SuperFlex M3 Metabolic Muscle Matrix
Introduction
In the upcoming blog series, I will be presenting a complete band training program that is made up entirely of using SuperFlex Fitness Resistance Bands. This program is called SuperFlex M3 Matrix which stands for SuperFlex M3 Metabolic Muscle Matrix.
Each specific blog will have an program outline and videos demonstrating the exercises for each routine. The upcoming three blog segments will cover an Upper Body workout, a Lower Body workout, and a Total Body workout.
Every aspect of fitness will be addressed in each segment and can be performed just about anywhere. This makes it incredibly accommodating to even the busiest person as well as travel-friendly for the most chaotic schedule imaginable.
Though this series of blogs is not meant to be a “band campaign” for which type of resistance is “best” or “better,” it will shine light on how resistance bands offer an “alternative” to free weights, bodyweight training, pulleys, and machines.
Why Bands?
There are situations where training with free weights, or machines, or even your own bodyweight is just not possible without dysfunction and/or pain. The versatility of the elastic properties of bands can train most every aspect of human performance including strength, stability, mobility, power, endurance and rehabilitation.
This is not to say that bands are always the answer. In fact, there may be times that band resistance, when misapplied, can aggravate a physical issue. Band resistance though, when applied correctly, provides the greatest degree of versatility of any form of resistance.
Band Benefits
At first glance, resistance bands may not be as impressive as the sound of 45lb plates being slammed onto the gym floor, however, when you learn the properties of resistance bands and how to use them to their fullest potential, powerful changes occur.
Bands are also an excellent tool to employ the principles continuous tension, isometric holds, “speed reps”, and time-under-tension. Understanding how to optimize these techniques is where the versatility of band resistance really takes center stage.
You can go from continuous tension reps with a deliberate speed, add isometric holds where the muscle is at its strongest, and then transition into accelerated speed reps all with the tool of high quality resistance bands.
When training with bands, tension increases through an exercise’s ROM which makes resistance bands an ideal instrument for implementing the principle of acceleration, or speed reps. Reps performed with speed are significantly less risky to your joints and connective tissues (and arguably more effective) when performed with band resistance versus free weights.
The fact of these properties of band training not only benefits athletic performance but can also enhance a program where muscular development is the primary emphasis. For optimal muscular development, you want to stimulate the fast twitch muscle fibers of Type IIa and IIb, and also the slow oxidative Type I fibers.
In addition, bands can be combined with other forms of resistance, like free weights or your bodyweight, to even further optimize the strength curve of many exercises all while making those exercises more effective and safer on your joints and connective tissues.
The Need for Resistance
The benefits of resistance training, in general, far exceed the cosmetic and performance assets. Overall health and vitality are enhanced via a consistent program of resistance training. Joint integrity, connective tissue resiliency, and bone density are a few of the marked benefits of a quality resistance-training program performed on a regular basis.
Resistance bands have a loyal, yet limited, following. In general, resistance bands are considered something you train with when you are injured or when “real equipment” is not available. Though this perspective is flawed, it’s understandable why that is the reputation “rubber band” resistance has accrued over the years.
The only thing that needs agreeing upon is that resistance training requires resistance. From there, it’s all about the understanding of the optimal application of resistance band training for you.
Stay with us over the next three blogs as we teach the powerful benefits the SuperFlex M3 Metabolic Muscle Matrix. This is the exact program our professional athletes use as a foundation throughout the year to sustain the highest degree of health and performance that is essential in the careers.
– Vince McConnell
