Strength coaches regularly use bands for strength, speed, and power development. Bands are hooked onto a bar to increase tension at the top end of the motion range for squat and bench press activities.
Other tools are available for increasing and reducing resistance, such as the 1080 Sprint. However, most teams and clubs don’t have one, and it can be difficult to cycle an entire team through one piece of equipment. Whereas, bands are easy to use and you can set a whole team up on them fairly quickly.
Bands are an excellent tool for developing strength, speed, and power because they provide more resistance than other equipment. In this article, we will outline the benefits of using bands to increase resistance during training and improve an athlete’s performance.
Advantages of Bands for Strength, Speed, and Power
- Band training is convenient and easy to use. Bands are portable, don’t take up much room, and can be set up anywhere, including when a team is training at a gym or sports grounds away from home.
- Band training is cost-effective. While there’s a variety of equipment you can use for speed and power development, bands are inexpensive compared to other options like heavy weights or 1080 Sprint, or other comparable devices.
- Bands cover a wide range of exercises that can target multiple muscle groups throughout the body. This means you’ll be able to work on power development from multiple angles—not just one isolated area—to build strength for all parts of your body related to athletic performance such as sprinting or jumping ability.
- Band exercises provide an excellent warm-up before starting your workout routine because they activate muscles before engaging them in heavier lifting sessions later on.
When it comes to speed training, bands are useful for:
- Increasing an athlete’s acceleration from a standing start, especially when an athlete is having to accelerate quickly out of a cut or change in direction.
- Helping an athlete to improve their stability and power when a band is forcing an athlete to change direction.
- Speed can be broken down into two components: acceleration and top speed. Acceleration is the ability to develop maximum velocity in a minimum amount of time, while top speed is how fast you can run a given distance at maximum velocity. Both are important for running performance and power development; however, it’s important to note that both require different types of training in order to achieve optimal results.
- Acceleration training is commonly done with band resistance during sprinting drills or acceleration exercises like jumping rope or medicine ball throws because these exercises challenge athletes’ ability to accelerate against an external load (in this case, the band). These exercises allow athletes to train their muscles for movements at faster speeds than they normally would be able to do without additional resistance by using bands as an external force that limits their movement until they overcome it.
- Ultimately, when it comes to speed training, coaches want athletes to achieve the most energy effective unilateral power development possible. Unilateral power is when an athlete can place a foot on the ground and change direction quickly, allowing for rapid deceleration and reacceleration in a different direction. For athletes in almost every sport, this is a game-changing move, as speed and power when changing direction can make a massive difference to the outcome of a competitive game. Athletes with more unilateral power have an advantage over those that don’t.
Using Bands for Power and Strength Training
Bands can be used to increase an athlete’s core strength. Bands also provide an increased range of motion that allows for greater gains in muscle hypertrophy and motor unit control. In addition to this, bands provide an unstable surface which forces your muscles to contract harder than they would with a stable surface.
One way to do this is to perform push presses with bands around the knees or ankles. This will help improve your athletes’ vertical jumps by improving the speed of each repetition and moving more weight faster than they would otherwise be able to do without bands (or any other assistance).
Bands are incredibly useful for helping athletes to learn to change vectors quickly. Most sports aren’t linear or lateral — athletes need to move forwards, backwards, stop, start, and change direction and vectors at a variety of angles. Bands help athletes to achieve this range of motion more easily, giving coaches another valuable training tool.
Speed and Power Training shouldn’t be boring; mix it up!
Bands can be used for speed and power development in many different ways. They’re great for warm up exercises, or they can be wrapped around a barbell to help an athlete lift more weight during a deadlift. Coaches can also use them as part of the program itself, whether that means using bands instead of free weights on overhead presses or squats (which would require less weight).
Bands are much easier to strap on than heavier weights, and it’s easy to get them off when you’re done, so there’s minimal risk of injury.
Bands are an excellent addition to any speed and power training program. The advantages outweigh the disadvantages, making them a valuable tool for improving your athletes’ speed and power.
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