February 22, 2019
There's no question about it: some people live and love to workout, others live to do, well, anything else. But in order to live a long and healthy life, all signs point toward physical fitness being a big part of the puzzle.
The key is to make fitness work for you. This could mean watching Netflix while you run or walk on the treadmill at the gym, working out in nightclub-like environments such as Solidcore or Flywheel, or even dropping into high-energy full-body workouts like Barre3.
Or, it means finding ways to work out at home during your regularly scheduled evening Netflix binges. While this would be much easier if you had a Kardashian-akin at-home gym, stocked with everything you would find in a normal gym (TVs included), that's not reasonable for most folks.
RELATED READ: Whittle away at your workout with this helpful interval training method
Resistance bands, however, are an effective (and cheap!) tool for at-home workouts that can be used in a myriad of ways while distracting your mind with a show or movie.
One move that serves as a twofer is punching with resistance bands — which is arguably a three-fer because it works your arms, abs AND serves as an outlet for any built-up stress you may have.
All you need is your fists and a resistance band. You can use one with or without handles, but Joe Ferraro, a founding trainer of Rumble Boxing, recommends handles since he prefers wrapping the band around a pole, telling Well and Good:
“I have my clients grab the bands and walk out in their boxer stance until they feel the ‘pull-back,'” he says. “From here, we shadow box our jabs and crosses at different levels and intensities for one minute at a time for three rounds.
Ferraro shared this at-home high intensity interval training resistance band workout with Well and Good. Repeat the following for three sets:
1. 10 seconds of non-stop jab-crosses at 50 percent intensity
2. 10 seconds of non-stop jab-crosses at 70 percent intensity
3. 10 seconds of non-stop jab-crosses at 100 percent intensity
4. Reset
5. 10 seconds of “sky-punch” jab-crosses at 50 percent intensity
6. 10 seconds of “sky-punch” jab-crosses at 70 percent intensity
7. 10 seconds of “sky-punch” jab-crosses at 100 percent intensity
But not everyone has a pole in the middle of their apartment. So there's another trick to getting some resistance while you work your arms and abs in this move: you can tie a knot in the middle of your band and just have it wrapped around your back, as pictured in this video:
A set of resistance bands with handles and five varying resistance options is available on Amazon for $20 here (which, by the way, is about the same price as ONE boutique group fitness class).
