, and he hasn't looked back. Feeling stronger and healthier than ever, he is here to give you some great tips on how you can build bigger and better back muscles duplicating any gym exercise using resistance bands. Follow along as he thoroughly explains each original free weight exercise and the resistance band equivalent, giving you the freedom to take your workouts wherever you want!
ENGAGING LATS
When it comes to all around strength and stability, stronger lats means bigger lifts. Since your lats cross multiple joints, they play a key role in not only stabilizing your rib cage and shoulder but your hips and pelvis as well. So when it comes to certain strength movements, if you have weak lats, you’re leaving massive strength gains on the table. Your lats not only bring your arm down toward your body, but they also help bring your arm backwards. As shown in the video above, if you were to supinate (turn palms up) your hands and come low near your hips with your elbows locked, you can now see that your arms are coming behind your body. Which is a different way to engage your lats.
To really work those lats, grab your dumbbells, turn your palms up, and bring those elbows back.
DUMBBELL HIGH ROW
To properly perform this exercise, make sure your palms are down, and your elbows are wide. Hold that squeeze at the top, and control the eccentric throughout. As you can see from Grage's elbow position, instead of staying tight to his body and coming backwards, his elbows are now high and going wide. Why is that? That is simply because you are working your upper and middle back. So you are especially working your Rhomboid and your Trapezius. Now, a lot of people do shrugs when training traps. But our traps don't just shrug our shoulders up, they pull our shoulders back. Which is what gives you a lot of that thickness in the middle back that you're looking for.
RESISTANCE BAND EQUIVALENT
The innate versatility of resistance bands is partially due to their linear variable resistance. This means that as you stretch a band, it gets heavier. The farther you stretch it, the more tension you feel, and the more force you need to use to keep it taut. Interestingly, this aspect of resistance band training happens to be one of the most beneficial in terms of gaining muscle. Because the band increases in weight the further you stretch it, any given resistance band exercises’ resistance pattern matches the natural strength curve of our muscles.
Anchor the band under your feet, grab low on the band, with your chin up and chest out to properly perform the exercise. and remember, the more you stretch the band, the more resistance you will create. You can create more resistance by shortening the length of the band by widening your stance, or by simply grabbing lower on the band.
RESISTANCE BAND HIGH ROW
Anchor the band under your feet. Elbows nice and wide, make sure you really squeeze those shoulder blades together and pull your elbows back. A key benefit of using resistance bands for building muscle is their ability to work in multiple planes. With free weights, resistance only applies in one vertical plane—That’s due to gravity.With bands, we’re not confined to gravity’s pull on a dumbbell to feel that resistance. The bands themselves are the resistance. Stand up, lay down, it doesn’t matter. In pulling the band, we can achieve the tension we need to build muscle in any plane. With no restrictions, or limitations the opportunities are endless with Undersun Resistance Bands!
