Every Tuesday, this site examines a training or technology concept that shapes how tennis is played. This week, we are focusing on a specific piece of training equipment and why it makes sense to splurge on a particular high-end luxury option.
I have been using resistance loops for years. They are among the simplest pieces of equipment and also among the most useful. I use them for lateral walks, clamshells, hip activation exercises, and other movements that make muscles work harder without requiring much equipment. They are inexpensive, take up almost no space, and can easily fit in a tennis bag or suitcase.
Fun fact: I also low-key hate standard resistance bands.
The problem is not resistance loops themselves. It is the thin rubber or latex construction used by most of the inexpensive versions I have accumulated over the years. Every time I put one around my legs and start moving laterally, the band immediately begins to roll. It bunches into a narrower strip and moves out of position. That forces me to stop, straighten it out, reposition it, and resume whatever I was doing until the process repeats.
None of that has prevented me from using resistance loops. It has merely made exercises I otherwise like slightly more annoying than they need to be. I recently discovered there is another way.
I first got the idea watching the Oregon Ducks football team warm up after a lightning delay before their game against Oklahoma State. Some of the players were doing activation exercises with resistance loops, but not the usual thin latex bands. They were much wider and appeared to be made from a heavy woven fabric.
I eventually found Bala bands, which look a lot like what I saw in that football game. These bands are wide and sturdy. Instead of a thin sheet of latex, they are constructed from woven elastic fabric. They are sold in sets of three, including three resistance levels designated light, medium, and heavy. They also come with a small carrying case, because obviously luxury resistance loops require luggage.
The Bala bands are everything I hoped they would be. They stay put. The wide fabric construction stays relatively flat against my legs instead of rolling into a rubber tourniquet. I no longer have to stop in the middle of lateral walks to straighten the band or reposition it because it has started pinching my skin.
There is something to be said for spending a little more on the equipment you use often. I don’t think the training is better with the Bala bands, but they do make it more enjoyable. I have reached a point where I am willing to pay a premium for the better experience. The thirty-five-dollar price tag is undeniably expensive compared with generic resistance loops, but in the tennis world, that is not a particularly large investment. I have certainly spent more money on things that contributed considerably less to my training or performance.
The Bala loops have all the characteristics that made me like resistance loops in the first place. They weigh almost nothing, take up little storage space, and provide varying levels of resistance for different exercises. They are equally at home in my gym, beside the tennis court during a warm-up, or stuffed into my luggage when I travel.
I have spent years accepting the minor aggravations that come with cheap resistance loops because I assumed that was simply how resistance loops behaved. It turns out I was tolerating a solvable problem.
I have decided that I deserve luxury resistance loops. So do you.
Bala Resistance Bands (<- Sponsored Link)
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