How to Use Bands For Calisthenics
When you're doing banded exercises, you need to make sure you are doing it right, or you’ll end up making little to no progress, like that one gym goer who has been going for ten years but has an Elon Musk build.
When performing exercises like the banded FL, keep the band straight. This way, you work the correct muscle groups, and the band's assistance doesn’t change(this doesn’t apply to all banded exercises).
There are different types of bands: thick, medium-sized, and thin bands. But as you progress, make sure the band isn’t helping you too much. An easy way to figure this out is by doing the exercise and breaking down the technique. If you can still hold the movement, the band is too thick. If you're using bands, don’t go up one lever higher than your skill progression
If I’m doing a banded front lever, but the band is under my hips versus my feet, the muscles will be working differently. Under the hips is going to challenge the abs and hip flexor, and under the feet is going to work the abs less and more the lats.
Concentric and Eccentric Phase
You have to know that concentric and eccentric contractions will affect the efficiency of a resistance band. Take, for example, the front lever pull-up. The band will help the most during the bottom phase and less during the top phase. Keep this in mind.
And remember, you don’t have to use banded holds in order to achieve skills, there just a good option to provide more volume to your working sets.
