Bodybuilding

There are plenty of benefits to working out at home. The convenience of being able to out on your terms and turf goes a long way — wear what you want (or wear nothing at all), listing or watch whatever you want without having to worry about someone complaining to the manager. But the largest set back to working out at home is the amount of money you will have to put to properly equip your home facility. Of course, there are ways around this, but you will still want to make sure you have the right tools.

For home-gym beginners and veterans alike, one of the necessary weapons in your home-gym arsenal must include core-strength training equipment. Most people immediately think of the balance/exercise/Swiss ball. While this piece of equipment certainly has its merits, core is by no means all-inclusive. With core training becoming more and more vital to proper weight loss and fitness workouts, home-gym afficionados would be wise to invest in body bands which enhances strength in other areas.

Most, if not all popular brands of bands (also called tubing) have different resistance levels, but you will have to buy several sets. For example, an orange band might make for more resistance and a blue band for less. The different colors typically have different tubing thickness, which is really where the resistance levels come into play. Regardless of the resistance coding, to properly equip your home facility with the bands, you should stock more than one resistance type in order to add variety and completeness to your workout.

Higher-end brands are manufactured with clips. This means one set of grips and a variety of bands so that you change your resistance band from one level to another, or even add several resistance bands to your grips of an ultimate workout. Although having the flexibility to change bands certainly proves to be a benefit, it also allows you to stick with one set of grips for all of your workouts instead of having to switch from one pair to another. This, of course might be nothing more than a personal preference. Here are some other considerations:

The benefits of elastic resistance over traditional free weights is that the bands eliminate the joint pain that traditionally follows a good, deep free weight session. As well, there is no momentum with elastic bands as the resistance increases as the elastic stretches. By the way, it is this momentum that leads to free weight injuries.

Compared to bow resistance that machines like the Bowflex use, elastic resistance is more direct. Does this matter? To some, it might. For the same reasons that some bodybuilders will not use Nautilus-type equipment at the fitness center, some might prefer the elastic over bow resistance machines. The reasons might vary depending on personal opinions, but the similarity between the two is that the bow machines use fly wheels and pulley systems just as those machines at the gym use. Therefore, it is save to conclude that some prefer a more direct workout. Just as the free weights provide a more direct workout, so do the bands.

A third and final comparison can be drawn to gravity workouts and systems. While gravity provides great resistance whether with pull-ups, sit-ups, etc., the weight is consistent. In other words, your body weight does not change throughout your set and you will be pushing or pulling the same weight regardless of your range. With bands, the more the tubing stretches, the more the resistance increases. This means that your muscle encounters greater resistance at its weakest point; when it is fully stretched. As a result, with bands you can improve strength and build more muscle.

FitChimp.com recommends the Bodylastics system. Even at $45.95, Bodylastics provides a comprehensive system of four bands and up to 44 lbs of resistance per side. The costliest system costs $99.81 and comes with an additional four bands and up to 127 lbs of resistance. Regardless of the system you choose, you will certainly enjoy a more comprehensive strength workout at home.