Is squatting with a resistance band around the thighs helpful or harmful?

If you’ve ever met me or seen me work with patients in the gym, you know I love glute exercises. They will solve all problems in life, or at least a lot of them related to injuries in the legs and back. But what about using a loop around your thighs to activate those glutes during squats?

A current study looked at back squats with looped resistance bands to determine the effects on muscle activation and knee mechanics.

"Gluteus maximus (GM) activity is significantly increased when a resistance band is used during squatting. However, squatting with a resistance band is detrimental to knee kinematics as it leads to an increase in knee valgus angle and maximum tibial rotation angle.”

What does that mean?

Using a band around the thighs while you squat (with and without load) is a great training tool to activate the glutes ONLY if you are working on alignment and knee mechanics at the same time. If those knees collapse inward (increased knee valgus angle), then the pattern is directly correlated to knee pain. So, if you do that over and over and over, well, you might want to make an appointment with me to get rid of that knee pain that’s been created (ha). Take home point? Listen to your coaches when they correct your form- band or no band- during squats!

Read the full study here, and take a good look at Figure 1 for normal knee alignment.  https://bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/6/1/e000610