Customer Reviews

Expand-Your-Hand Bands

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Okay. Yes these are "rubber bands"- but that's okay, because bands made of rubber are one of the best ways to exercise the muscles that push your fingers up and out, and to a lesser degress extend your wrist. Sure you could go out and buy regular rubber bands. However finding really thick ones can be a problem, but the bigger issue is finding them in varying resistances. And progressive resistance is the whole key to getting your muscles stronger. Use the same band over and over and you'll never gain any strength. On the other hand, trying a little bit harder band gives the hand muscles a reason to grow stronger. That's why you get 5 sets of bands with varying resistances- sweet.

I highly recommend these little bands for a well rounded hand/forearm strengthening program. While most hand and forearm devices are aimed at improving your grip, few stop to think about improving the performance of the finger extensors and abductors which open the hand and are used a lot in many activities. Good for people who type a lot, play the guitar, or are trying to rehab their hand/wrist/elbow-give 'em a try! Also recommend Treat Your Own Tennis Elbow if you suffer from tennis elbow.

I was a little skeptical about this product at first. Honestly, who wants to pay for some really big rubber bands? I went ahead and purchased a set of these when I was purchasing a few other things from Ironmind and honestly I use these more than most other products.

These bands provide 5 different strengths and so that you may vary the resistance. In addition, unlike everyday rubber bands these are extremely durable and the perfect size. The smaller bands also work great as a rehabilitation tool for people with wrist or hand injuries. If you work with your hands on a regular basis and constantly find some residual pain in your hands, wrists or forearms you must try these out.

Overall this is an amazing, portable, workout. Once you try these you will be truly amazed at the difference they make.

Like Mr Sprouffske, I got these bands along with a Captains of Crush gripper. I figured that with the gripper I would be working my hand muscles a certain way and it would be great to have something to work them in the exact opposite direction for greater mobility and strength. Hence these bands.

They work great! A lot of people work on computers all day long. Our hand muscles and wrists get tired, over-worked, and cramped from that work all day long. Even if you exercise regularly, your hands and forearms are still not getting a focused workout. That's where Ironmind's products come in. I have the 'Trainer' gripper and these bands and have been using them for a little while now. I feel increased strength in my grip and my forearms.

I work out twice a week with these (usually on my two days off from gym workouts) and use both the gripper and these bands together for a comprehensive forearm and hand workout. Both these products are super convenient to pack on a trip out of town as well, since they are so compact. Whether you work out regularly with weights or not, you will benefit from these products as good gripping strength is fundamental to most everything we do. Plus it will, I suspect, keep you from getting painful arthritis as you grow older.

I like these bands. I use these along with the Captains of Crush Hand Gripper - No. 1 and the Gripmaster Exercise Tool, Light, to give my fingers and hands a good workout.

The workout is pretty straight forward. You put the bands around your fingers, place them just under the fingernails and try as many times as you can to expand your fingers outward.

It's a good workout, too. I do the reps until I feel the "burn" in my fingers. I do two sets each hand about twice a week. Now I feel more dexterity with my fingers after using these bands. I'm using the blue bands now (see photos posted). The other bands (except the red ones) are really too weak to give my fingers any real type of workout.

I am not a doctor or hand specialist, but I do feel using these are a good workout. If you are a weight lifter, practicing martial artist, or especially a musician learning/playing a stringed instrument(s), etc., working with these bands will definitely be beneficial to you. I am happy with them so far.

Now while these bands, I feel, do give your fingers a good workout. These are still basically rubber bands. IronMind states these bands are specially treated. Good. I do follow the advice of IronMind in "keeping these bands in a drawer, out of light, and definitely out of direct sunlight -- and also away from heat (so not in the glove box in your car during the summer, etc.)".

But I still have the question in my mind: How long will these bands last?



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Update: Monday June 14, 2010

"But I still have the question in my mind: How long will these bands last?"


The bands should last about a year and a half (give or take a few months).

I was using the blue bands (the next strongest after the red bands) about twice a week, keeping them in a drawer when not in use.

Then one day while I was using them, I noticed a small hole developed in one of the bands. I did another stretch and then - Pop! No more band.

I recommend that if you're going to use these bands, use just one (you get 10 bands, five different colors, 1 set of each color) at a time for both hands. You'll get longer use out of them.

I'm a big fan of IronMind's Captains of Crush hand grippers. Little makes me happier than seeing that the US is still making some of the highest quality products available. The same can be said for the "Expand-Your-Hand Bands". Yeah they are simply rubber bands and it is conceivable that you could perform the same excercise with common inexpensive bands of inferior quality. That said, these bands ARE ideally suited for the task... For MOST hands. But for those with large hands, you may be dissapointed as I was. My digits can comfortably span 7 inches apart without bands. However with the bands on I was only able to achieve 5.5 inches of seperation between any two opposing digits before reaching what I believe to be the functional limit of these bands. I had the same experience with all the included bands (so I don't think it was a limitation of my hand strength). I'm sure this product will be an excellent choice for most. But for those with large hands, you might want to explore other options. Hopefully in the future IronMind will release another line for varying sized hands.

Please heed all the warnings from the other reviewers and save your money. At first I thought to myself 'Oh these people must be misusing the product somehow.' But it turned out that these bands will break BEFORE even a moderate period of use.

Pros:
- they give your forearm extensors a good workout (especially if you're using them to balance strength gains from using a hand gripper)
- you get two of each band with your package

Cons:
- the price for the quality of product
- a total lack of durability (the bands WILL break before a reasonable period of time, even if you do keep them out of sunlight, out of heat, etc.)

Overall, I'd recommend passing on this product; go to your local office supply store and buy like a 50-pack of durable rubber bands which will do the same thing.

I was happy to receive my 12$ "rubber bands" and I was eager to try them out. I gave one to my friend who uses grips all the time so he can train his opposite muscle and not end up with a bad case of tendinitis. Well the strongest one of them broke on me the second day I was using it. I had the rubber bands in my room where barely any sun enters and I thought to myself "maybe thats just defective at least I have a couple of others". My friend told me the next day that his tore as well. I tried my luck with another one also (a red one I believe) and it also broke! This was a waste of 12 dollars. I went to Officemax and bought myself a big bag of thick rubber bands for like 5$. They work great, just fold it twice and it's even harder to expand than the red version!

For those who are willing to purchase this product. Don't waste your money on rubber bands with a silly sticker on it. Go to any store that sells rubber bands and buy the thickest and most durable ones you can find, that's a better, cheaper, and more practical solution (you have so many rubber bands available to you in case one of them breaks.

These bands are great quality - no one can deny that once you have them in hand. They are however extremely small in diameter and have a stunted maximum stretch limit. To give you an idea, the white bands (weakest and most easily stretched) will only stretch out to a five inch circumfrence at absolute maximum stretch. Its easy to get that five inches for the white, green and yellow bands but anything over that becomes too hard to stretch past where your fingers are balled at the tips. This means you cannot get a real workout with anything over the yellow bands if you have medium to large mits. It also just does not feel right even when you get five inches as the hand wants to expand to its natural diameter in this excercise. I have rather strong hands, I can close a number two COC gripper several times with both left and right hands so this is not a strength issue but a product limitation. These bands will also not stretch out more over time as the material they are made from reaches a static stretch limit where more tension would cause them to break. They would be great if they came in larger sizes but as they stand they are unusable for anyone except those with small hands. If you do have smaller hands go for it - otherwise improvise another way to train the extensors.

I have been using these bands for several months now and find that my tendency towards tendonitis has sharply diminished.

the bands are pretty much rubber bands of varying sizes/resistance. they don't appear to be especially durable, one band already has a small tear which is progressively getting larger. i am satisfied that they do their job, but overall i feel the product to be a bit overpriced, esp. the $7 shipping for a small package of 10 bands.