So, Whats the Deal with these Resistance Pants?
By Kacie Main
"You can really tell they are working your leg muscles."
The Skinny on Resistance Bands
Resistance bands are all the rage right now, and it's no wonder. The lightweight, travel-friendly bands allow you to get a workout regardless of where you are (home, gym, park, hotel, etc.) and without needing much space or any additional equipment. They come in a variety of resistance levels, making them the perfect workout partner no matter your fitness level, your experience or athleticism, if you're rehabbing an injury, or training for a triathlon.
But the real beauty in resistance bands is what they give to your body and your workout that few other things can:
Resistance Through Full Range of Motion.
Resistance bands keep constant tension on your muscles regardless if they are working concentrically or eccentrically. With free weights, there is often a “rest period” when your muscles get a little break from working, i.e., at the top of a bicep curl. Resistance bands allow for no such break. They work the muscle throughout the entire extension and contraction, and every moment in between.
Activates Stabilizer Muscles.
The continual pressure from the bands activates the small muscle groups that surround and support your larger muscles to keep your body stable. These stabilizer muscles – which are often overlooked – are a vital component for your body’s overall strength and functionality. Weak stabilizer muscles can result in poor body mechanics and increased risk of injury.
It’s also important to mention what resistance bands don’t require, and that’s added weight. They allow you to increase the resistance of any movement without putting more pressure on your joints, making them the perfect ally to rehab any injury.
It’s All in the Pants
The advantages of training with resistance bands got all of us at AGOGIE thinking about how to reap these benefits more often and with more movements. And then it hit us – what if we could wear them?! If we could get resistance bands into clothing, the gains could be applied to every single movement of the human body, forced and natural. And so AGOGIE wearable resistance band pants were born. They were originally designed with performance athletes in mind, with the initial line of pants tested and used by more than 400 professional athletes. But the benefits of the pants could not be contained, and word quickly got out. Before we knew it, athletes of all levels and anyone looking to increase their level of fitness – however they define fitness – wanted a pair. The pants come with eight resistance bands built inside of them, stretching from waist to ankle. Wearing them is like having an exoskeleton of resistance, adding tension to every movement, no matter how small.
The results of wearing the resistance band pants speak for themselves:
"I’m a 67 year old woman who walks at least 3 miles a day. My regular route through the woods is very hilly. I’ve been walking this way for two years and these pant can make my legs feel that they’re being worked out again! Great workout!!
- Teresa W.
Resistance Through Full Range of Motion.
Calories are energy, and your body uses energy to do everything… and we mean everything. You use – or burn – calories while walking, running, lifting weights, getting dressed, pouring a cup of coffee, and even lying on the couch doing absolutely nothing. (This is known as your Basal Metabolic Rate – the calories needed to keep your body functioning at rest.)
Now, how many calories your body burns during all those activities (or non-activities) is another story. It depends on many factors, such as what you’re doing, how long you do it, and even your body composition – muscle burns more calories than fat. But to simplify things, you can think of calories as effort. To increase the calories you burn, you need to increase the energy required to do whatever you're doing. You can do that by changing the activity (running vs. walking), changing the duration (45 minutes vs. 30 minutes), increasing speed, increasing weight, etc.
Or, now you can just change your pants. Because AGOGIE pants add more resistance to every movement, your muscles must use more effort to perform them. No matter what they are. More effort per movement = more calories burned per movement. Whether you decide to change up your workout routine or not, adding AGOGIE resistance pants to the equation will immediately result in more calories burned. The pants have shown to increase caloric-burn efficiency by 105%.
Interestingly, fitness industry statistics by PT Pioneer reveal a notable shift in exercise preferences, possibly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. US running or jogging participation dropped to 49 million, marking the lowest figure since 2016 and indicating a declining trend in this activity. Restrictions and public health concerns may have influenced these numbers, pushing more people towards lower-impact activities like walking.
"I put them on while doing household chores and the next day my leg muscle were tender. These pants definitely work out those small muscle from glutes to ankles! Looking forward to seeing how much these help to tone my bottom half!"
- Sheila G.
Activate More Type II Muscles.
Why does this matter? Every person has two types of muscle fibers: slow-twitch (type I) and fast-twitch (type II). Slow-twitch muscles are used during endurance activities like running or walking, while fast-twitch muscles are all about quicker bursts of power, like sprinting or jumping.
During any aerobic exercise, your slow-twitch muscles will get to work first. When they wear out, your fast-twitch muscles come to the rescue. There are many benefits to working your slow-twitch muscles to fatigue, like increasing stamina, which will allow you to run that extra mile and burn those extra calories. And there are also advantages to activating your fast-twitch muscles more often, such as improving strength and increasing muscle mass.
Wearing AGOGIE resistance band pants has shown to increase fast-twitch (Type II) muscle activation by 87.5%. Simply put, they make more of your muscles work harder. That means more strength, more stamina, and more weight loss for you.
These pants are great, they take a typical workout and makes it one step more difficult. I’ve never before been much for leg exercises but the Agogie pants makes it fun.
- Sue Z.
Burn More Fat.
Our bodies have two different energy sources to draw from: carbohydrates and body fat. While we all want our bodies to always use our extra (and often unwanted) body fat for energy, it’s a more complicated process that depends on many factors, including diet and lifestyle.
One of the benefits of higher intensity workouts is that you quickly blow through the energy readily available from your last meal, and your body must dip into those stored energy sources. The more energy it needs, the higher the likelihood it will take it from fat.
A bonus is that your body will continue to burn calories after the workout ends until it settles back into its normal mode. How long this afterburn effect continues depends on the intensity of the exercise.
Because AGOGIE resistance band pants increase the intensity of every workout, requiring your body to use more energy, they also increase the fat percentage that makes up that energy. The pants have shown to increase fat burn at rest by 233.33%!
Resistance vs. Compression
Resistance band pants are not the same as compression gear. Compression pants are designed to compress and hold muscles in place, whereas resistance pants activate and stimulate your muscles.
Compression gear is used more for performance athletes and performance training. It promotes blood flow, resulting in more oxygen to the muscles, which is especially helpful for athletes who repeatedly perform similar high-intense movements throughout a competition.
Resistance pants, on the other hand, add intensity to any and every movement. The bands provide constant resistance on the muscles, forcing them to work harder to move in any direction. They can be worn and the benefits will be felt during bouts of intense exercise or during everyday activities.
How to Sport the Pants
The wearable resistance band pants come in both men's and women's styles with two different levels of resistance: +20 resistance level and +40 resistance level. While the higher resistance pants work well for shorter exercises and more explosive movements, the lower resistance pants are great for wearing for longer time periods during everyday activities or exercises.
The rule for wearing AGOGIE resistance pants is that there are no rules. You can wear them whenever and wherever you want. Whether you’re heading out for a walk, to the gym for a workout, or to check out the new yoga studio down the street, wearing your workout resistance pants will effectively increase the intensity of any activity.
But why stop there? Even if you’re going out to run errands or staying in to do things around the house, choosing your wearable resistance bands means choosing more muscle activation every time you sit down, stand up, or even take a step.
It is choosing to get the most out of your movements, the most out of your day, and the most out of you.
