Exercises for Workout Bands
I quite like playing with my workout bands. Originally I bought them so I could do regular workouts and maintain a decent physique while backpacking around the world. Suffice to say that didn’t exactly go as planned (I ended up leaving about $60 worth of bands in Australia to create some more backpack space).
It seemed like a good idea at the time… I guess there’s just something about 40 degree heat and 1-2 budget meals a day that’s not conducive to intense strength and mass training.
Still though, the workout bands work!
Here’s some good band exercises that you might find useful.
Exercises for Workout Bands: Upright Row
This is a good one to do with bands – I think I actually prefer the band to the barbell. The flexibility of the bands make it nice and easy on your wrists, and the distance between your hands is allowed to vary through the movement, which in my opinion gives the exercise a more natural range of motion for the shoulders. The movement targets your traps and side delts nicely.
Exercises for Workout Bands: Seated Row
You’ll likely need more than one band for this one to get enough resistance. Sit on the floor with your legs extended in front of you. Wrap your bands around your feet with equal amount of band on each side. Grasp the bands in each hand, and row, using your feet as the pivot. You can get an excellent squeeze with this one and a great range of motion as you’re pulling your hands to your sides and there’s no barbell bashing into your upper abdomen.
Exercises for Workout Bands: Bicep Curls
Simple this one. Just stand up straight and wrap one end of the band(s) around your feet. Hold the other end, one handed or two handed (one handed is easier) and curl, keeping your body stiff and flexing only at the elbow. Gives a nice squeeze at the top that you’ll find is absent with barbells or dumbbells.
Exercises for Workout Bands: Standing Shoulder Press
Same setup as the bicep curl. Instead, hold the band as you would a dumbbell – overhand and at your shoulder – and press upwards, keeping your wrapped foot firmly stamped on top of the band. Definitely do one arm at a time, and you’ll hit your front delts really nicely.
It’s kind of hard to get a decent full-body workout with JUST bands. Tricep, leg and back exercises can be tricky. If you’re travelling, or have some sort of iron phobia (I’m sure it exists) then I’d recommend supplementing your band training with some bodyweight exercises.
The best choices are going to be pullups, close grip incline press ups, and pistols. If you combine these three with the above band exercises, you’ve got yourself a pretty mean bodyweight and band exercise that you can take with you anywhere. Whether you’ll actually feel like DOING it when you get there, is another question entirely.
Tags: band exercises, bicep curls, bodyweight, decent physique, pullups, seated row, standing shoulder press, upright row, workout bands