Resistance bands are a great way to stay in shape. They can help you to blast your body anywhere. Building strength, increasing tone, and improving mobility. Their ability to be versatile and dynamic also means that they are easy on the joints and are a nice way of getting back into regular exercise after an injury.
To help, we wanted to share four of the best resistance band workouts that maximize and prioritize key muscle groups.
Shoulder Pull-Down
The Shoulder pull-down is a great way to engage your core and work on abdominal muscles. Aswell as lats, hip flexors, and glutes, all at the same time.
- Start with your hands above your head while grabbing the resistance band in each hand.
- Then, as shown in the video, stretch one arm down to your shoulder while keeping the other hand still.
- You’ll then want to bring that hand back up and perform the same movement with your other hand, bringing it down and then back up.
Shoulder Blade Wipers
You can engage your core again with the shoulder blade wipers exercise, which intelligently uses the resistance bands to target that muscle group.
- Using the resistance bands, ensure that your arms are separated with the bands wrapped around your hands.
- Then, gently lower your arms so the resistance bands are lowered behind your head and towards the top of your shoulder blades, before moving back up as shown in the video.
Clam Shell
The clam shell exercise targets the hips, glutes, and pelvic area, in a way that eases tension on the lower back. It’s a great alternative to squats and lunges, which can be difficult to perform if you’re returning from an injury.
- For the exercise itself, you’ll need to make sure the resistance band is placed above the knee with your feet connected, before gently separating your knees and then bringing them back together, as seen in the video above.
Foot Shell
And finally, the foot shell exercise follows a similar form to the clamshell, except this time, you want the band to be around your ankles.
- You’ll then want to keep your knees connected and separate your feet from each other, as shown in the video. This exercise will work on your hips, glutes, and pelvic muscles.
Add Resistance Bands to your Workout Routine
Loop resistance bands are great for warming up, mobility, stretching, working out, and pull-up assistance. And these resistance band exercises will give you a great workout at home or in the gym. Many people are skeptical about using resistance bands because it’s not a weight that’s being lifted, but if used correctly, they can become an important part of your normal workout routine.
You can buy resistance bands online at most sports and fitness shops.
Try our full 20-minute resistance bands workout
Why not try one of our live online classes for free? Sign up for your free trial here: www.gymplus.ie
