Building a budget home gym but not sure what to buy? In this article, I review a product containing resistance band attachments based on cost, effectiveness, versatility and practicality and tell you whether you should buy it, whether you should consider it, or whether you should avoid it.
Contents
Cost
Effectiveness
Versatility
Practicality
The Verdict
Cost
We've reviewed resistance bands. Now it's time to look at some accessories you can get for resistance bands. I bought this product from Amazon Japan for ¥1,599. It comes with an anchor, two handles, and two clips, all specifically designed for use with resistance bands. That's a pretty good price. But keep in mind that they do need to be bought in addition to the actual resistance bands. So in total with the bands as well, you'll be spending around ¥5,000.
For cost, I rate this product 4.5 stars.
Effectiveness
Resistance bands are one of the most effective tools you can buy for a home gym. As we've discussed before, using both bands and free weights has been scientifically proven to yield better muscle gains than just using free weights.
As they are, you have two options for using resistance bands when not incorporating them into free weight exercises. You can either use your body to secure the band, for example, by standing on it and pulling the band up and away from your foot. Or you can tie the band around an immobile object. Using the bands like this, depending on the exercise, the amount of resistance can very quickly become too light. But using an anchor to loop the band through essentially creates two shorter bands, one for each hand. Now both sides of your body have to resist an even greater amount of resistance, allowing you to get even more effective workouts from your bands.
For effectiveness, I rate this product five stars.
Versatility
There are a number of exercises you can do with bands just by using your feet to hold them down, stretching them around your body, or tying them around immobile objects. But there are also many exercises you'll want to try that are just not possible. A really good example of this is band crossovers. I spent ages trying to come up with a way to effectively do this exercise just using the bands.
The best solution I came up with was tying the band around my power rack and performing single arm crossovers. It was okay, but it was still a compromise. But having an anchor means you can use the bands just like a cable machine, allowing you to do even more exercises. The two loops at either end of the band act like separate cables, allowing you to do exercises you would only normally be able to do on a commercial cable machine.
And just like a commercial cable machine, you can make fine adjustments just by sliding the anchor up and down in the door. And if that's not enough, you can use other cable machine attachments on the clips. Want to do a lat pull down? Just connect the two band loops together with a single clip and attach the bar attachment to the clip. Any cable machine exercise you can think of, by having an anchor, you can now do the same cable machine exercise with bands.
For versatility, I rate this product five stars.
Practicality
In order to create tension in the bands, you need to secure the bands with an immobile object. For people with a power rack in their home gym, it's just a matter of tying a knot around the rack with one end of the band. But for people who don't have a power rack in their home gym, obviously this isn't possible. And even if you have a power rack in your home gym, when you travel and want to take your bands with you, just like everyone else, you'll have to seek out stable objects to tie your bands around. It can be a lot of work trying to find something you can tie your bands to that won't be damaged. But with this anchor, all you really need for an effective workout is a door. Unless you're traveling in the wild or out camping, you should have no problems finding a door. Just insert the anchor into the hinge side on the opposite side of the door, close the door, and you're good to go. With this anchor and these handles, you can do really effective band workouts wherever you go.
Now, depending on the exercise, gripping the bands as they are can be really uncomfortable, especially when using the thicker bands, as the additional resistance can really dig into your hands. But using these handles with the bands instantly alleviates that discomfort. Not to mention, having clips that are specifically shaped and coated for use with resistance bands is very reassuring, as I know they're not going to slowly wear down and damage the bands.
For practicality, I rate this products five stars.
The Verdict
These are the results for this product, which contains an anchor, two handles and two clips for use with resistance bands. But now it's time for the big question: should you buy it, should you consider it, or should you avoid it?
This is a product you should buy. If you've been following my videos, you already know the benefits of resistance bands and that I strongly recommend owning a set. With an anchor, handles and clips, you'll get even more use out of your bands. They make the bands even more practical when traveling and help make the perfect home gym replication of a commercial gym, giving you even more options to the exercises you can do and making your workouts even more effective. Resistance bands combined with an anchor, clips and handles are the most powerful home gym equipment you can buy.
Tokyo Titan Provides Effective Personal Training, Fully Customized for Each Client
I am Tokyo Titan, an International Sports Science Association certified bodybuilding specialist fitness trainer and nutritionist. By utilizing advanced bodybuilding techniques, together, we will create your dream body. I provide fitness and dieting coaching at my private gym located in Ota-ku, Tokyo, just 4 minutes walk from Omori-machi Station on the Keikyu Line, and also online. The online sessions allow effective training, even with the busiest of schedules.
I am a native English speaker and am bilingual in Japanese, and can provide lessons in either English or Japanese. Lessons can also be designed to help English learners build up their English skills while training as a more efficient way to learn English. Please inquire for more details.
Comments