March 8, 2021

Big Gain Hunting with Heavy Resistance Bands

John Jaquish rests between sets of heavy resistance band squats
Heavy Band Resistance Workout

Have you ever performed heavy squats without touching a weight or visiting a gym? From a traditional weightlifting perspective, it sounds impossible.

But with heavy resistance bands, it’s entirely reasonable to build strength and lean muscle without leaving your home or pumping iron.

It’s no secret that if you want strength gains, you need to lift heavy. And yet, the simple approach of increasing reps or weight may have a detrimental effect, as lifting free weights overloads joints and underloads muscles.

By opting to use heavy-duty resistance bands with X3, you can perform heavy squats, deadlifts, chest presses, and other exercises to hit every major muscle group.

And do so safely.

To get a great workout without traditional weights, you need equipment that is both effective and versatile. The X3 allows you to perform critical strength-building exercises like chest presses, deadlifts, and squats.

You won’t be compromising on your gains either. The X3 bar will give you improved results in a drastically reduced time compared to using free weights.

With X3, you train with greater force to trigger Greater Gains

Heavy Resistance Bands Are Safe and Effective

Injuries are among the most significant obstacles to any workout routine.

Despite many efforts to avoid them, they remain all too common, and as you increase your weight, the risk of injury also increases.

Limits of Your Weakest Range

When you lift free weights, you use the same amount of weight throughout every part of the range of motion for each repetition. This holds true, regardless of the exercise you are doing.

However, your muscles have a different output capacity for the different ranges of a rep.

Consider the bench press: it is much easier to hold a heavy weight at full extension. You may not be able to maintain that same weight while your arms are fully contracted at the start of the rep.

That means the amount you can bench press with free weights is limited to what you can manage in the weakest part of each rep. When people fail to recognize the limits of their weakest range, joints and tendons pay the price.

The Benefits of Variable Resistance

Heavy-duty resistance bands are a better alternative because they offer variable resistance. variable resistance is what allows you to increase muscle activation1 while reducing the risk of injury.

When you are in your weakest range of a repetition, the bands stretch far less than they would at your strongest range, resulting in less tension.

In other words, the bands decrease the load on your joints when they are most vulnerable.

The resistance band’s tension increases as you perform the rep; therefore, your muscles carry the heaviest loads during the stronger ranges of each rep.

By ensuring the heaviest loads are only present in your strongest range, your joints will only be under higher loads in the positions where they can more safely handle them.

Thus, with heavy resistance bands, your weakest range is no longer a limitation.

Band Squats Make for Bigger Gains

Using heavy duty resistance bands is not just about safety.

Heavy bands build muscle, pure and simple. So don’t be surprised when you see more significant gains with variable resistance. Variable resistance training like X3 bar has been shown to increase strength faster than traditional weightlifting.

<Strong>Stabilization Releases Growth Hormone</Strong>

Human Growth Hormone promotes muscle growth. So, it comes as no surprise that those looking to gain size take exogenous growth hormones to supplement their bodies naturally. However, supplementing with exogenous hormones is often illegal and can have unintended consequences.

Fortunately, there are safer ways to increase growth hormone in your body: namely stabilization exercises.

These movements activate the body’s stabilizer muscles. During exercises like band squats, small muscles throughout the body are activated to maintain stability.

Stabilization exercises trigger the release of Human Growth Hormone. Traditional barbell squats have the same effect, but to a lesser extent.

A study 2in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research supports this notion by showing that those who squat produce more growth hormone than their leg pressing counterparts.

So how do bands cause the body to release more HGH than weights?

Variable resistance training tools like X3 use heavy bands to place higher forces on muscles than would be achieved with weights and require the exerciser to self- stabilize during the workout. This results in reflexive muscle activation and promotes HGH release.

In one resistance band squat, X3 users may put the muscles under 60–120 seconds of constant tension even while they also experience higher peak forces on every rep than would be provided by their one-rep max with weights.

Try doing that with weights. Better yet, save your joints and try X3 Bar.

Resistance Band Deadlifts Are Safer

A man rests after injuring his knee
Knee Injuries from Heavy Squats

There are numerous reasons why deadlifts can cause injuries3 . You can avoid many of those injuries by swapping your barbell for an X3 bar.

When performing a deadlift with traditional static weights, there is a tremendous amount of pressure on your lower back in the weakest ranges of the exercise. Furthermore, you don’t get much time under tension as the weight is often lifted quickly to move through the weak range.

With X3, you can perform a resistance band deadlift that reduces that pressure while simultaneously increasing your load at the top of the rep to increase strength and muscle gains 4. Plus, you can greatly increase your time under tension to maximize results.

Resistance Bands—Better Than Bench Pressing

Variable resistance training is also superior when it comes to bench pressing. Again, the main issue relates to the limitations of your weakest range.

The X3 band chest press produces a tremendous amount of force in the strong range, spurring an incredible amount of growth.

You already know that variable resistance training relieves pressure on your joints within the weakest range, but it also allows you to hold heavier loads in impact-ready positions.

By leveraging bands instead of a loaded barbell, you are triggering more muscle growth because you are holding heavier loads than you ever could with free weights—and for a much longer duration.

Furthermore, with the X3, you ensure that you are fatiguing your muscles in every range of the repetition, which means you are maximizing muscle growth.

If set up correctly, you will reap all of these great benefits in a single brief set.

Build Muscle With Heavy-Duty Resistance Bands

John Jaquish performs a resistance band chest press
Resistance Band Chest Press

Heavy resistance bands can safely and effectively expedite your muscle growth.

Just ensure that you use the X3 Bar when you’re training with heavy duty resistance bands. Using resistance bands alone is typically ineffective and often unsafe. This is because good exercise results require very high force resistance bands. Suppose you grip those bands directly without a resistance band barbell interface like X3. In that case, those high forces will twist relatively delicate joints like the wrists, leading to neural inhibition (reduced ability to recruit muscle), and in the worst case, injuries.

If you have any questions about the X3, visit the Support section of our website or visit the X3 Users Group on Facebook.

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