How to Lose Body Fats Only Using Resistance Bands?

Want to lose weight, but still figuring out the easiest way to shed those stubborn fats you’ve gathered with binge eating, especially during the lockdown period? The bad news is that there is no easy way to achieve big things in life, and you have to strive hard but smart to get to your goals and once you know you are on the right track; trust me that will be the best feeling for you in the world.

Exercise is important! Yes, change your mindset that by only cutting off the amount of calories you are consuming, you can change the number on the weight machine. In reality, it’s the diet along with exercise that will make the difference. Experts suggest that exercise is undeniably a healthy way to lose weight since you are required to burn more calories than you consume. 

Source: Statistics on Obesity, Physical Activity and Diet, England, 2020

The key to weight loss via exercise is the strengthening of muscles because lean muscles speed up metabolism and thus burn more fats. Resistance training helps in the reduction of fat loss, instead of muscle loss. Resistance band is an effective, affordable and portable equipment that targets major muscle groups, and a good thing is that you can use them anywhere.

Can we use resistance bands for weight loss?

Yes, you definitely can. Exercise when combined with clean eating is the only remedy to shed extra calories. All you need is to move your body and fill it with healthy and clean diet. And don’t worry if you do not have heavy weight equipment because using your own body weight to perform different exercises with resistance bands will do the job.

An affordable and handy fitness equipment like a resistance band is enough to add up the intensity of the workout, so you can actually feel the burn. To shed excess fats, and especially that frustrating belly fat deposits, you should ideally combine cardio with strength a.k.a resistance training. For strength training, your body is going to be your main tool, and only few bands to get started on your fat-burning routine.

How many days of workout per week will be enough to achieve your goal? We’ll say, stick to your routine of five workout days and try to be consistent. Mix resistance training with cardio, and try at least two exercises from each group. Challenge yourself by varying the repetitions so that your body do not get adjust to only certain degree of intensity. You can initially start the routine with the range of 10-15 reps per set, which you increase later according to your need.  

Plus, keep changing the exercise in order to challenge your muscles. For instance, you can use a resistance band to strengthen your chest by stretching away both ends of the resistance band in front of your chest. Likewise, you can also perform regular push-ups by adding intensity using the resistance band.

Why use resistance bands in bodyweight exercises?

It may intrigue you as to why use resistance bands when only bodyweight exercises can do the same trick. Well, there are numerous benefits of using them, either you are a beginner, an obese, or in general for everyone who wants to add a little bit of challenging factor into their workout routine.

For instance, if doing regular push-ups are little hard for you then bring variations using resistance bands, also use them to work on your chest muscles. For a starter, using a light resistance band to get on with chest presses is indeed a better way to get started with the proceedings. Use them as your helper where you feel that certain exercises are tough for you to perform. Similarly, you can use them for pull-ups because skipping such exercises frequently from your routine won’t help at all.

It doesn’t end here because you can imitate any barbell or dumbbell exercises using a resistance band. Think about exercises that involve barbell or a dumbbell like shoulder press, lateral extensions, bicep curls, and many others.

Bodyweight exercises are remarkably efficient as you can directly target the desired muscles, but at the same time some people, especially beginners, find them nerve-wracking. That’s where resistance bands come handy. Let’s take time and explain this with an example. Suppose you want to work on your shoulder muscles, a trainer might suggests that pike push-ups are difficult. Instead of fretting out, get hold of a band that probably you’ll find abundance in a gym. Simply by using one, you can give enough resistance to your shoulders by managing reps, and this is applicable for any level of fitness routine.

Still, there is more to the story. Explosive workout as the name suggests is a great way to explode ton of calories. Try sprints, squats, and bear crawl with the help of resistance bands and just see your explosive power escalate promptly.

Build Muscles with Resistance Band

Lean muscles not only look desirable, but they also enable fat loss in a most effective way. With resistance bands, you can add right tension and pressure to your muscles, and this will aid in maintaining or building of muscles. What’s more interesting is that muscular body burns calories even when it is on a rest mode.

Inculcating resistance bands in your bodyweight training would speed up the process of muscle building. Obviously, as you will be adding more gas to already existing bodyweight resistance.  

Source: Weight Lifting for Weight Loss

When it comes to losing belly fat, some people just lose their mind over the stubbornness of their bellies who seem like never letting go of their fat deposits. We can imagine how frustrating it gets for you to look good but that protruding belly has remained a headache for you for so long. Let’s hustle for the muscles because this is your way to beat the obstinacy of fats around your abdominal region.  Still not sure if you can go for certain intense exercises to target your core, then get a hold of resistance bands and start working.

Do the following exercises as part of your workout routine and aim for 10-12 reps using a resistance band to challenge your strength, and to effectively build your muscles.

Lateral Pull down: Grasp each end of a resistance band in each hand and outspread your arms over your head. Create tension with the resistance band and bring it in front of your nose and keep pulling the band tighter as you lower it. Release back up to finish one rep.

Squats: Who doesn’t know this famous move? Stand on the band and cross it from your back and hold each end of the band in each hand. Lower yourself in a position as if you are sitting on a chair, and then stand up. You can also do squats by stretching the resistance band between your knees. Either way, stretch the band enough to provide required resistance to your body.

One Arm Shoulder Press: Get into a standing position with the resistance band beneath your feet. Hold it with your right hand and take your arm towards the shoulder. Now move your arm up and down by stretching the band, do 10-12 reps and repeat the same movement using your left hand.

Biceps Curls: Step on the resistance band and grasp each end of the band with each hand and keep your arms beside your hips. Now curl the band towards the shoulders and bring it down again.

Chest Press: Hook the band around a chair or door knob and hold each end in each hand directed towards your chest. Bring the band from the back towards your chest using the pressure from the arms and release back. Do 10-12 reps to create tension in your chest area to develop muscles there.

Conclusion

Resistance bands have remained underrated for so long because in the presence of other heavy-duty gym equipment, people have often ignored them. Often tucked away under a yoga mat, these resistance bands have more potential than they look like have. Easily available to you at affordable prices or on the gym floor, this versatile piece of a fitness tool is capable of bringing intensity and effectiveness to your workout.

It’s time to think about using resistance bands as your companion on a journey to weight loss. Use it as a support in your bodyweight training and keep going one level up to challenge yourself. Focus on building muscles because we can’t stress enough on the perks of having a muscular body especially for burning calories. More than anything, you can use them for training at home because these are super affordable, efficient and portable.