Exercise Bands Build REAL Muscle—If Used Correctly

Erik Janicki knows how to use exercise bands to their fullest potential.

Exercise bands provide a welcome additional method to take charge of our own fitness destiny via strength training. Performing the same exercise—let’s say as an example, dumbbell extensions for triceps—using bands instead of dumbbells gives a whole new feel and refreshes the experience obtained from that exercise.

I like dumbbells. I use dumbbells. But dumbbells are dead weight and must be managed carefully to obtain the best results and limit the stress placed on joints—elbows, in the case of extensions for triceps. Performing the exact movement with exercise bands provides a smoother ride. and the flexation of the triceps at the point of fullest extension is more satisfying with less stress on the elbow joint.

Practice makes perfect, and learning how to best utilize exercise bands is no exception. Bands allow a fluid arc of movement and full extensions not allowed by dead-weight dumbbells due to one’s need to balance and control the dead-weight dumbbell.

Since I began exploring the potential of bands a year ago I have watched, and been mostly disappointed by, exercise band videos on YouTube. The instructors are not using them correctly or to their full potential. Rather than stepping on the band with your feet to anchor the band in order to perform biceps curls, for example, it is far more productive and challenging to use a door anchor. There’s only one way to perform biceps curls with the exercise band if anchoring the band by stepping on it with your feet; there are about a dozen ways to do biceps curls utilizing a door anchor. BIG DIFFERENCE.

Erik Janicki is the only YouTube instructor who uses bands to their fullest muscle-building potential and his explanations are clear and concise. Janicki is very advanced, so if you are not, go slow in mimicking his methods. If I run across any additional YouTube people who have mastered the use of these inexpensive muscle-building tools I will post them here.

Erik Janicki uses exercise bands for a killer shoulder workout.