Your Home Gym: Resistance Band Exercises

As long time readers know, I haven’t belonged to a real gym in almost 3 years.  I do have a gym at work, but I rarely use it these days, except to shower after lunchtime runs.  In the next few months, I’m hoping to use my home gym more because that means less time in the office.  And it means I will strength train on the weekends, because frankly I hate even driving by my office on the weekends.

My home gym includes: an exercise ball, two 5 pound weights, two adjustable dumbbells that go from 2.5 to 12.5 pounds, a pull-up bar, the perfect push-up (gift), my bike trainer and a resistance band.  That may sound like a lot but it doesn’t take up much space in our “gym/office.”

During boot camp, we used resistance bands in every class for multiple exercises.  I’m going on vacation in 9 days (!!) so I will definitely be bringing my band for strength training.  I think these are a great addition to any home gym because they are small and can be used to work almost any muscle group.   You can also adjust the “toughness” of each exercise by where you place the  resistance band.

If you’re new to resistance bands or are looking for some new moves, here are my favorite exercises:

Thanks to Neil for being my blog photographer.  He even got artsy with that donkey kick shot (weirdest sentence ever).

This is the first of a series of posts of home gym exercises, but keep in mind I’m not a fitness professional (disclaimer!).  These are exercises I’ve learned over the year from boot camps, workout classes, and sessions with personal trainers.