Workout Tools - Resistance Bands

An essential bit of resistance kit that can be easily used at home or packed away in your suitcase for your holidays is the resistance band.  There are different varieties, some may just be a length of elastic (often latex) and some are tubing made from rubber or a synthetic material that can also have handles.  Some also come with a door attachment and wrist and ankle attachments.  So there really is no excuse for not being able to do some resistance exercise.

I have bought an assortment of bands over the years, but I have probably got the most use out of my 12 piece tubing kit from physiosupplies.com.  Click the link to check out their product range.
http://www.physiosupplies.com/index.html

It has 5 different strengths of band from easy yellow, through to red, green, blue to black being the strongest.  It comes with two detachable soft grip handles and two wrist or ankle straps.  Along with the door attachment and a DVD. 

There are lots of ideas on the DVD and you can easily progress the resistance of the bands by going up a level if you feel you aren't being challenged enough.

Here's a workout routine to do at home or in the gym, making sure the band is secured around something secure of course.  Before commencing do 5 - 10 minutes mobility and warm up to prepare your joints and increase your body temperature.  Your aiming for 4 circuits of 12 - 16 reps of each exercise.  Remember to stretch afterwards. 

For the first two exercises use the door attachment on the side of your door.  For the next two exercises have the door attachment at the bottom of your door, and the last one you don't need it.

Chest Press (face away from your band)
Row (face towards your band, do the reverse of the above exercise)
Low to High Woodchop (face side on to your band, hold one handle in both of your hands and pull it diagonally across towards your outside shoulder)
Reverse Lunge to High Knee Drive (attach one of the ankle straps, strap this around your ankle.  You should be facing away from your band.  You may need to walk out a little so you have some resistance.  Start with a reverse lunge then maintain your balance and drive your knee forwards).
Shoulder Press (door attachment not needed.  Place the band under one foot, take the handles behind you, your palms should be facing forward.  Action, push both arms upwards and slightly inwards overhead.  Come back down to ears/chin level then repeat).

Sounds relatively easy, but bands can be quite deceptive, give this a shot and let me know your thoughts.

Till next time, all the best

Amanda
www.mw-pt.co.uk