7 mini resistance band exercises to do anywhere

Traveling is always an enriching and necessary experience: breaking with the routine and changing of scene is liberating and quite healthy, but the truth is that many put aside their exercise routines during these periods.

The place where you are staying may not have a gym or maybe you just travel against the clock and you can’t waste much time training. In any of these cases, a workout with mini resistance bands may be the solution.

These bands are practical in many ways – they are lightweight, easy to carry and use, and they fit so well with so many workouts that they should be what any healthy person packs first in their suitcase when traveling.

Rutina breve con minibandas de resistencia

7 exercises with mini resistance bands

1. Scissor jump

The jumping jacks is a fairly popular toning cardio exercise. By adding a simple mini resistance band, it can also be turned into a complete resistance exercise. To do this, do the following:

  • Put the band around your ankles.
  • When starting, your feet should go together, hands on your sides and knees and hips slightly bent.
  • Execute a jump as high as you can, while extending your arms over your head and opening your legs.
  • Drop into the starting position and repeat the exercise for about 30 seconds.

2. Skater steps

Increase leg strength and tone by adding a resistance band to this exercise. For it:

  • Put a resistance band around your ankles, with your feet spread to the width of your hips.
  • Take a side jump landing with one leg in front of you, while bringing the other diagonally and backwards, mimicking the posture of a moving skater.
  • Do the same jump in the opposite direction.
  • Repeat the exercise for 30 seconds, alternating sides.
  • If you want to add more difficulty to the exercise, put the band around the knees instead of the ankles.

3. Donkey kick

This popular glute exercise can work your legs better in no time with this simple modification.

  • Start face down on the floor, supported on hands and knees, and with the mini elastic band around the feet.
  • Extend one foot up, as if imitating a donkey kick.
  • Apply some pressure to your abdomen while doing this to avoid lower back discomfort.
  • Return to the starting position and repeat the exercise for 30 seconds. Then switch sides.

4. Bear walk

The bear crawl is an exercise that works the lower and upper body together. By adding a mini resistance band to your knees or wrists, whichever you prefer, you can make it more challenging.

  • Start on your stomach, with your hands and feet flat on the floor and your back straight, distributing your weight evenly.
  • You can perform the movement laterally, taking a step to the side, moving one foot and its partner arm outwards, and then follow it with the other. Then you do the same movement in the opposite direction, returning to the starting position.
  • You can also go back and forth, equally going in and out of the starting position each time.
  • The important thing is that you keep the abdomen with light pressure, to avoid damage to the lower back.
  • Perform the exercise for 30 seconds.

5. Jump squat

Maximize leg and core work with this mix of squat, jump, and resistance. To do so, follow the following steps:

  • Wrap the band around your ankles and start with your feet hip-width apart and your arms tucked at your sides.
  • Jump open your feet and land in a squat position, bringing your hands in front of your chest.
  • Jump back to the starting position, standing upright and joining your feet.
  • Repeat the entire exercise for 30 seconds.

6. Clam exercise

The clam (clamshell) is a Pilates movement whose effectiveness to tone thighs and buttocks is more than proven. Run it with mini resistance bands as follows:

  • Put the band around your knees and lie on your side on the floor, propped up on your elbow.
  • Maintaining some pressure on the abdomen, turn the free knee outward, keeping only the heels together (like an open clam or a mouth).
  • Return to the starting position and repeat the exercise for 30 seconds for each leg.

7. Pull Aparts

Any extension you do with your arms using mini resistance bands will be useful: by varying the movement up and down or to the sides, you can fully work chest, biceps or triceps extension. To do this, consider the following:

  • Put the band around your wrists.
  • Start standing with your feet hip-width apart and your forearms at right angles to your elbows.
  • Extend your arms out and bring them in again, repeating the movement for 30 seconds.

Reference

  • Ritterbeck, M. Mini Resistance Band Moves That Make It Easy to Work Out on Vacation. For Greatist. [Revised January 2017].