Why pay for expensive gym memberships or bulky, overpriced home gym equipment such as Bowflex, when you could do all the same exercises at home with a good set of ultra-cheap and ultraportable resistance tubes? As a personal trainer, I encourage my clients to shell out $30-$40 on quality set of resistance tubes, less than what I charge for a one hour training session.
When it comes to choosing a set of resistance tubes, my personal favorite is the BodyLastics TO Super Strong Training Set. It includes a door attachment (very important) and storage pouch. I’ve chosen this set because it features a unique clipping system, giving users the advantage of choosing to work with one, two, three, or four tubes simultaneously.
This is crucial because different muscle groups require various levels of resistance and the clipping system allows for easy adjustment to accommodate all exercises and fitness levels. Everyone from beginners to professional athletes and bodybuilders can enjoy and benefit from these tubes. Bodylastics TO resistance tubes are also the most durable and comfortable tubes I have ever tried and for these reasons I highly recommend the set.
Now, that you’ve got your tubes and door attachment, the fun can begin. First thing you must do is assess exactly what your workout goals are. Those trying to build muscle mass will need to perform workouts with heavy resistance and low repetitions. Choose the heaviest resistance level that will allow you to pump out 3
sets of 8-12 repetitions for each exercise without sacrificing form. Take a 60-90 second breather between sets.
Make it your goal to add more resistance to your workouts each week. Also, make sure to performing your reps very slowly to take advantage of hypertrophy, which is the term for increasing the density of muscle fibers. Hypertrophy occurs when a set is performed for between 30 seconds to one minute so make sure you spend at least 5 seconds per repetition or else you will be increasing strength but not muscle size. Ideally, you will do two to three different exercises per muscle group. With the door attachment, you can create over 140 different exercises targeting all muscle groups.
For those looking to lower body fat, get rid of that gut, loose those love handles, or tone their bodies will need to perform workouts with low resistance and high reps. I recommend my clients to choose a resistance levels that allow them to perform 3 sets of 40 repetitions for each exercise.
If it is too easy for you to do 40 reps, you will need to up your resistance. Weight loss is a simple formula: more calories expended than consumed. That means your daily goal should be to break a sweat and get your heart rate up. High rep workouts will get your heart pumping but make sure not to rest for more than 20 seconds between exercises!! Throwing in a few crunches, pushups or jumping jacks would improve your workout. The routine I recommend for both muscle mass and weight loss is as follows:
Mondays – Chest & triceps
Tuesdays – Back & biceps
Wednesdays – For toning, run for 45-60 minutes. If you’re only looking for mass, take a rest day and give your muscles time to recover.
Thursdays – Shoulders & Legs
Fridays – Abs (Yes, you can work your abs with resistance tubes)
Saturdays – Rest
Sundays – Rest
Now, you’re probably asking yourself what exercises you should be doing for each body part. For information on how to target different muscle groups with various resistance tube exercises, I would recommend you to go to Live Exercise and do a few searches on the topic. There is a wealth of information on how to work each body part and you could follow right along with the videos.
In my experience as a personal trainer, my clients that take advantage of resistance training usually begin seeing significant improvements in their physique within just two to three weeks and also report higher levels of energy and explosiveness throughout the day. As with any exercises, do not forget to warm up and stretch for 5-10 minutes before workouts. It is important to take precaution by loosening up joints and muscles to avoid injury. Lastly, never forget that dieting is a crucial part of exercise. If you’re looking for muscle mass, stay on a high protein/low carb diet. If you’re looking to lose weight, stick to a low fat low calorie diet.
Good luck!
