As part of my four-week Fantastic Four challenge, one of the workouts I’ve adopted is a pilates session using only a resistance band. I love this auxiliary workout because it helps build the glutes, it enhances all the work I do on my heavy weigh-training days and it pays attention to all the muscles that often go untrained. It’s not an easy workout but it’s definitely worth it, especially if the aim is to sculpt and tone the lower body.
1) Banded donkey kicks
This move is one for the ages. It’s excellent for the glutes and the core. You place the resistance bands under your knees while in a hands and knees position. Then you raise one leg into the air to form a 90-degree angle with your raised leg. The main focus should be keeping your body parallel to the ground and maintaining stability in that raised leg. You can add leg pulses if you’re secure in that position or you can hold at the top for a few seconds to add to the resistance. This should be repeated ten times on each leg.
2) Leg raises
With this workout, you have the flexibility to decide whether you’d like to place the band around your ankles or around your knees. I find it’s easier around my knees because I have the added power of my thighs driving the movement but it’s a lot more challenging with the band around the ankles. Since this is a challenge, I’ll demonstrate the latter. The importance is to ensure that your body is a straight line to support those leg raises. I do ten reps on each leg.
3) Knee raises
This workout is great for the hips, it’s become one of my favourites. The main focus is to ensure that the legs move to create a 90-degree angle between the leg that’s raised and the leg on the ground. Slow and steady is the best way to perform this exercise in order to properly reap the benefits. I repeat this movement ten times on each leg.
4) Bicycle kicks
This one is one of my least favourites but it’s so impactful, especially for the core. Like the previous one, moving slowly is how you guarantee that this exercise will do its job. You place the resistance band underneath the soles of your shoes and you alternate between straightening one leg out while keeping the other leg bent. You straighten one leg for two counts, hold the position and switch. Just ten counts of these are enough to have the legs burning.
5) Bonus move – Superman
When all four sets are done and dusted, we’ve got to take care of our backs. It may not feel like it but the back plays an important role in exercises such as pilates so we need to take care of them. I do a little superman move where I lie on my stomach and raise my arms and chest as well as my lower legs and hold the pose for a few seconds. It works wonders for the back.
Pilates is one of my newly found loves and I’m still on the journey to learn and experience the wonders of this type of movement. I find it slightly harder than yoga but rewarding in a very visible way. Let me know if there are other banded workouts you like to do in the comments section!!
