A kettlebell workout is excellent for improving your core strength and stability, building lean muscle, and many more reasons. However, did you know that by adding in resistance band training as a warm-up, you can work your muscles differently?
You can also double the burn and continue to build lean muscle, all while increasing your range of motion and flexibility differently. Using something like a pull up assist band, you can do moves such as rows, row pulses, knee drivers, and lawnmowers to strengthen your chest, back, shoulders, and core.
Here are some more benefits of adding resistance band training to your daily kettlebell workout.
1. Resistance Bands Prepare Your Muscles
Using resistance bands first will activate your muscles by adding an extra level of resistance while doing your warm-up exercises. Your muscles are, therefore, more prepared to do their job in your kettlebell workout.
Stabilizer muscles help steady our joints while we perform an exercise. They don’t support the active joint in the exercise but instead stabilize the other joints in our body to perform the movement correctly.
While kettlebells focus mainly on your active muscles during an exercise, resistance bands give you tension throughout each movement. Working out with bands allows you to focus on your active muscles and the stabilizing muscles as well.
Resistance bands work your muscles not only when your muscles shorten, but when they lengthen. In other words, you are working throughout the full range of motion, which means your muscles get stronger and more toned.
2. Resistance Bands Work Several Muscle Groups at Once
Using resistance bands allows you to work on several muscles together, making your warm-up more time-efficient and strength-building. For example, when doing standing rows with bands, you are also working your core to keep the movement smooth and your trunk stable. Your glutes and thighs are also working to keep your body in place.
3. Resistance Bands Add Variety to Current Moves
You can easily add resistance bands into your kettlebell workout as well, allowing you to create new moves with the same equipment. For example, banded sumo rows, banded push-ups, and sumo deadlifts use resistance bands and kettlebells together.
Adding variety to your workout is never a bad thing! If you have hit a plateau in your workouts, resistance bands can snap you right out of it 🙂
4. Resistance Bands Suit All Levels of Fitness
Whatever level of fitness you are at now, there is a way to use resistance bands that suit you. Generally speaking, the thicker the band, the greater the resistance and, therefore, the more challenging your moves will be.
You can also shorten or lengthen your resistance band (particularly the pull-up assist bands mentioned earlier) by grabbing further along the end or middle of the band to adjust to your ability.
You can also up the challenge in your warm-ups and workouts by adding several resistance bands together!
For more challenging exercises, resistance bands can help make them more accessible, such as assisted pull-ups.
5. Resistance Bands in a Warm-up Can Help Reduce the Risk of Injury
Resistance bands are easier on your joints than weights, yet they provide strength training that is just as effective.
When you warm up using resistance bands, you can focus on activating your muscles rather than tiring your joints. You’ll still want to lift weights, but you can save strain on your joints by using resistance bands. Why? Because resistance bands strengthen the smaller groups of tissue around the joints, which means you’re less likely to injure yourself in your main workout.
If you are recovering from an injury, you can still use resistance bands in your warm-up to help rehabilitate your injury. Many athletes use resistance bands to recover from injuries. Do check with your medical professional before beginning any rehab exercise, though.
6. Resistance Bands Make Bodyweight Warm-ups More Effective
If you usually start with lunges, squats, jumping jacks, or other moves, adding resistance bands to those exercises will add a strength-training element to your warm-up.
Dynamic stretching is one of the most important ways to prepare for exercise, and resistance bands are perfect for this. Even picking up a band and stretching it across your chest can relieve upper back pain.
There you have it, lots of reasons for incorporating resistance bands into your warm-up for your kettlebell workouts! You can create your own warm-up routine as well as switch up your existing kettlebell workouts by adding in resistance bands.
