Resistance Band Workout

 It looks so innocent curled up on the floor but this thing almost killed me today!

I bought these bands several years ago after reading about various exercises.  I tried the DVD that came with them once, decided it was impossible, and threw the bands and DVD in the bottom of my closet. 



Lately I've been looking for exercises to strengthen my shoulders and arms.  My yoga workout did not go well yesterday.  I really struggle to hold my arms out in the T-position (in warrior pose, for example).  I'm in pain after about 30 seconds.  So today I pulled these bands out again.  The cover of the DVD says:

• Stretch and strengthen
• Increase aerobic stamina
• Improve posture and balance

Great!   I need all of those.  Well right from the beginning I had issues.  It came with 3 bands of different difficulty.  I've never used anything but the easiest but last winter my husband used the medium band to rehab his collarbone.  So first I had to move the handles from one band to the other.  It took me at least 15 minutes to accomplish that.  Not a good sign!

Finally I was ready to actually start the workout.  I managed several times to get myself tangled in the band and a couple times collapsed to the floor!  I'm sure I looked ridiculous.  There are three people on the disk and I was following "Jim", an older, slightly chubby man - possibly bad knees.  I couldn't keep up with him!  There were points when I didn't have the strength to get into the starting position, let alone stretch from there.  I know my form was a mess.  I spent a lot of time pausing the disk and rewinding trying to figure out how to accomplish these exercises.

When it was done (keep in mind it was only 30 minutes), my arms were so sore I could barely lift a glass of water to my mouth.  As I was lying on the floor, exhausted, I was thinking that next time I should go slower and focus on my form and not worry about keeping up with their pace.  And that is when it hit me - I was planning to do this workout again.  Running has taught me that no matter how bad you do today, just keep going and you will get better.  Don't give up.

The cats sat in the window watching the whole sad event.  I'm sure they were wondering why I do these crazy things!