TheraBand weight

[Chronus24]

Being paralyzed by the spectrum of hues offered by therabands, I'm wondering if there is an "accepted wisdom" towards finding the right weight of band for the job? Right now, I'm using a blue-weight band (using the theraband website as the weight guide) to primarily work my feet and ankles, but have to double it up to feel any real benefit on about half of the exercises. I also would want to do this one exercise our pilates teacher showed us where we use a band to do lying plies, but the blue is far too thin to provide any real resistnce and would most likely snap. I'm tempted to get the highest "gold" band, but wanted to check if that would be overkill...

[Mel Johnson]

Remember that we dancers put resistance exercise bands to uses that Ordinary Mortals can't! Especially below the waist, most of what we do would either paralyze the non-dancing patient, or frighten them to death. Use the charts for guidance, but use your own common sense when buying the products, and see if you can "try before buy" in regard to stretchiness, thickness, etc. Different makers use different color codes for their own bands.

[Joseph11]

Hi Chronus24

 

As a suggestion, you may want to go to a physiucal therapist in your area and ask their advice - They most likely have all of the different band sizes in their office/facility and I am sure they would be helpful to you in finding the correct "size" without cost -

 

just a thought!

[Guest atc/emt]

I'm not a frequenter of this site, but ran across it during a theraband search on google. I agree with Joseph on running by a PT's office; usually they are very nice to athletes. Personally I am an Athletic Trainer and have worked with many different college and elite athletes and agree with Mel that ballet dancers go through many exercises that others would not dream of doing.

 

Remember, therabands are usually used for rehabilitating injured persons, athletes and the general public, so take the grading scale produced by theraband with a grain of salt.

 

If I were you, I would get the "gold" band. You can always adjust the true intensity of the band by pulling harder or softer.

 

Just a few suggestions, hope this helps.

[Mel Johnson]

But also consider that if you use a proprietary brand of resistance exercise band, the color codings may vary among manufacturers. "Gold" in one could be something entirely different in another, like Resistabands.