5 Potential Health Benefits of Resistance Band Training

Can strength training with a large rubber band really offer health benefits?

Absolutely.

Exercise resistance bands have become a go-to strength-training tool for both fitness veterans and newcomers. Bands are accessible, stored easily, and safe to use, says Steven E. Mayer, MD, a sports medicine physician at Northwestern Medicine in Naperville, Illinois.

The force you need to exert to stretch a resistance band works your muscles, similar to heavier dumbbells or exercise machines, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Here’s a look at five ways resistance bands can benefit health.

1. Resistance Band Training Can Strengthen Muscles

As a strength training tool, resistance bands can help you build strong muscles, making daily activities like picking up boxes and carrying groceries easier.

In fact, resistance bands may be just as effective for building strength as bulkier, more expensive exercise equipment. A review and meta-analysis of eight studies concluded that using elastic bands triggered similar strength gains as free weights and weight machines in people of all ages and experience levels.

Resistance bands may even have an edge over free weights.

When you use weights during a strength exercise, gravity may assist you as you lower the weight back to the starting position. Ideally, you’ll lower the dumbbell or kettlebell slowly. But it’s easy to cheat on this portion of the exercise and get “bouncy” as you move through reps, Dr. Mayer says.

When building strength, you’d like the muscle to become uniformly strong. “You don’t want to leave certain parts of the muscle weak or asymmetrical in strength,” Mayer says. The benefit of bands is they provide constant and increasing resistance as you move through the movement, helping strengthen the entire muscle through its full range of motion, he explains.

2. Resistance Band Training Can Help Prevent Muscle Loss

An upside of strengthening your muscles with resistance bands is you may keep age-related muscle loss (a condition known as sarcopenia) at bay.

“As you age, your muscles start to shrink,” says Charlie Goehl, a professor in the department of kinesiology at Elmhurst University in Illinois. This shrinkage begins around age 30, when we start losing roughly 3 to 5 percent of muscle mass per decade, per Harvard Health. Eventually, this muscle loss can limit mobility, lower quality of life, and increase the risk of falls and fall-related injuries, according to a review.

All types of resistance training help you stave off age-related muscle loss, Goehl says. But research specifically shows that in older adults who had already started to lose muscle, resistance band training was effective for stopping and reversing that loss. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 13 studies in older adults with sarcopenia reveals that multiple types of resistance training significantly improved muscle mass. And, training with a resistance band for 40 to 60 minutes more than three times per week for at least 12 weeks was the most efficient approach studied.

3. Resistance Band Training Can Help With Injury Recovery

Elastic bands are incredibly lightweight, making them a safer method for resistance training than gear like dumbbells and barbells. For one thing — and this applies to everybody — there’s less of a risk of injury if you drop them on your foot.

In addition, resistance bands are often found in rehabilitation settings to aid in recovery following an injury or surgery. One reason is it’s easier to increase and decrease resistance when using a band (simply shorten the band or grab a thicker band to increase tension, and lengthen or use a thinner band to decrease tension), versus guessing how much weight to put on a barbell, Mayer says.

Resistance bands are also included in many at-home rehabilitation programs because they’re more affordable and take up less space than other strength tools, making them a good option for many patients, Mayer notes.

4. Resistance Band Training Improves Heart Health

Cardiovascular workouts typically get all the credit for the heart-health benefits of exercise. But muscle-strengthening activities also improve blood pressure and reduce the risk of hypertension (high blood pressure) and heart disease, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

In fact, resistance training combined with aerobic exercise is more effective than aerobic exercise alone in heart disease rehabilitation, per a systematic review of 38 randomized controlled trials.

5. Resistance Band Training May Prolong Your Life

Resistance training (all types) may have life-extending benefits.

Consider this: After analyzing data collected from more than 80,000 people, researchers discovered that participating in any form and amount of strength training lowered the risk of death from any cause by 23 percent over an average 9.2-year follow-up period. Moreover, the risk of death from cancer was lowered by 31 percent. The results were published in October 2017 in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Based on their findings, the researchers recommend strength training at least 50 to 60 minutes per week — in addition to a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio per week — for greater longevity.