Getting one of those fancy smart home gyms with on-demand video training is nice and all. When you consider the upfront cost and the recurring monthly subscription, though, it ends up being an expense many just aren’t willing to take on. Suffice to say, it gets expensive.
Alternatively, you can invest in basic free weights equipment and use the glut of free online resources to do your home training as a more economical option, but that will still require purchasing expensive gear and clearing up space in your home to house all that heavy iron. While that is a great option for some, it’s still not viable for everyone.
If you live in a small space and want to do your training on a budget, your best recourse is to go the resistance band route. They’re quite a cheap investment, while being versatile enough to let you do most exercises you will be doing with free weights. Plus, they’re something you can keep using as you progress, as they’re usually offered in different sizes with varying levels of resistance. Heck, you can even combine two bands in a single exercise if your strongest band no longer offers enough of a challenge. All that and you can easily stash them in a small bag, making it easy to store at home and even bring along whenever you’re traveling.
Here are the best resistance band sets to get you a cost-effective strength training at home.
SPRI Superband
While bands designed to clip to handles have become very popular for home fitness training, many professional trainers still prefer traditional resistance bands, which are thicker, stronger elastic bands created as one continuous loop. That design allows you to vary resistance by simply adjusting the slack on the band, while the heavy-duty build eliminates the need to add any cover material, as they tend to hold up so much better over time.
SPRI’s Superband is one of the more popular in the category, with five different widths of bands offering different variable maximum weights each. The half-inch bands offer up to 10 pounds of resistance, the 0.75-inch band up to 20 pounds, the 1-inch band up to 30 pounds, the 1.75-inch up to 40 pounds, and the 2.5-inch up to 50 pounds. All the bands are 40 inches long and 3/16-inch thick, with enough stretch that you can stand over the bottom part of the band and raise the top over your head with outstretched arms. We recommend starting out with the lightest band, trying out the exercises (they have a downloadable exercise guide) to see how you like it, and going on from there. It’s particularly useful for assisted pullups – something you won’t get from non-looping bands that are currently very popular for home use.
Supalax 15-Piece Exercise Elastic Bands Set
Some resistance band sets are made for beginners. Others are designed for folks who already have built up some strength from previous training. This one definitely belongs in the latter category, as it contains five bands with tension ranging from 20 pounds to 40 pounds. That’s right, this is for those who like to lift heavy. It comes with two padded ankle straps, four padded handles, and two door anchors, with a stackable design that lets you load up to 150 pounds on each side.
The bands are covered in a nylon sleeve that prevent the bands from hitting the user in the event that they snap, while providing protection for the bands so they incur less wear and tear over time. We really appreciate the use of a loose fabric sleeve rather than a tubular one for a very specific reason, as that makes it easier to stand on the band when performing exercises like shoulder presses and rows, especially once you get to stacking multiple bands to pile on the weight.
GoFit Resist-A-Bar Gym
Most resistance band kits come with hand grips, ankle straps, and door anchors to let you perform a variety of exercises that resemble both free weight dumbbells and some gym machines. This one swaps in the ankle straps in favor of a bar to let you mimic barbell exercises using resistance bands. It comes with three of the outfit’s tubular elastic bands, coming with 30 pounds, 40 pounds, and 50 pounds of tension respectively. Yes, they’re stackable, too, so you can be lifting up to 240 pounds if you use the bar, making this viable for both intermediate and more advanced lifters. While you’re at it, we’d also recommend getting the ankle straps separately as they allow you to add a good load of leg exercises to your workouts.
Body Boss 2.0 Portable Gym
With most resistance bands, you will need to step on the bands to perform exercises like deadlifts and shoulder presses. They’re fine when you’re stepping on one band. When you’re stacking multiple bands, it can get uncomfortable, making some exercises difficult to perform. This kit addresses that by coming with a foot board where you can clip the included bands, allowing you to secure them to the ground without having to step on top of the bands themselves. It’s a simple yet clever change that makes it so much more convenient to perform many exercises.
It comes with a door anchor, individual handle grips for each band, two limb straps for attaching to your ankles or wrists, and even a collapsible bar for simulating barbell exercises. The bands are designed to be variable resistance, allowing you to change the tension by simply changing the amount of slack. Sadly, the basic kit only comes with two bands (one each for the left and right hand), each one coming with a maximum 30 pounds of weight. As such, you’ll probably want to get the pricier kits with extra bands if you want to lift heavier weights.
Bodylastics Level 6 Band Training Kit “Mega”
Bodylastics offer different “levels” of resistance band sets, all of which come with bands made using woven cords that prevent overstretching, making them much less likely to break compared to other resistance bands. Even when they do break, it also has a tubular cover that should keep the bands from hitting you, so it’s doubly safe.
They’re very popular among people doing their home workouts for this reason, which is why all of the levels are currently sold out, save for the “Mega,” their most expensive set. Truth be told, it’s a little too much, as it’s advertised with 404 pounds’ worth (202 pounds on each side) of total band tension. Still, if you want safe and durable bands that you can keep using until you’re all muscled up chest pressing 200 pounds, this is it. It comes with 14 bands, with tensions varying from 3 to 30 pounds, with a stackable design that lets you combine bands gradually increase the weight. Set includes four handles, four ankle straps, and two door anchors, allowing you to perform different exercises for every muscle group, complete with a carrying bag, so you can quickly tidy up after your training session is done.
RBT Quantum Band Muscle Maximizer Kit
RBT specializes in traditional continuous resistance bands – the thick, wide, and heavy-duty variety, but they also sell kits that are designed to enable a varied workout. This particular kit includes two 41-inch bands with 5 to 30 pounds of variable resistance, two 41-inch bands with 15 to 55 pounds of variable resistance, two 41-inch bands with 20 to 85 pounds of variable resistance, two 41-inch bands with 30 to 115 pounds of variable resistance, one 13-inch stabilizer band with 5 to 20 pounds of variable resistance, and one 13-inch stabilizer band with 15 to 35 pounds of variable resistance. To allow for more versatile exercises, it comes with a pair of attachable handles, a link strap (for connecting two bands together), and a door anchor. This kit, by the way, comes with Muscle Maximizer training program, which takes you a 28-day workout meant to increase both muscle size and general muscularity.