When gyms closed in March, I thought my strength training regimen was over. Shoot, for the last six months, it’s been impossible to find even adjustable dumbbells for sale, what with surging demand for home gym gear. But one class of exercise equipment remains available: Rubber resistance bands, and this 18-piece set from Kootek is an amazing deal at $20.89, its lowest price ever on Amazon.
This kit comes with 150 pounds of tension across five tube bands, five loop bands of varying resistance, two ankle straps, two sliding discs, and a door anchor. This is a lot of equipment for a skinch over $20.
I used to laugh at resistance bands, thinking they can’t offer a real workout. And it’s true, they’re awkward at best for serious compound movements like squats, deadlifts and bench press. But once you know the exercises, they can be great for isolation training. Using the tube bands, you can destroy your shoulders with front and lateral raises. For arm workouts, you can do challenging bicep curls, plus triceps extensions and pushdowns using the door anchor. For your back, you can do facepulls with the door anchor, and even lat pulldowns if you can wrap the bands around a pullup bar. For your chest, single arm cable flies are a revelation. You also get the loop bands for glute bridges and hip abduction work. And those sliding discs will work your core during body saws.
Those are just my go-to movements. I’m sure there are plenty others. I haven’t tried this set of bands, but frankly I haven’t found much difference between the bands at my old gym, and the ones I now use at home. This Kootek set gets 4.6 stars across more than 1,500 Amazon user reviews. I’d buy them myself if I didn’t already have my own set of bands.
[ Today’s deal: 18-piece set from Kootek for $20.89. ]
