Fitness: Starwood Sports Exercise Resistance Loop Bands

BEAUTY HACK: Want to look ten pounds thinner, lift your chest two inches higher, get a flatter-looking stomach, look taller, all while making your clothes fit better? Yeah, me too. But like many of us, I spend way too much time slouching over my cell phone, my tablet and at my computer desk, which wrecks good posture. Poor posture makes you look tired and grumpy. Even worse, it can make one look less confident, weaker and just plain older than your years. Fortunately, maintaining good posture takes only a few simple at-home exercises with equipment like the Starwood Sports Exercise Resistance Loop Bands set.

WHAT ARE RESISTANCE BANDS?
An ideal way to improve your posture is by doing simple arm exercises with resistance bands. You may have seen these long, colorful ribbons of thin, flexible rubber-like material in gyms, exercise, yoga and pilates studios, or maybe even used them yourself under the guidance of a personal trainer. Resistance bands are popular because they provide weight-like resistance in a portable, adaptable form.

WHY USE RESISTANCE BANDS
Resistance bands are stretchy and flexible which makes them easier to manipulate than handheld or machine weights. Bands can be stretched or pulled from a variety of angles to increase the difficulty level of your standard workout. Of benefit to all fitness levels, these bands help an out of shape person improve as well as help a fit person who is plateauing in their existing exercise program. If you have difficulty keeping good form while using hand or ankle weights, a resistance band can help.

Why everyone can benefit from resistance loop bands:

1. When exercises such as squats, situps, leg lifts, arm raises, or the hip flexor stretch become too easy, using resistance bands adds additional resistance far beyond what just an ankle or hand weight can offer. That gives better results in fewer reps. Resistance bands come in difference strengths, or levels of resistance, giving more oomph to your exercises.

2. Resistance loop bands make for better pre-workout stretching sessions. Regardless of fitness level, everyone must stretch before exercise. Muscles warmed up by a good stretch are less prone to injury.

IMPROVING POSTURE WITH STARWOOD SPORTS EXERCISE RESISTANCE LOOP BANDS
If you would like to improve your posture at home with easy to use equipment, a good set of resistance bands are the Starwood Sports Exercise Resistance Loop Bands set. The set comes with four different bands of different strengths, light to extra heavy. This gives a full range of options for beginners, intermediate, advance and plateauing fitness routines. Starwood Sports Loop Bands can be useful in Crossfit, Pilates, Yoga, stretching and stability exercises.

A few things I particularly like about the Starwood Sports Exercise Resistance Loop Bands:

1) The bands have reinforced “handle” loops on each end. This makes it easy to grip the bands, secure a loop over a doorknob, or to slip over my foot or ankle for leg exercises. It also allows a more relaxed grip on the band so I can focus on the exercise itself. I got competitor brand resistance bands from my personal trainer and had to knot them at the end and grip the knot to use them; I like that I can do even open palm exercises with these bands.

2) The Starwood Sports Loop Bands are twelve inches long, and when stretched, they are about twice that length. Made with an eco-friendly natural latex that has inherent benefits including that the bands are snap and sweat resistant. I like knowing the band won’t snap, it allows me to confidently exert a full flexion.

3) The resistance bands come in a small bag that makes them portable enough to carry or pack in a suitcase when traveling to maintain a daily exercise program. I prefer to bring them to the gym instead of using the gym supplied bands.

4) The bands each offer a known quantity of resistance. The green band is the easiest level at a range of 6-16 pounds. To increase the “weight” of the resistance, loop the bands tighter by wrapping them around your hands, reducing the available band length between your hands to stretch during exercise.

The degrees of resistance for Starwood Sports Resistance Loop Bands are:

Green Band: (Light) 6-16 lbs (0.35 mm thick)
Blue Band: (Medium) 11-27 lbs (0.50 mm thick)
Red Band: (Heavy) 15-33 lbs (0.70 mm thick)
Black Band: (X-Heavy) 21-45 lbs (1.00 mm thick)

5) The Starwood Sports Exercise Resistance Loop Bands are “stackable,” so you can use more than one band at a time to increase the overall total resistance. To do so, stack the least resistant band on the outside, and the strongest resistance band on the inside.

RECOMMENDED POSTURE EXERCISE WITH RESISTANCE LOOP BANDS

One good posture exercise that works for everyone is a reverse fly modified for the resistance band. It strengthens the upper back muscles (trapezius and rhomboids) and tones the back of the shoulder (deltoids). This exercise eliminates rounded, slumping forward shoulders and pulls the shoulders back. This exercise works for almost everyone because you control how much resistance occurs (and how easy or difficult the exercise will be) based on how much band slack is allowed before you open your arms. If you can only do the very lightest of resistance, that still quickly improves your posture. Consult with your doctor before beginning any exercise program.

THE EXERCISE
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1. Start with the Starwood Sports GREEN band, adjust to using a stronger band or even multiple bands if preferred. Hold one handle loop in each hand.
2. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, and slightly bend your knees.
3. With arms held straight and hands slightly lower than your shoulders, hold the band in front of you.
4. Relax elbows
5. Exhale and pull your abs into the spine to stabilize the torso.
6. Slowly open your arms out to the sides, focusing on the shoulder blades moving together.
6. Inhale as you slowly return your arms back to starting position.

TIP: Focus on the abs keeping the spine stable, don’t arch your back. Try to stand tall as you open your arms.

Do three sets of 12 reps.

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CONCLUSION: Good posture is attainable in a few weeks by using a quality set of resistance bands. The Starwood Sports Exercise Resistance Loop Band Set offers four easy to use bands in snap proof, sweat resistant eco-friendly latex. These bands are useful for exercising at home, the gym or during travel. The four Loop Bands offer a full spectrum of weight resistance to improve your posture in a simple home workout and enhance Crossfit, Yoga, Pilates or a regular home workout routine.

Find Starwood Sports Exercise Resistance Loop Bands at Amazon.

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I received this product for my unbiased review and received compensation for my time and effort. However, my experience with the product and the opinions expressed in this review are 100% mine.