Main Street Nashville
NASHVILLE WEATHER
physicians-mutual-dental-insurance-banners

Dr. Roizen: Overcoming your resistance to using resistance bands




When “Star Trek’s” 7 declared, “Resistance is futile,” she was telling the Borg’s adversaries there was no way to escape the collective hive mind. That’s nonsense. It just takes the right band of resistance-fighters, say, from the Starship Enterprise, to find a way to preserve an individual’s health and well-being.

Here on planet Earth, resistance bands are much easier to enlist in your quest for better health. They’re simple pieces of elastic of various lengths. They can be flat and wide or come as tubing — with or without handles. Often color-coded from light to dark to indicate increased resistance, they facilitate two beneficial activities: stretching and strength building.

For stretching, they help you reach and hold positions that extend your legs, arms, hips and shoulders, loosening tight muscles and tendons, promoting flow of your lymphatic system, and improving blood flow throughout your muscles. That primes you for muscle building.

For strength building, the bands allow you to determine how much effort you want to expend. The great news is that you can achieve significant results using moderate resistance with excellent form and going to the point of near exhaustion. Your goal is to use bands that get you to near exhaustion with three sets of 8 to 12 repetitions per exercise. Five easy-to-do ones are available at health.clevelandclinic.org; search for “should you try resistance bands.”

The rewards of using resistance bands are increased flexibility and strength, improved balance, reduced lower-back pain, and lower blood pressure, blood lipid and glucose levels (increased muscle mass boosts metabolic processes). Irresistible, for sure!

Health pioneer Michael Roizen, M.D., is chief wellness officer emeritus at the Cleveland Clinic and author of four No. 1 New York Times bestsellers. His next book is “The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow.” Email your health and wellness questions to Dr. Mike at question@GreatAgeReboot.com.

©2022 Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.

Leave a Reply