Travel Fitness Tip: It Turns Out Resistance Bands Are Great

Every time I read a list recommending travel fitness equipment, resistance bands make an appearance. Frankly, I’ve never understood why.

Let me amend that. I got how resistance bands could be useful for people with relatively low musculature –people who were just starting out in fitness, older people, or maybe those who were recovering from injury – but for anyone who was accustomed to lifting heavy weight, I didn’t see a whole lot of benefit from carting around some big rubber bands.

Just before launching my latest bout of travel, however, I decided to pick up a set just to give them a whirl. I figured they only cost ten bucks, they took up almost no space in my bag, so what did I really have to lose?

I joined a gym immediately upon arriving in Belgrade, so I didn’t really have a use for them. Then came Orthodox Easter Sunday, when everything in town was closed. I wanted to work out, the gym wasn’t an option, so out came the resistance bands.

And it turned out that resistance bands are surprisingly useful, especially because I got a set that came in a range of resistance levels, the higher of which require some pretty reasonable effort to manipulate.

What’s more, I quickly learned that – with a bit of twisting and turning – you can manage to work out pretty much every major muscle.

Now to be certain, they are no replacement for heavy weight. But with enough repetition, they provide a fairly solid workout. For beginners or people with smaller frames, I can see how they could be an effective route to muscle gains. And for people who are used to more advanced training, they will at the very least help with muscle maintenance until you can get back to some heavy equipment.

Whatever the case, I have changed my opinion and now recommend them as an entirely reasonable piece of travel fitness gear. They’re cheap in terms of both cost and real estate in your bag, and they’re effective. I will continue to pack a set.

And just for the hell of it, I’ve included a couple of photos below to give you an idea of how they can be used to work out different muscle groups.