If you haven’t heard of performance enhancement through wristbands, prepare to be WOWED! (Sort of)

Wristbands (and all their “magical” goodness) are getting more and more popular with both professional athletes and commoners alike. They claim to have the ability to enhance your energy flow through magnets, transmitters, holograms, negative ions, and other “technology.”

Through this increased energy flowage, people who wear the wristbands (and sell them), claim that they can help to increase your balance, strength and flexibility, enhance your physical performance, function, and well being, and “tune” your body to the environment.

Why and how they work (or don’t) is NOT the point of this article. Whether or not they do anything for us personally is. We wanted to find out if wristbands could enhance our training, so we did some simple (completely unofficial) tests with a few different brands to find out.

Since we’re not scientists (surprised, huh?) and we’re not making any claims beyond the effects of the products on ourselves, give us a break if we don’t meet your exacting scientific standards (this isn’t Myth Busters and we’re not going to do the tests again). At best, we’re giving our personal opinion of this wonderful line of products.

The Balance Beam Test

During the Balance Beam Test, we tried to measure our foot balance by standing on a one-inch bar with one foot for as long as possible. We did the test without a wristband, with a Power Balance hologram wristband, a Trion:Z© magnet/minus-ion wristband, and with an EFX hologram wristband. Here are the results:

Test Subject 1:

Test #	No Wristband	Power Balance	TRION-Z	EFX
1	11 sec	6 sec	16 sec	18 sec
2	6 sec	9 sec	8 sec	12 sec
3	12 sec	7 sec	17 sec	20 sec
Average	10 sec	7 sec	14 sec	17 sec
+/-		-24%	41%	72%

Test Subject 2:

Test #	No Wristband	Power Balance	TRION-Z	EFX
1	66 sec	95 sec	19 sec	106 sec
2	64 sec	44 sec	33 sec	52 sec
3	78 sec	110 sec	60 sec	71 sec
Average	69 sec	83 sec	37 sec	76 sec
+/-		20%	-46%	10%

As you can see, the wristbands had totally different results depending on the test subject. For Subject 1, the EFX wristband seemed to maximize his results, improving his best score from 12 seconds without any wristband, to 20 seconds with the wristband. It also improved his overall average from 10 seconds to 17 seconds (72% increase).

However, the EFX had a much less drastic effect on Subject 2, who only marginally improved his scores. Rather, the Power Balance wristband seemed to help him improve more. Enhancing his times for both his maximum (from 78 seconds to 110 seconds), and his average (from 69 seconds without a wristband to 83 seconds with the Power Balance wristband, a 20% increase).

So what did we conclude with this test? Subject 1 should wear the EFX wristband while Subject 2 should wear the Power Balance wristband.

The Frog Stand Test

The Frog Stand is an excellent test of hand balance and hand, finger, wrist, forearms, and shoulder strength. From a deep squat you lean forward and rest your legs against the back of your arms, balancing your entire weight on your hands. Each of the subjects balanced for as long as possible without a wristband then with each of the wristband brands.

Test Subject 1:

Test #	No Wristband	Power Balance	TRION-Z	EFX
1	9 sec	2 sec	6 sec	10 sec
2	11 sec	3 sec	9 sec	20 sec
3	9 sec	4 sec	5 sec	28 sec
Average	10 sec	7 sec	7 sec	19 sec
+/-		-69%	-31%	100%

Test Subject 2:

Test #	No Wristband	Power Balance	TRION-Z	EFX
1	23 sec	18 sec	21 sec	15 sec
2	26 sec	33 sec	4 sec	17 sec
3	21 sec	34 sec	14 sec	15 sec
Average	23 sec	28 sec	13 sec	16 sec
+/-		21%	-44%	-33%

For the Frog Stand Test, Subject 1 only improved his results with the EFX wristband, increasing his average hold from 10 seconds to 19 seconds (almost a 100% improvement) and his maximum hold time from 11 seconds to 28 seconds. According to the results, wearing the Power Balance or TRION:Z seemed to hurt his scores. Conversely, Subject 2 had worse times with the EFX wristband and only showed improvement when wearing the Power Balance brand, increasing his average hold from 23 seconds to 28 seconds (21% increase) and maximum hold time from 26 seconds to 34 seconds.

Conclusion? Both Subjects are showing improvements with the brands that improved their Balance Beam test.

Shoulder Flexibility Test

The Shoulder Flexibility Test involved holding a rope with both hands and seeing how far we could extend the rope behind our heads. We measured the distance from holding the rope directly over head to a total extension without a wristband, then with each of the three brands. Given the effect that multiple stretching motions could have on our flexibility, we chose to do the test only once for each brand.

Test Subject 1:

Test #	No Wristband	Power Balance	TRION-Z	EFX
1	13.5"	13.5"	12.0"	16.5"
Inches (+/-)		0.0"	-1.5"	3.0"
% (+/-)		0%	-11%	22%

Test Subject 2:

Test #	No Wristband	Power Balance	TRION-Z	EFX
1	15.5"	18.0"	18.0"	17.5"
Inches (+/-)		0.0"	2.5"	2.0"
% (+/-)		0%	16%	13%

Again, Subject 1 showed improvement using the EFX wristband, and nothing else. He improved his measurement from 13.5 inches to 16.5 inches (an improvement of 22%). Subject 2 improved his measurements with each of the wristbands by about the same amount, with a slightly greater improvement using the Power Balance and TRION:Z brands over the EFX wristband.

Wristband Review Conclusion

So, what did our super-scientific quest for the truth prove? Both test subjects agreed that the TRION:Z brand is the best looking, Power Balance has the coolest name, and EFX floats in water like a champ. In other words, almost nothing. Since we’re too lazy (and unmotivated) to dedicate a serious amount of time to wristband technology (and would rather train harder, eat better, and learn more to improve our bodies), we recommend you buy all the wristbands and perform your own tests. Good luck! 

Article Information
	This article was featured in the August 2010 Issue of the My Mad Methods Magazine. The article"Wristband Power!" was written by Mark de Grasse. You can purchase this article by Clicking Here.

Author Information
	Mark de Grasse is the owner of MyMadMethods.com, My Mad Methods Magazine, and My Mad Methods Productions. In addition to being a certified trainer specializing in kettlebells and bodyweight training, Mark is also the chief editor and designer of both the website, magazine, and My Mad Methods Productions DVDs. Find out more.

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