Say Yes To Resistance Bands

Say Yes To Resistance Bands – 

There’s an important fact about times of crises that gets often overlooked: Life keeps happening. And I don’t just mean “some people survive”. I mean that the things that complicate normal life can also complicate crises. Injury is one of those things. Resistance bands can help you avoid those injuries, or rehab from them.

No, the resistance bands we’re talking about today aren’t about small bands of guerilla fighters … they’re giant rubber bands. But the rubber bands provide protection to a lot more of the potential problems of a crisis than the guerillas, as it turns out.

Resistance to injury

Of course being injured in a crisis is the (almost) last thing you want to happen. It’d be best to avoid the problem entirely. How do you do that?

One: Don’t do stupid. That’s easier than it sounds, when in pressing situations. Do you go miles out of your way, or try to cross a short stretch with unstable footing? You’ve got to keep in mind that a simple little sprain can totally ruin a bug-out.

Two: Be fit. I’ll make a confession to you: I don’t like lifting weights. Some people groove on it; but I’m not one of them. I still do it twice a week. Why? I don’t want to break myself. When situations force you to do sketchy things, there’s no better protection than strong bones and ligaments. And to get strong, you have to provide stress. Resistance bands are all about providing stress.

How to use resistance bands to prevent injury

We are always remodeling ourselves: bones, muscles, brains, everything. We remodel in response to recent stresses. Stress a muscle or bone, it remodels to be stronger. If you want to be strong and enduring enough to walk your way out of a city in distress, you’ve got to use some strength and endurance every week. It’s a critical prep, but not one you can store.

There are several ways to provide appropriate levels of stress to stay strong. Hard manual labor is one answer; but not a lot of people make their livings this way any more. Going to the gym works too; but be it from expense or inconvenience or whatever, it’s not for everyone. Resistance bands and body weight exercises solve the problem of how to get good stress with very little need for money, space, or being observed by strangers as you do your thing.

Find your resistance bands, and your exercises

Body weight exercises are those calisthenic-type things that make you move your own body weight around: squats, pushups, situps and such. They can be very effective for some muscle groups … but not all. Resistance bands are good for the rest of you.

Resistance bands are a good, low-equipment way to keep up strength.

I’m not going to re-invent the wheel by giving specific directions. A quick search popped up several very good sites, like this one, so it’s easy to find when you’re ready to try. They’re also easy to buy. Big box stores have them, as do hundreds of online places. Mine cost about $15 for a set of four. There are cheaper ones but mine are good enough to take some stress. 

Resistance bands for rehab

Accidents do happen. Sometimes you have to push it; and sometimes you’re just unlucky. In good times, we have access to doctors and physical therapists to help us regain as much as possible as quickly as possible. Rehab is even more critical if you don’t have this help though. How do you do it, and why?

When you are healing from an injury, remodeling will be happening. To get the best outcome, you have to guide that remodeling to make it appropriate. You guide good remodeling by showing the healing part what you want it to be able to do. 

A sample of resistance band use

A year ago Salty was recovering from a broken ankle. At his orthopedist’s recommendation, he used resistance bands several times a day. The ankle wasn’t strong enough to take body weight yet, but it needed to move and work.

The mission was to put the band around the foot and hold the other end. Point the toe, pressing against the band’s resistance. Repeat lots.

Then the stretch: Pull the bands toward the body, pulling the toe toward the shin and stretching the Achilles tendon. The general rule is to bring it to the point of real discomfort but not outright pain. Hold it a three count. Tense the calf to press against the band, then relax the muscle and pull the toe up passively again. Three rounds of that.

That approach to stretching — alternating passive pulling to the edge of the range of motion and resisting — is surprisingly effective. I learned it from my sport’s team’s doctor, who knew a whale of a lot about rehab. He had most of the women on the team buying resistance bands to work on their problems spots or rehab their injuries, and it worked like a charm.

Here’s a link to our podcast on resistance bands!

This move is good for rehabbing shoulders. Different bands have different pull strengths, so you can up the workload as recovery proceeds.

Resistance band bonuses

I pack the bands when I travel. Am I that hardcore? Well, kinda. I’m past fifty, and condition is very easy to lose and hard to gain back; so I really prefer not to lose it. Really though, it’s about well-being. Decent exercise improves sleep. The bands weigh nearly nothing and take almost no space to pack. Using them also takes very little room.

This is one of those preps that’s very easy to buy. Most of the work is the using. Sad fact of life; effort pays off more than buying. (Here are some other unglamorous but very useful preps.)  I don’t regret a bit of it though, despite my lack of love for using weights. I’m quite sure the exercise has prevented several injuries — some of them under circumstances that would make it very inconvenient to be injured. That’s why I consider resistance bands a prep.