THERABAND Resistance Bands Set, Professional Non-Latex Elastic Band For Upper & Lower Body Exercise, Strength Training without Weights, Physical Therapy, Pilates, Rehab, Yellow & Red & Green, Beginner

Problem Solved
I have just solved a big problem. At least, it was a problem for me.I have retired, and found myself woefully out of shape, and weak – which shouldn’t have been surprising, since I have never undertaken to indulge in any sort of physical conditioning, almost at all.Oh, I have lifted the occasional dumbbell, and even have a set of barbells, but I have never seriously attempted to get into any routine of physical improvement, because I frankly never needed it.But that was before I got old, and progressively weaker.It comes on you gradually, as you get older, until one day you realize just how weak you are.When I finally did realize that I was never going to get any stronger unless I made a concerted effort to do so, I began to look around for different methods to use to build up my strength.Lifting weights has always turned me off, because for one thing, it’s hard, and you don’t see much immediate improvement. The only thing lifting weights has ever seemed to accomplish, for me, has been to induce incredible amounts of aches and pains, which I don’t need, for sure.I tried medicine balls, and bought a couple of them, but just couldn’t get too enthused about the medicine ball.Then I discovered kettlebells, and got somewhat excited, at first, because one could supposedly not only improve his basic strength situation, but even achieve superior strength, which I thought wouldn’t be a bad thing.And so I ended up buying first a ten pound, then a fifteen pound, and then even a thirty-five pound kettlebell, and began to swing them around, since that’s what you do with a kettlebell.But I very soon came to realize that they were dangerous – and a 35 lb kettlebell, swung around by an old, out-of-shape senior, just had to be a disaster waiting to happen.Can you imagine what would happen if you had sweaty hands, and lost your grip while swinging a 35 lb. kettlebell back and forth between your legs? To suddenly lose your momentum, finding yourself reeling across the room and possibly ricocheting off the wall – or worse – was something I didn’t like to think about.The sobering thought is that it only has to happen once, and if you’re lucky enough to escape without any sort of injury, or bashing some breakable item – or worse yet, breaking a foot or an ankle, what about the next time it slips out of your hands?I didn’t want to tempt fate, and continue swinging that heavy kettlebell until some misfortune actually struck, so I abandoned the whole notion of kettlebells, and began to look elsewhere.But the one thing that all of these methods of increasing your physical strength had in common was that they all involved handling heavy weights, and lifting, swinging, or in some manner moving them around.I couldn’t shake the idea that there just had to be a way to increase your muscle strength without resorting to such brutal, and physically harmful (to yourself) methods of, in one way or another, dealing with heavy weights, and all of the associated aches and pains they bring on.Isometric exercises intrigued me, and I bought several books about that, but they almost seemed too vague as to just how you would embark upon a consistent program to build yourself up, although the first hurdle seemed to be just being convinced that it actually worked, which was not altogether clear in my mind.Also, I saw, and bought, a couple of books about the “slow burn,” or lifting weights in an exaggerated super-slow method, which was supposed to short-cut the process of exhausting your muscles, so that you achieved maximum results with minimum effort. The idea was to use the heaviest weights you could manage to lift, but do it very slowly.I’m not so sure about that. The theory sounds fine, but you’re still lifting weights, although they maintain that doing it in a deliberately super-slow manner would eliminate the aches and pains of pumping iron.Finally, I saw a book about the Chest Expander, and using elastic bands or tubes to build muscle strength. This book was written by an Englishman, back in the early part of the 20th century – actually about 1930 – but I was really taken by the message he presented.He maintains that through using very low-powered strands – meaning tubes or springs or whatever, but only in strengths of 5, 10, 15, or 20 lbs. for example, and by using his methodology of exercises, which involved primarily only four or five basic moves, one could build up superior strength, and it only took a few minutes a day, with moves that generally needed about 10 or 15 reps to achieve their objective.That made sense to me, plus he had many testimonials, including pictures, of people who had achieved amazing results on his program.The problem has been that the Chest Expanders they sell today all utilize tubes with such powerful strengths that only a gorilla, or Superman, could use them.A typical example has 5 tubes, all of which are 20 kg, or 44 lbs. of resistance. That’s 220 lbs, which even Arnold himself might have trouble with.If you can stretch out a 220 lb. Chest Expander, you don’t need one.Somehow, they think that a super-powerful Chest Expander would result in a strong user. What they don’t seem to understand is that the user has to be strong enough to pull it, and that’s why he’s buying it in the first place.It doesn’t make a lot of sense for a beginner to be expected to pull world-class weight limits, but that’s what it amounts to, when you pick up a chest expander with 220 lbs. of resistance.But they just will not sell the lower-strength expanders, or even a 10 lb, for example, single-strand tube with handles, in the 16″ length of a chest expander.They’re all around 60″ in length, and can’t be shortened.However: These low-powered flat bands, (such as 10 or 15 lbs.) with the ends wrapped around a couple of 5″ lengths of PVC tube, like a scroll, which would allow me to make it any length I wanted, means that I can pull and stretch to my heart’s content, and, hopefully, achieve the fitness that he promises one can achieve, without killing yourself in the process, and attempting something so hard that it’s bound to fail.We’ll see what happens, but so far, I like it, and see no reason that I will not have the will and desire to continue, and actually make myself strong, and feel physically good, without all the aches and pains of old age, which being physically fit promises to do.

Excellent
These bands exceed my expectations! These are comparable to the ones used at physical therapy centers.

Better than the cheaper brands!
I’ve been using this brand for years. These are much better than the cheaper brands.

Didn’t Last As Long As I Thought They Would
I bought my set in 2020. I’ve been using mostly the green and red ones on and off since that time. Today, the green one snapped during a workout. I tried using one of the halves since it was long enough, but it snapped too. If I had been using this band consistently for three years, I wouldn’t be upset that it snapped, but I haven’t and feel that it should be more durable.

Good stretch bands

They stretch, they contract. As advertised!

Value for money, highly recommended for sports teams and physios