[Hannibal]

Bands on their own are fine.

OP wants to replace his pullup bar with bands, which is completely doable.

Here is the band setup I recommend. No I don't get paid to promote this, I spent a lot of time messing around with equipment for home and travel and this was the band setup I found to be the most versatile.

http://www.sierraexercise.com/order.html

The Hook handles look like this :



Here are the bands that you use with them :



I recommend Hook handles as a strandpulling setup because you can easily add and subtract bands instead of retarded elaborate setups like Lifeline TNT cables or anything of that nature. Lifeline is alright, but the bands themselves have to be bought from them, you can only use three of them on the handles (so instead of using the same weighted bands, you now have to keep buying heavier and heavier ones) and they seem to be easier to break.

If you want to save some money on the actual bands, you can make them yourself out of some surgical tubing. Here is a link to the article. The actual Hook Handles will run you about 33 bucks for a set of them. $10 worth of surgical tubing and a dowel stick will have you set on bands for a long, long time. I quoted the article but the pictures in the link provided are helpful.

http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/shenandoah/...rings.html

Quote:

Surgical Tubing Exercise Band

Surgical tubing makes the best Exercise Bands. Resistance is almost consistant throughout a stretch, and it looses virtually none of its elasticity. I'm still using the same bands I made five years ago.

Here's how to make a Band:

1. Get a wooden dowel the same diameter as the inside diameter of the tubing. Determine how long you want your band to be when flattened out, and then cut a length of tubing twice as long plus one inch.

2. Make a Tool. Cut an 8" length of dowel and then round out and smooth one end with fine sandpaper.

3. Make a Plug. Cut a 1 1/2" length of dowel and then chamfer and smooth the edges with fine sandpaper.

4. Using a felt marker, mark 1" in from the end of the tubing. Do the same for the other end.

5. Slip the rounded end of the tool about an inch and a half into one end ot the tubing

6. Spread the end of the tubing back over itself to 1", or up to the mark made on the tubing. It doesn't matter if a portion of the tubing rolls up a bit. Next, take hold of the folded back portion of tubing, and the tool, and then ease the tool back out of the tubing.

7. Slip one end of the plug about 1/4" into the folded back tubing.

8. Straighten out the folded back tubing so that it encompasses the plug as shown. When straightened out, there should be about 1/4" of the plug sticking out.

9. Follow steps 5 and 6 for the other end of the tubing. Take the folded back end of the tubing and slip it over the exposed end of the plug. Make sure that you don't twist the tubing before inserting the plug into the end.

10. Straighten out that end of the tubing so that it overlaps the other end by about an inch. Overlapping the ends in this manner will assure that the exercise band will never pull apart.

This is the exact setup I use for strandpulling. I make my own bands and they've lasted me a couple years now with no real problems.

Strandpulling is alright for working upper body. For lower body you're better off with actual weight.

The strandpulling exercises I recommend you might refer to as "The Big Four" or the four main exercises to concern yourself with.

These would be the :

Front Chest Pull

Behind the Back Press

Military Press

Overhead Downward Pull

Two other honorable mentions would be the Curl and the Lateral Raise.

Google pictures of the exercises as I can't post too many images in one post.

Here is a link to two PDF books on strandpulling. They are fine books on strandpulling and they'll give you plenty of ideas to work with.

http://yoga-horizons.com/2011/04/strand-...brad-reid/

At the very least, read the guide by Fatman. It's concise and gives a good rundown on strandpulling.

Here's an obligatory picture of a guy who spent the majority of his training career with bands. Yes, they work.



His name is Fred Rollon and he was a German strongman from the 1920's. Details on him are pretty light to say the least.

I've noticed that bands produce an extraordinary back and shoulder pump, probably because the resistance goes up at the end of the movement. I recommend rep ranges of 10-20 for most of these exercises; band training does not lend itself well to low rep work. For the most part I stick to chins and swings for back work and I use the bands as accessories (front chest pull in particular is awesome for shoulder stabilization). Shoulder problems seem to disappear overnight with regular use of bands.