Tone your legs with resistance bands

Using resistance bands is a terrific way to strengthen and tone your body without the need for fancy weight lifting equipment or a gym membership. They are inexpensive and widely available in chain stores and online, and come in a variety of tensions to match your level of fitness.

In today’s exercise video, we’ll look at using a resistance band to strengthen and tone the lower body, including your hips, thighs and butt in only a few minutes a day, a few days a week. Creating stronger, more toned and shapely legs has never been easier.

Triple kicks: The Power of 3

The triple kicks resistance band exercise is great as it combines the fitness power of three exercises without requiring different nautilus machines to accomplish. Now, with a simple band, you can do all three for the cost of two cups of coffee. This resistance exercise set works your hips, glutes and quads for stronger legs, more endurance and improved cardiovascular function.

The triple kicks are leg lifts to the front, side and back, with simple foot extension or flexion to improve the results. The front kick works the quads; the side kick works the hips; and the rear kick works the glutes.

All you need is a support, about four feet of space, and a resistance band. In this video Tema is holding on to her mantelpiece, but a sturdy bookshelf, a countertop, a banister or even a wall can do the trick. You just need some support to help maintain balance and an upright posture as much as possible.

The bands are easy to find and come in different colors, representing different levels of resistance. You can’t go wrong grabbing a set of three different colored bands which will allow you to progress in resistance as your strength increases over time.

Warm up first

Before we add the resistance band to this exercise set, we will warm up by going through the movements without resistance. In this way, you can learn the sequence of the triple kicking motions, find your balance and warm up your body. It is always important to do a warm up before exercising and this particular series is the perfect way because the warm up and the resistance exercise are one and the same.

Once you have increased your blood flow, loosened your joints and stretched your muscles a bit through the non-resistance version, you will step into the resistance band and do it all again. This time, though, it will be more difficult with the band, and the resistance will add a strength training component, a cardiovascular component and an endurance component to the exercise.

Form and sequence

Stand tall, tuck in your pelvis, squeeze your glutes and tighten your abdominals.

You will do the triple kicks with your outside leg; that is, the one furthest from the support or wall. For the warm-up, you want to do three sets of triple kicks: front, side, back.

Begin the first kick by pointing your foot as you kick your leg out in front of you. Really squeeze the quad as you do this.

For the second kick, flex your foot by pulling the toes back toward the shin, as you raise your leg out to your side.

For the final kick, flex the foot again as you lift your leg up behind you.

Now turn around and hold onto your support with the other hand, and repeat the three kicks with the other leg.

The warm up is complete once you have completed three sets of triple kicks (front, side, back) with each leg. Now it’s time to add the resistance band.

Resistance time!

Simply step into the band, one foot at a time, until it encircles your ankles. If you are not flexible or your balance needs improvement, you can do this sitting in a chair or on the floor.

Once the bands are in place, stand with your feet shoulder’s width apart so there is tension in the band from the start. You will feel it in your thighs. Now it’s time to repeat the above triple kicks sequence to the front, side, then back. You will feel the difference right away and be on your way to strengthening, toning and developing your legs and hips.

Try for a set of 10 triple kicks with the right leg, then turn around and switch sides and do 10 triple kick reps with the left leg. It’s more challenging than you may at first think, but so easy that you’ll love them. And because the bands come in different levels of resistance, you can adjust as needed.

You can also use resistance bands for strong, shapely arms.