Upper body workout at home Strength Training with Resistance Bands
Photo by Oleg Magni from Pexels


When people talk about strength training, most of us automatically invoke images in our minds of muscular men with ripped bodies lifting twice their body weight over their heads. But strength training doesn't automatically have to involve heavy weights. Resistance bands are a great way to introduce strength training into your routine. Not only that, but they are safer and easier to use than weights and are more accessible to more people.

Health benefits of strength training

The body has more than 650 muscles and most of us only use a few per day. If you don't use your muscles, they weaken and become ineffective in supporting the body's primary movements. This is why older people sometimes have trouble walking or lifting everyday objects. Everyone can benefit from strength training. It helps improve bone density, important to combat osteoporosis (which incidentally affects both men and women). Weight training helps build muscle mass and reduce fat reserves in the body. This in turn increases your metabolism, improves the way your body processes food, lowers your blood pressure, and helps you look physically younger and stay agile as you age. Looking better will increase your self-confidence, but strength training in itself will help energize you and increase your potential to stay positive. It boosts your immune system and makes it harder for you to catch a cold or the flu. If you're suffering from back pain, or have trouble walking, weight training is a low-impact way to tone your lower and middle back muscles where back pain often begins, but be sure to check with your doctor first. doctor to find out if anything else is wrong.

How resistance bands help with strength training

The easiest way to convince yourself that resistance bands help with strength training is to do a couple of exercises with one. A very basic resistance band exercise consisted of stepping on the center of the exercise band squarely so that it ran under both feet. Now hold a handle in each hand and pull up as you would if you were doing bicep curls with a set of free weights. I guarantee that you will feel the effect of this exercise immediately. By the way, keep your back straight so you don't stress your back. If it is too easy and you do not feel resistance, spread your feet further to shorten the length and increase resistance on the band.

Weight training with resistance bands is suitable for everyone, be it young, old or somewhere in between. Also, if you're a little bit advanced in years or still recovering from injury, you don't have the common danger associated with weight training of inadvertently dropping a weight on your foot or chest. All in all, resistance band strength training is a simple and cost-effective way to counteract the natural aging process.