STRENGTH TRAINING & ELASTIC BAND: AN EASY ROUTINE AT YOUR WORKPLACE!!

Fitness is not only aerobic exercise. Strength is one of the most important components of a good fitness level. In this post we will show you a fun an easy strengthening routine you can do at your workplace. 

Strength is defined as “The tension that a muscle suffers during a contraction”. If that tension is maintained during a more or less prolonged period, is called muscular endurance. Strength is one of the most important components of a good fitness level, and some of the benefits of its training are the following:

↑ Muscular mass

↑ Mineral density

↑ Quality of bones

↓ Blood pressure

↓ Risk of cardiovascular disease

Muscular endurance is normally worked by lifting weights, but there are other techniques such as corporal weight exercises, elastic bands, etc.

The recommendations for strength training, according to physical activity organisations, such as ACSM, are the following: 1-3 sets of 8-12 repetitions of exercises which involve big muscular groups. The velocity must be controlled, not very fast.

Those are the general recommendations, but it’s important to addapt them for every single person (with the help of a sports professional) because one of the most important principles of physical activity is individualisation. But following this recommendations (always guiding you by your physical feelings) is a good way to start.

As we said in previous posts, elastic bands are a good mean to do exercise in a more attractive way. At the same time they are easy to use, and you can employ them at any moment in any place. Furthermore, they’re cheap, easy to find (you can buy an elastic band at any sports shop and its price it’s around 4 or 5 euros), and easy to carry them because of their low weight and small size.

Elastic bands are suitable to all types of individuals: highly trained people can use them, but also people who is starting in the physical activity world, because there are different types of bands according to their resistance. If you are starting with an exercise program, choose light to medium resistance and if you are more experienced in exercise, choose medium to hard.

In the following lines we show us some exercises you can do with the elastic band at your workplace. You don’t need sports clothes, it’s enough with the band and your desire of being fitter!

The workout is composed by only 6 exercises that will challenge all the big muscular groups in your body. We recommend to do 1 set of 10 repetitions of each exercise, and repeat this routine 2 or 3 times during the workday.

We propose that distribution because, despite carrying out the same training volume (20-30 repetitions of each exercise in total), it’s better to divide it into little parts which last shorter time. In that way, you will be able to stand up and do exercise more times during the workday, and in consequence, you will spend less hours seated in a continuous way.

Here we leave you a video with the explanation of all the exercises, and a PDF you can download with photos and the explanation of the exercises, to carry out with you everywhere.

More information about training guidelines at:

Estévez-López, F.; Tercedor, P.; Delgado-Fernández, M. (2012). Recomendaciones de         actividad  física para adultos sanos. Journal of Sport and Health Research. 4(3):233-244

Este obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento 4.0 Internacional.