Resistance bands; Not as easy as it looks

So recently I purchased a set of resistance bands. The ones I chose were the 'Starwood sports' set of four bands which are avaliable on Amazon and cost £7.99. The bands come in different levels of resistance, the green is light, the blue is medium the red is heavy and finally the black is x-heavy. They come in a handy storage pouch. I had seen a lot of good things about resistance bands on social media and YouTube fitness vlogs etc and was keen to try them out.
Also I have been stuck in a bit of an exercise rut recently just doing kettlebell workouts and going walking (the walking is partly to get some LISS in...partly to get my baby to go to sleep!) and I wanted to mix things up with my workouts a bit. It's easy to get bored and de-motivated just doing the same workouts again and again so I want to incorporate something a bit different into my routine.
One of my 'work in progress' body areas also happens to be my bum which, as I have spoken about before, is not particularly round or bootylicious and quite frankly needs some help and I am hoping that resistance band workouts can assist with this!

I completed my first workout with them yesterday, I went on YouTube and found a 'GymRa' resistance band total body workout conducted by the incredibly toned Christine Curry. Now when deciding which band to use I was definitely a little ambitious. I figured that because I use an 8kg kettlebell for all my upper body kettlebell work and either a 10kg or a 12kg for my lower body that I was pretty strong and would definitely be using either the medium or heavy resistance band. How wrong was I! I was switching to the green 'light' band after a couple of reps on the upper body parts! Resistance band work is seriously tough stuff, it gives your body a different sort of burn to the kettlebell exercises but I persevered and completed the entire workout and I definitely felt the effects today! 

Today was a successful day workout-wise, partly because Richard was on a day off from work so could keep an eye on baby while I exercised. I managed to complete my 'Kettlercise Ignite' DVD Detonator 30 minute workout (which is by no means easy) but I then decided to do some band work aswell and specifically target my glutes. Again I turned to YouTube and found the 'FitForceFX' channel, which I quickly subscribed to. I decided to complete their 'Glutes gone wild: Resistance band leg & Booty Workout' it's only around 20 minutes long. I managed to get through the workout fairly easily using the 'Heavy' resistance band and, if I'm honest I probably could have used the 'X-heavy' for a couple of the exercises seeing as the routine is only 12 reps of each move. I am still learning the ropes with the bands though and how to position them correctly to minimise the risk on them pinging off and smacking me on the bum (ouch) so I thought I would stick to the heavy for now. The workout was good, I would probably repeat it twice if I hadn't already done a kettlebell workout before hand, but I do like to challenge myself with exercise and feel a burn.

Going forward I am aiming to do a resistance band workout at least 2-3 times per week combined with my usual kettlebell training. I may do the resistance band glute workouts after kettlebell training some days aswell (when Rafe lets me) as this is an area I need to work on and I am not particuarly keen on doing loads of squats and lunges with weights (in fact I despise lunges, which is possibly why my bum is so flat!)

I definitely consider the bands to be a good purchase they are inexpensive and easy to store without taking up too much room. They are also ideal to take on holiday for a hotel room workout and I am hoping to see good results with them after a bit more use. I will keep you posted!

Jx
 
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