One Resistance Band Can Provide a Gym’s Worth of Workouts

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You don’t need to break the bank to hit your critical points.

I live in a pretty small apartment. There’s no room (or money) for large, fancy exercise equipment. My complex does have an exercise room, but for reasons I choose not to elaborate on, I wouldn’t be enthused about going in there even if there wasn’t a pandemic going on. This is why I’ve needed to get creative with my exercises; I need to hit all of my important zones with limited real estate. Turns out you don’t need twenty machines for several hundred bucks each. All you need is a resistance band.

Resistance bands are portable, affordable, and come in multiple levels to accommodate your preferred workout intensity. The cool thing about resistance bands, though, is that with a little creativity, you can create ersatz versions of most workout machines. Granted, it’s not exactly the same, but you can make up for reduced burn per rep with additional reps. This actually plays to your benefit, as a band’s resistance increases as you go through the motions, as opposed to weights that stay the same the whole time.

So what can you do with a resistance band? Well, if you’re a fan of rowing machines, you can tie one end of the band to a sturdy point and start rowing. Make sure to get further back from the sturdy point so band gets good and tense. If you tie the band at a lower point and loop it around your foot, you can do kickbacks to work your glutes. If you tie it at a higher point, around shoulder-height, you can grab both ends for chest presses, not unlike a bench press machine (though you’ll need to stand up for this).

So if you don’t have the space or cash for a massive home gym and your local public gym is gross, get a resistance band and flex that creativity along with those muscles.