Everyone has a resistance band lying around somewhere and we see them in gyms all the time. A great entry product to the gym as it’s cheap and there’s an abundance of different types, styles, and brands flogging them all over any ‘fitness’ category on Amazon, eBay, you name it. Ok maybe that was a bit harsh, they aren’t terrible but companies will tell you they can solve all your fitness problems and they have an inherent issue - the resistance curve of them which we’ll get into.
Resistance bands force curve
The first thing to note when people talk about resistance bands is the amount of resistance they produce and when it’s misleading when a company says they have a band producing ‘100kg of resistance’ through their bands. The issue here is at what point? A resistance band is made up of elastic material that, as you stretch it, the resistance gets larger, so when you are told this resistance band has X amount of resistance, it’s most likely only at the point where it is most stretched. Unlike cable machines where you set the resistance and it is that resistance throughout the whole motion.
That’s why products like the Unitree PUMP were created. There’s been a real problem with people wanting to have a home gym product (that can also be portable) with a consistent force line. When you set the resistance through the free app, that’s the resistance you get throughout the whole motion.
In the image below, imagine a straight line starting at the set resistance going all the way across throughout the distance stretched. That's what a cable machine does, like the Unitree PUMP.

Resistance bands increasing resistance
The very nature of resistance bands means you need a different one every time you go up or down a level of resistance. That’s not really a problem given they are small and versatile but they shouldn’t be labelled as this one does this resistance and this one does that - it’s misleading. They should be more focussed on level 1, level 2, level 3, and as you start to use them you understand what level you’re on and take your workouts from there. Currently resistance band manufacturers who do this are trying to fit a round peg in a square hole by saying their resistance. Putting absolute kg metrics just doesn’t work for resistance bands, which is fine (as they can be measured in other ways) but please stop doing this!
Resistance bands price
One of the reasons why they are adopted by so many people. They are cheap and efficient - easy to move around and get them doing what you want to do at a very affordable price. As with the two above points, they have their limitations but are probably the cheapest thing on the market to get some form of resistance into your workout. As with anything, buying cheap usually means you get low value, which is the case mainly with resistance bands - they won’t replace your gym but are a useful asset.
You also need to be careful about which resistance bands will last a while. If you keep stretching them past their maximum elasticity point (which is almost impossible to know) you will start to see tears and eventually they'll snap, which makes for a funny gym video to go on You've Been Framed but quite often a black eye.
Best ways of using resistance bands
Muscle activation, recovery, rehab, and low tension - those kinds of things. They put a small amount of pressure on your joints so are great for activating muscles before a workout and building up injured muscles/tendons.
They perform poorly for muscle hypertrophy compared to other types of resistance (like consistent with the Unitree PUMP) and shouldn’t replace your compound lifts.
Unitree PUMP vs GymProLuxe
One of the most well known resistance band products on the market is GymProLuxe. A set of attachable and detachable resistance bands that vary in resistance and designed for the home gym market. As discussed in the previous points, they have the resistance curve of an elastic band so when they talk about Xkg it’s not quite accurate. And the marketing suggests their athletes only get fit using their product (ok ours may also but here the PUMP has more versatility and here we are saying our athletes do do other exercise!).
It’s cheaper (almost half the price). That’s good for them, but you do get what you pay for. If you’re looking for more of an entry level product and for the ways we suggest using resistance bands then that may well be the right option for you. It’s likely you’ll use them for a bit and get frustrated at the resistance curve and look for something that feels like a cable machine’s resistance - such as the Unitree PUMP! We aren’t here to sell you the PUMP if you don’t need it (dealing with returns is a real hassle), but we are here to tell you the facts and what you should be considering.

We have a lot of customers coming to us saying they quickly got bored of their resistance bands and lack of versatility and how they like the resistance curve on the Unitree PUMP - some reviews here if you don’t believe us.
Interested in how we stack up vs other home gym products? Head over to this blog where we give the pros and cons of what you may be considering for your home and portable training.