PT bands are a versatile, mobile exercise tool, great for gym use, home or travel. The resistance of the band makes it easy to replicate strength and stability exercise from the studio or gym. Ask your trainer, exercise physiologist or physio for exercises to suit you or choose from our individual exercises or full workouts to find the right exercises for you.
If you are new to powerband exercises, we suggest you start by reading through the Care and Safety sections below and Starting Out instructions to help you transfer your exercise knowledge to PT band work, including different grips and anchors that might assist you in creating a great workout.
Quality and Consistency
Quality & Consistency
When you’re training, you want to focus on effort and technique. There’s no time to worry about your equipment. That’s why you choose PT Bands.
When you’re comparing resistance bands, you need to check two things: quality and consistency.
Quality
PT Bands are tough, and if you look after them, they’ll give you tens of thousands of repetitions. But any resistance band can be compromised by sharp edges, weather, or repeated knotting.
Most of the resistance bands on the market are moulded. This means that during manufacture, the rubber is poured into a mould, where it sets into its eventual size and shape. If your moulded resistance band starts to tear, the whole band is one structure, so it can snap suddenly. Depending on what exercise you’re performing at the time, this can be seriously dangerous.
PT Bands are manufactured in layers. The process is more time and labour intensive, but it means that if you do manage to damage your band, only the layers that you have damaged will fail. Unless you do serious damage to all 20 layers, you’ll notice the damage way before the PT Bands fails, and you can replace it without any safety concerns.
Obviously it’s best to look after your PT Bands so that they don’t become damaged (see Care section). But just in case they accidentally become damaged, it’s important to know that they’re designed not to fail all at once.
Consistency
When you’re accustomed to using a particular band for a particular exercise, it’s important to get consistent resistance. This allows you to plan progressive overload as you train and improve.
Our simplified metric scale of sizing means that there is a consistent increase in resistance with each width increase, so there are no surprises when you jump to a wider band and allowing simple doubling/tripling of width.
Every shipment of PT Bands is batch-tested with a dynamometer, to ensure that you get the resistance you expect.
Caring for your PT Bands
Your PT Bands are your friends, so be kind to them.
They will keep stretching back and forth for years, as long as you respect them and follow a few simple rules:
Your bands are designed to withstand a certain amount of stretch. But if you stretch them further than that, you risk breaking them. PT Bands are designed to stretch another 150% further than their resting length. For a 104cm band, that means not stretching them further than 260cm. If you find you need to stretch your band any further than that, it’s time to move up to a bigger, thicker, stronger band.
You’ll find that plenty of your favorite exercise require an anchor (where you secure one end of your PT Band to a fixed object). Whenever you do this, make sure that your PT band isn’t rubbing against any sharp or rough edges, or you might start cutting into the surface of the band. PT Bands are tough, but sharp edges can damage them.
If you’re tying knots in your PT Band, to secure them to an anchor or to another band, untie your knots whenever you’re not using them. It’s best to tie knots in different sections of your PT Band with each use, because under tension, the friction between sections of the band can cause it to wear.
Regularly inspect your PT Band for any cuts or defects, and if you do find any, stop using that band! PT Bands are constructed in layers, so if you do damage a couple of layers, the band is very unlikely to snap. But once those layers start fraying, it’s time to replace your band.
PT Band Safety
All PT Bands contain latex. If you have an allergy to latex, or if you experience any skin sensitivity after contact with bands, you’ll need to avoid skin contact with the bands in the future, by using lifting gloves or handles.
Power Bands have traditionally been used as a stand-alone tool, simply be gripping the band itself. This still works for almost every exercise, but we’ve found that plenty of exercises are even better with a carabiner and a handle. The grip is much more comfortable, the band doesn’t cut into your hand, and you can generate much greater power.
When you’re using an anchor, make sure it’s secure before you start putting serious tension through your PT Band. If you’re anchoring in a doorway, make sure no one will open the door in the middle of your exercises! The force going through a PT Band can get upwards of 50kg, and a loose anchor can fly across a room fast enough to cause injury.
If you’re using PT Bands for support during stretching exercises (around your waist or upper thigh), be aware of any signs that you’re restricting blood flow. The typical signs of blood flow restriction are changes in color, movement, warmth and sensation, so if you experience any of these, or any significant pain where the band is supporting your body, take pressure off the band, and try to reposition it. PT Band exercises are great, but they’re not worth losing a limb for!
PT bands are a strong a durable latex band, made with a layering technique for extra safety.
When a moulded latex band fails it suddenly snaps, putting you at risk of injury.
A layered band is much more durable, even if the surface is disrupted, the other layers will hold against a sudden rupture.
A versatile, mobile strengthening tool, whose quality you can trust.
