Looking to switch up your cardio routine? Adding a resistance band is an effective way to add strength and intensity to your bodyweight workouts. They're versatile, affordable and more portable than free weights, making them perfect for travel too.
This mini band workout from NASM-certified trainer Lindsay Bennett will help you work up a sweat, while also targeting your glutes and thigh muscles. It only takes ten minutes, but there are six high-intensity exercises to do that use a short loop resistance band like this one from Amazon.
Bennett recommends using a light to medium band and doing each move for 15 seconds on each side and completing as many rounds as you can. Scroll down to try the workout for yourself.
How to do Lindsay Bennett’s mini bands legs workout
Benefits of using resistance bands
Resistance bands add tension to your training as weights do. Like dumbbells, they are also versatile. If you have a long looped band, you can stand on it to do lateral raises or hang it from a bar or tree for lat-pull downs. Shorter looped bands are great for things like lateral walks and glute kickbacks.
Resistance bands engage stabilizer muscles, which support larger muscles and joints during movement, strengthening the area and lowering the risk of injury. This makes them an excellent, safe and low-impact option for beginners and seniors.
Beyond adding resistance, bands can also make movements easier, for example by helping you maintain your knee alignment while squatting.
Unlike dumbbells, which often require different weights for different exercises, you can adjust the length of a band to increase or decrease the difficulty, making them a really useful tool.
Resistance bands to try
One of the best things about resistance bands is their price. They're much cheaper than weights, and more portable too. Here are a few of my top finds from Amazon.
These short looped resistance bands are less than $7 and can make your squats and kickbacks more challenging.
These $10, latex-free bands are open-ended, making them very adaptable.
Long-looped bands are useful for replicating exercises like lateral pull-downs and weighted squats. This set comes with five different levels of resistance and costs just under $10.
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