You may be wondering to yourself why you’ve seen the home workout craze with resistance bands. Resistance bands are so good for workouts because they provide plenty of benefits for muscle growth and general health that weights actually cannot provide.

We examine 5 reasons why you need to consider using resistance bands over weights and why they should became a staple in your routine:

Greater range of motion- Unlike free weights, you can reach a full range of muscular motion using resistance bands. The longer the range of motion, the more muscle fibers are actually activated. Soft tissue is stretched and lengthened on multiple planes, which can help strengthen and tone the muscles even more. A longer muscle is a stronger muscle.

Create resistance in all directions- When you use free weights, gravity decides where the weight comes and goes so you get significantly more resistance during one part of the movement (such as pushing the weight up on the bench press) than the other (bringing the weight to your chest). When using resistance bands, the tension is constant, which makes it feel harder. This is why you often shake when using the appropriate resistance level band. You’ll incorporate more stabilizer muscles to keep the band in alignment throughout the exercises, which forces your muscles to work harder to facilitate more growth. You will also develop neurological pathways to maintain balance that you otherwise wouldn’t with weights. This has far-reaching benefits beyond just your aesthetic physique.

Resistance bands can actually be used to make strength-training exercise more challenging- Still not convinced? Still hung up on JUST weights? Start thinking to yourself WHY powerlifters use resistance bands as a staple in their routine. Try doing a bench press or squat with resistance bands attached to the bar. It’s significantly more challenging and you’ll really target those stabilizer and smaller muscles even more.

You also have to understand the science behind training to understand why this is so effective. The muscle bellies are shaped a certain way and the load and range of motion predicates how many muscle fibers are activated during a movement. The muscle is shaped so that it can be under the most tension during the concentric portion of the repetition (in full contraction). This is why you can hold the most weight up at the top of the movement and the hardest part of any exercise is getting it started. So in order to activate 100% of the muscle fibers during a movement, the level of resistance has to VARY through the repetition. Using resistance bands allows the tension to be highest/heaviest at the top of the rep while softening the tension at the bottom of the movement. This varying resistance works in conjunction with how your muscle is shaped. When doing a resistance band free weight exercise, you activate 100% of the muscle fibers when pushing the load. Research has confirmed that those combining bands with the bench press and squat increased strength by twice more than those using traditional free weights. The subjects also increased muscle mass more than those who only used free weights.

Price- There’s no denying that resistance bands are one of the more cost-effective ways to get fit. A set of dumbbells can cost you hundreds of dollars while a full set of resistance bands can cost you under 30 dollars.

Convenience- From under your bed, to your closet or even your gym bag or suitcase, you can store resistance bands anywhere. You can get a quick and effective 15 minute workout with resistance bands and don’t even have to leave your house. That’s why you’ll keep a spare in my trunk. Now I don’t have an excuse not to workout. At the office? Stuck at home in bad weather? Too much traffic? I’ll stay at home and do a full body workout without having to drive to the gym, check in, put my things in the locker, change weights and pins, and move from machine to machine. If you want to make changes in your life, you need to start being more efficient. Resistance bands provide this opportunity.