In the world of fitness, resistance bands are somewhat new when compared to older, more traditional methods of improving strength. Because of this, some people are skeptical about the effectiveness of resistance bands and whether they can actually build muscle, or whether they just tone muscle. Regardless of your opinions, resistance bands have been scientifically proven to improve your strength as well as tone. With this said, resistance bands can be a great way to workout, anywhere and at any time.
Described by some as a ‘portable gym’, they can offer practical training solutions when more conventional ways of working out cannot be achieved. Put in a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu context, resistance bands can help improve your grip strength which is one of the main parts of BJJ strength. As well as developing your overall muscles, this proves that they are no laughing matter.
To expand on this point, resistance bands are also a favorite workout of world champion Lucas Lepri among others. Below we will analyze the uses and benefits of resistance bands and their application in BJJ.
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Benefits of resistance band training in BJJ
These days, a lot of people supplement their BJJ training with weights. It’s no secret that being stronger makes BJJ easier, as long as it doesn’t compromise your strength in the long-run. However, some people can over do it when training with weights. For example, if you train BJJ 4 times a week and fit in 3 weight sessions on the off-days, then you don’t have any days off. Generally speaking, resistance band workouts are based around high-reps as they are naturally less challenging on the body.
This is the opposite to big, low-rep workouts such as deadlifts and curling huge amounts of weight. Whilst these methods will certainly improve your strength, they can also compromise your health if done wrong. In short, it’s not unheard of for BJJ practitioners to get injured by recklessly working out when doing massive lifts. Because BJJ puts your body under stress as it is, doing hard workouts can sometimes tip your body over the edge and into injury territory.
However, resistance bands are a good alternative. As mentioned, they are low-rep which means you’re less likely to get injured and generally stuff like form isn’t as important when using bands. Not only good to prevent injuries, they’re also good from a financial perspective. Instead of paying $30 a month for a gym, you can buy a decent set of bands for $30 online.
Resistance bands are great for working out at home
This one-off payment means you can train indoors and outdoors on your own time. However, one tip is to avoid the cheapest bands. Although tempting, sometimes the cheaper bands are less reinforced which means they can break and snap easier. With this said, it’s probably best to pay up a little and avoid falling into the trap of a false economy.
Having said this, we’ve found that the Letsfit resistance band is arguably the best purchase in terms of economics. This band is only $10 and is a real bargain compared to its counterparts. Apart from the economic benefits, you can also store resistance bands with ease and they can be stored in drawers easily.
Resistance bands for grip strength
Whether you train gi or no gi, grip strength is imperative. It could be argued that superior grip strength is on of many reasons why black belts are so dominant in sparring. In short, if you have unbreakable grips then it’s almost like playing BJJ with cheat codes. With this in mind, resistance bands are a great way to improve your grip strength.
There are several methods to do this. One way is to wrap your hands in a resistance band in a prayer motion around your forearms. From here, you can pull your arms to and from each other. This motion will put pressure on your forearm muscles which will improve grip strength.
There are other methods to improve grip strength with resistance bands. Another way is to wrap the band tightly around a tree, either vertically or horizontally. From here, you can pull the band inwards as if climbing a rope, or if possible you can literally climb the band like a rope. Rope climbing is an extremely effective way of improving grip strength so this method is tried and tested. After a few months of consistent training doing this, you should notice your hand muscles such as fingers are generally much bigger which is a physical example of improving your grips.
Resistance bands for leg and glute strength
When talking about strength in BJJ, people tend to think about the upper body to begin with. Whilst upper body strength is important, you shouldn’t forget to focus on your lower body either. For instance, it helps to have bigger, stronger legs when driving forwards doing wrestling takedowns. Similarly, moves like triangle chokes are also made easier with larger leg muscles. But perhaps the most undervalued skill of strong legs is in sweeps. As most sweeps require your legs kicking, the more powerful, the easier the sweep becomes.
To enhance your legs with resistance bands you can start off by squatting to improve your thighs and glutes. This will add a baseline of power and people have been squatting for years. However, if you wrap the band around your feet and hold the band in your hands then it greatly adds tension when you push your legs upwards to complete the squat. Here, you are adding pressure and more of a gravitational pull when coming back up. This makes squatting harder and will greatly improve the power in your legs.
Another method to improve your quads is to do crab walks. This is a workout where you wrap the resistance band around your thighs as if you’re placing a circular tube over your legs. The next step is to squat a little and then walk like a crab side-to-side, foot-to-foot. This may look odd, but it gets very good results.
The main purpose of the band is that every second step you make goes against the tension of the band. Like most resistance band workouts, it’s the tension and resistance of the band which will work your muscles. This is especially good in building muscles around your outer thighs.
Resistance bands exercises to mimic grappling moves
So far, we’ve discussed how and why to use bands to improve the upper and lower body. There are also various band exercises for shoulders, chest and literally any muscle you can think of. However, listing these in-depth would be boring for most people to read through.
Instead, one creative way of improving your grappling through bands is to think outside the box and apply it to a grappling setting.
For instance, you could do bridges with a band wrapped around your thighs. This will improve your leg strength as well as offering a more realistic scenario where you’re bridging to escape an opponent’s mount. Similarly, you could use bands around your legs and simulate lunges. Mechanically speaking, lunges are similar to stepping past the opponent’s legs and resemble the movement of torreando passing. Overall, it’s up to you and keeping it playful will probably keep the workout from becoming boring. It’s best to be creative though and generally think of ways to apply the bands to grappling and go from there.
Summary
As discussed, resistance bands are an effective tool to improve your strength for grappling. Not only do they condition and defend the body against injuries; they also add strength and can improve muscle size as well as explosive movements if trained with correctly. The main benefits of bands are that they’re portable and relatively cheap but also they’re highly versatile and can therefore offer different workouts depending on your goal.
With this in mind, it’s a worthy consideration when thinking about working out around BJJ. Although it may not be the most common way of training, it certainly gets results and is endorsed by some of the best in the world for that reason.
