Strike Up the Bands (and Tubes)
Strike Up the Bands (and Tubes)
You can do practically a full-body workout using stretchercisers—various styles of oversized elastic bands, cords, or tubes with or without loops or handles. These are portable, easy to use, inexpensive, and effective strength-training aids. Bands are flat pieces of elastic rubber with various resistance levels. Some come premade into loops;others need to be knotted for exercises that require loops. Exertubes are elastic tubes,usually with handles, that also come in various strengths. Less elasticity requires more strength and vice versa. Both types are color-coded so that their relative resistance is easy to identify. Just as you use different weights for different exercises, you may find yourself using different elasticities. You also can increase the amount of force required for an exercise by shortening a band.
Bands and tubes are extremely versatile because you can do versions of various curls,presses, leg lifts, leg raises, and other stretchercises. They work the muscles when both stretching and releasing the tension—which, if you recall, is one of the benefits touted of expensive, gym-quality pneumatic and hydraulic strength-training apparatus.Exercising with bands or tubes mimics weight training, because they come in varying degrees of stretchability and require commensurate amounts of effort. Unlike iron weights, however, you can’t precisely define how much resistance you are using when you are working with elastic. In other words, a 10-pound weight weighs 10 pounds, but a band offers relatively easy, moderate, or challenging resistance, and it can change as the band begins to wear. Before you begin working with any kind of “stretcherciser,”check the band or tube for wear, especially in a gym, where it may get a lot of use.SPRI Products sells several styles of stretchercisers: Xertube, Xercise Band, Can-Do Xercise Band, the Door Strap, the Xercuff, the Xering, and even the Step Tube, which’s designed for use with a step routine. Most sell for less than $10.