Why Booty Bands Are Keeping You From Seeing Results
People love to add booty bands to any exercise thinking it makes the movement harder to perform and therefore more effective. I cannot stress enough that just because an exercise feels more challenging does make it a smarter choice! All of us are pressed for time in the gym, so exercise selection is an essential part of getting results efficiently.
Bands added around the ankle or knee are intended to stimulate the hip abduction function of the glute med in hopes of training the “side butt.” An example would be a lateral walk or monster walk. It’s not so much that these exercises are bad, but rather that they are much less effective than options like step ups, lateral sled drags, unilateral leg work and carries or sled drags. Remember an essential function of the glute med is to stabilize the body on one leg. You’ll get more out of exercises like these than you ever will from lateral walks.
Adding bands to exercises like squats, lunges and deadlifts simply doesn’t make sense. The only appropriate time to do so might be to teach someone with a severe knee collapse to drive their knees outwards, but even that can be corrected with the right verbal cues. Squats, lunges and deadlift variations all take place in the sagittal plane, which just means up and down vertically. Adding horizontal resistance with a band around the knees only makes the exercise inefficient. It would be a much wiser use of your energy and effort to either train with a challenging weight or challenging tempo.
Lastly, bands have the potential to exacerbate posterior chain misfiring problems. If a person complains of general back pain, bands are not the answer. It’s essential to test the posterior chain firing pattern so you know how to best direct the person’s program. If the low back fires before the glutes do, choose exercises that train the glutes in the shortened, mid rage and lengthened position. From there you can start adding more complexity by involving stability and strength from the trunk.
In short, bands are a low priority choice when it comes to smart exercise selection for both gains and corrective work. Contact us for help finding workouts that are both effective and efficient!
