Elastic bands and suspension straps

[Dave Neve]

Hello everyone

My gym is closed today as it's Xmas, and so I found myself using the pull up bars in the local park, together with my own elastic bands and suspension straps.

Out of curiosity, I then searched for "elastic band"s and "suspension straps" on this forum, but got very few hits, and most of them are quite old.

Is there a reason for this? Do rowers have an aversion to such equipment?

Most of you probably know the pros and cons of elastic bands but maybe I can start the ball rolling with a tip.

As the resistance tends to be very low at the start and much higher at the end, or alternatively for some exercises, the assistance is very high at the start and very low at the end, I often break down an exercise into two.

As an example, if doing bicep curls with elastic bands, I'll do the first part of the curl with one configuration (different colour bands or same band grabbed in one position) and then the second part of the curl with a different configuration.

To put it another way, if I try to use one configuration for an entire curl, the curl would be too easy at the start and too hard at the end.

What do you think of such equipment? How many of you use them and for what exercises in particular?

[Sakly]

Doing much bodyweight stuff, but never used elastic bands at all. I prefer rings, Trx or added weights.
I don't think avoidance is the reason of finding only few forum entries. Probably not much are talking about their strength training approaches here, so you get only a few hits from the search.

[Dangerscouse]

I only do one weights session a week, and a dynamic pilates class once a week too, so I don't have much chance to use them. I've got an Olympic barbell, plates, dumbbells, pull up bar and a landmine accessory which is all I need

They do look useful, but i don't know much about them, apart from resistance bands that are quite often used in pilates. They can be really beneficial to add another layer of effort.

[gvcormac]

I think if you search "resistance bands" you'll find more.

I don't use them for strength training, but I do find them a reasonable (but boring) replacement for SkiErg and RowErg. See, for example: https://youtube.com/shorts/SybV_uI7sJA?feature=share Rowing is a bit more complicated: you need a skateboard or somethig like that to sit on. That said, I'd sooner just go for a run, weather permitting.

For strength I do pull-ups and chin-ups, push-ups and dips, and step-ups. Chin-ups and kin require you find something to hang from, which can be a challenge in a new locale. For dips and step-ups, sturdy chairs generally work. Push-ups require no equipment.

I absolutely never go to the gym. At home, in addition to RowErg, SkiErg, BikeErg, Treadmill and Elliptical, I have a pull-up bar, a pair of high parallettes (dip bars), an adjustable dumbbell, and an incline bench. I also have a barbell and some plates and a weight belt but I rarely use them. None of the strength pieces cost more than $100.