While I was in Rehabilitation in a hospital, I learned a lot that I would not have learned otherwise. I asked questions about the uses of various instruments in physical and occupational therapy. One thing that I never asked was about the use of resistance cords or resistance band workouts. It was obvious to me that such cords were most practical in the rehabilitation of entrophied muscles.

Though going outside for a run or working out on expensive equipment might prove as productive, it was just not as practical.
- The first reason is the location. In a hospital. there is not suffice space to allow muscle contraction in such ways, besides, body building, and weight loss are not goals in resistance cords workouts.
- Secondly, each person requires supervision, this supervision is easily provided in a limited space with the se of resistance cords.
- Third, it is far less costly to provide each person with their own band.
- Fourth, resistance cords do not require maintenance or other special equipment.
- And Lastly, for the sake of the sheer numbers of people needing attention at the same time, it is far more practical to use bands to increase strength.
The question that did arise concerning the use of resistance cords was two-fold. 1.) What if someone was allergic to Latex and 2) what significance do the colors have? I am allergic to latex and the bands caused huge welts to develop, but it was arranged for me to use Rubber made bands, Which worked quite nicely. It was also explained to me that therapists could measure our development by our increased muscular aptitude displayed outwardly in the use of color coding. Each color represented a different level of resistance.
I learned a great deal in my hospital stay, mostly from observing the accomplishments of other knee or shoulder replacement patients but mostly from a poster mounted on the wall which read ” If you think you can or think you can’t you’re right.” And to this day, even in a limited space I pull out my hospital-issue resistance cords for a few good tugs. I am thankful for my resistance cord workouts.