Not everyone has the opportunity to visit a gym. Job, family or other circumstances take up most of our time and demand a lot from us. Therefore, many people resort to simple and quick exercises that they can use everywhere.
But this can become boring in the long run. Thera bands can be helpful to increase or further variation. The elastic bands give the muscles a suitable resistance for training.
Therabands can be taken everywhere and can be used in many ways. Also the target group is broadly diversified. Both seniors and athletes can use them. The following text describes important aspects of these elastic sports bands.
What do the colors mean
Resistance can also be increased during exercises with the Theraband. This is made clear by the colors of the Therabands. They are available in different colors.
The color palette ranges from beige to gold tone. Nevertheless you should not blindly choose a color. It is important to know which level of resistance you have to take.
Each color stands for a strength of resistance. Since beige is the lightest resistance level for a Thera band, especially seniors should choose Thera bands with this color. If they have not been active in sports before and want to start with the exercises, beige is very suitable for the beginning.
Seniors who are already fitter and stronger can also use the yellow version and the next resistance level. If an adult person, young or middle-aged, does not have any Theraban experience, he or she can either go for the red color or start with yellow first. Further increases are the colors green, blue, black, silver and gold. Whereby the color blue is more likely to be used by trained adults.
- Beige low resistance
- Yellow
- Red
- Green
- Blue
- Black
- Silver
- Gold great resistance
What to consider during the exercises
1) If you tie the Theraband around a body part for an exercise, you should make sure that it lies as flat as possible on the skin. If the Theraband comes under tension, it could cut into the skin and cause pressure points and chafing of the skin. 2) Make sure that the Theraband has no holes or is already brittle and worn out.
Make sure that the material remains elastic. If the material contains holes, it could tear during an exercise and lead to injuries. Throw away defective or too old Therabands and replace them with new ones.
3) The next point is the noticeable resistance in each exercise. This is important so that the muscle gets a stimulus and can increase in strength. If the stimulus is too low, the muscle is not used and cannot develop.
Therefore make sure that you have enough resistance. The more tension you put on the Thera band, the more resistance you have. After a while you should also increase the strength of the Thera band and reach a higher resistance level, which is indicated by the colors.
Proceed slowly in your exercises. Slowly pull the Thera band and go until the highest resistance level is reached. Until then there should be a permanent tension on the Theraband.
When you have reached the maximum point, stay in this position for about two seconds. The more precisely you perform the exercise, the more intense the stimulus on the muscle. This is more important than the number of repetitions of the exercise.
4) To avoid discomfort during and after the exercises, provide basic tension and stability in the joints. You achieve this by slightly bending your elbows and knees (depending on which limbs you are exercising). By bending the elbows and knees are protected by the muscles and the load on the joints is reduced.
To stabilize the spine, tense the abdominal muscles in each exercise. 5) In exercises with the Theraband, the full range of motion is not important for strengthening the muscles. You do not have to go to the end of the movement in the exercises.
More important is the resistance. Walk only up to the highest resistance and stay there. Even if you have chosen a low movement amplitude, do not go any further.
This keeps the muscles under tension and trains them. Nevertheless, there should be some room to move. Therefore the resistance of the Thera band should not be too high. For exercises please refer to the article Exercises with a Theraband.