Fitness Bands

Sturdy screw eyes set into an exposed wall stud hold the bands at a variety of angles.

Six months ago I wrote about spending time in the fitness center at work, and although I was able to do several workouts there I was not able to accomplish all that I wanted. Blame COVID-19 for some of the shortfall; my office has been closed since March and I had expected to continue those workouts into early April, at least. As I wrote back in December, the big benefit of the fitness center workouts was the “pull” exercises, something for which I was not equipped in my home gym where “push” exercises predominate. Machines are simply better for pull exercises, and my home gym had only free weights.

Things have changed. For less than $20 I recently outfitted my home gym with a set of fitness bands. They don’t approach the resistance options of a $1,000+ machine, but they allow me to get some work done. And, in truth, the most important work I require of them is not a job for heavy weights anyway: I need to target my rotator cuffs, especially the left one.

You’ve heard about my series of shoulder injuries before. Well, that left shoulder hasn’t been the same since I broke my collarbone in a mountain bike race in 2013. The bone healed but clearly there was soft tissue damage that continues to trouble me. I don’t go through every day in pain, but I know the difference between 100% and whatever I’m reduced to now. So, I have embarked on a course of new exercises to target my rotator cuffs and upper back muscles. I didn’t really know how to work them before—shame on me for waiting almost 7 seven years post-injury to figure this out—but I’m already certain the fitness bands are the right tools.