Health and physical fitness are no longer a matter of course in our age, and the pursuit of them is not surprising. A balanced fitness and the healthy appearance associated with it are becoming more and more important for social recognition and success. More and more fitness studios and commercial sports providers are emerging that help you to achieve your desired figure or to prevent degenerative diseases of the cardiovascular system.
However, financial and time aspects often prevent participation in such sports activities and the training must therefore be planned and carried out at home. In addition to training with dumbbells, the use of an expander is a good idea for strength training at home, but in practice it is wrongly very rarely done. Because of the continuous pull and the associated increase in resistance during exercise, the Thera Band ® is particularly suitable for muscle building. By the multiplicity of different tension hardness, the expander training can be used both in the range of regeneration, and in bodybuilding.
Muscle building with the expander
In order to achieve a muscle build-up, the same loads must be achieved during expander training as during conventional dumbbell training. The muscle building stimulus (hypertrophy stimulus) of the muscles requires a relatively high intensity of training. Consequently, training should be done in the range of eight repetitions, with no more possible after the last repetitions.
For beginners, however, the focus is not on muscle building. Expander training is a coordinative challenge for many athletes, which makes it difficult to handle the expander. Beginners should learn the correct handling of the expander in the first training units and train with lower loads.
Handling the Expander
- The human musculature is as variable as its use. While the quadriceps is responsible for flexion in the hip joint and extension in the knee joint, the biceps is responsible for flexion of the arm in the elbow joint. A prerequisite for optimal training is therefore the use of different degrees of extension for the different muscle groups.
- Since the expander training is done with high tensile loads, the perfect condition of the expander is the top priority in strength training.
Worn straps or straps with slight tears must be replaced immediately to ensure safe training.
- If a sling is required, the expander must be fastened with a double knot at an appropriate distance.
- To train effectively, the expander must be slightly pre-stretched. This also applies to the yielding (eccentric) phase.
- In order to set a targeted stimulus for muscle build-up, the movement should always be slow and continuous. Jerky movements must be avoided.
