Your body doesn’t know what type of exercise you’re doing you’re performing a dumbbell exercises , a resistance band exercises, or even a dumbbell resistance band exercises. All it knows is that it feels resistance, and it has to overcome it. To add muscle and strength, progressive overload is the name of the game: more weight, more reps, more sets, and more extended tension on the muscle.
Some dumbbell exercises can mess up (when the dumbbells get big) the mechanics of the movement. The goblet squat and dumbbell bench press are two prime examples. Furthermore, at some gyms, the dumbbells go so high that you’re tapped out.
One way to work around this issue is adding a looped band to a dumbbell because the further the band stretches, the harder it is, adding resistance where it counts. Adding a few resistance band exercises to your workout is a match made in heaven, and here is why.
The Strength Curve
It sounds like a fancy name, but it is not. The strength curve of an exercise is the force generated at each point through an exercise range of motion. While lifting, your joint’s angle changes, and the resistance felt varies. For example, while performing a dumbbell bench press, more force is needed during the first third of the exercise than with lockout, where the resistance feels light.
The beauty of adding resistance bands to dumbbells is that it opposes this strength curve. Less force is required to get it going when the band is not tight, but more force is needed when locking out. Because the further the band stretches, the more resistance you get. The most significant benefit of adding bands to dumbbell exercises is adding more resistance during the concentric concentration, which will help improve your lockout strength.
3 Dumbbell Resistance Band Exercises
If you don’t have access to heavy dumbbells, adding resistance bands is an excellent method to add resistance and variety without the cost of purchasing dumbbells or hurting yourself by getting the heavy dumbbells into position. Adding bands to dumbbells makes for a nice change of pace while helping improve your lockout strength, and here are three exercises that do just that.
