How to Do Squats with Resistance Bands

Series Summary

Resistance training is the foundation of building and toning muscles. Whether you want to shed pounds, build bulk, or strengthen your heart, resistance training is right for you. Of course, your doctor would know best. Resistance training includes weight-lifting, body weight exercises like push ups or crunches, and more recently doing exercises with rubber or elastic bands that stretch to offer resistance. Trying out resistance exercises might be just what your aerobic workout needs to start targeting and toning your muscles while you lose weight.

In this free video series, Jeannette Stojcevski will teach you how to work out your lower body with resistance exercises for your glutes, thighs, and calves. You will learn varieties of squats, lunges, hip extensions, and more. Jeannette gives tips for calf raises, jump squats, reverse lunges, and even plie squats (using a ballet inspiration). It is all here to make your glutes, legs, and midsection toned and sexy.

Video Transcript

"The first exercise we are going to do for the lower body is your basic squat. We're going to use the red tube and I'm going to show you different variations so that you can change up the feel of the squats slightly. First, I'm going to have you step on the resistance tube so that the tube is right underneath your arches. Make sure it's secure and that it's underneath the arches of your shoes. What you're going to do is you're going to bend your knees slightly, feet should be about hip-width apart, and you're going to bring up the handles of the resistance tube, right up to your shoulders. Now, so that the tube stays in place and so that its secure, your elbows need to be in front of the resistance tubes so the tube is behind your upper arms. This will make sure that the tube is in place. Now, what I need you to do, first: we'll start with your basic squat. So, we're going to go over your basic form, which is: abs in tight, which is your core - always keep your abs in tight. Feet are about hip-width apart and your knees are slightly bent, nice tall posture, head is up. From here, what I want you to think about doing is bending at your hips first, and then your knees. This should be as if you're sitting in a chair. So envision a chair behind you, keeping your abs in tight and tightening your glutes as you come up from the chair. You're going to sit in your chair and hold for about two seconds and then come up as you start tightening your glutes. Now you don't want to fully lock your knees, keep your knees nice and soft."