Want to improve strength - weights or fitness bands

[heisthegaffer]

In an effort to lose weight, have a healthy focus and gain strength, I'm toying with the idea of doing weights.

A pal of mine has said resistance bands are better. Must admit, I don't have a lot of room so bands appeal for this reason.

Anyone got any experience to share? Budget of 30 to 40 quid. What will that get me?

[Douglas Quaid]

Buy a pull up bar. You should get a wall mounted one for that.

You won’t be able to afford any weights for that money they’re a lot more expensive.

[Chainsaw Rebuild]

Resistance bands are not even in the same galaxy as weights for improving strength op. There is a famous programme called Starting Strength; do that and you will do well.

It's a fairly basic programme that focuses on the core lifts, training 3x a week. https://startingstrength.com/get-started/programs

[Chainsaw Rebuild]

Sorry op - just to add you will need to join a gym. If you really really cant do that then the British Arm have a fitness app you can download, here is their website https://www.army.mod.uk/home-fitness/

That will get you fit, but you wont get as strong as you will get with weights, it however basically free.

[heisthegaffer]

Thanks very much all - really appreciate the responses.

[biggbn]

Body weight exercises, free squats, pressups, dips, chins , burpees, sit ups and put your thirty quid towards two months membership of a budget gym.

[gregs656]

You can do a lot with resistance bands at home. Along side a pull up bar and some way of doing dips you can go a long way, and take up basically no space.

Doing home workouts most of this year I would have been much more limited without the bands.

[TheThing]

If I only had £40 to spend on fitness equipment it would be a pull up bar at roughly £25, a set of gymnastic rings at £10 and a skipping rope at £5. These 3 bits of equipment would be brilliant for all your strength/conditioning needs. You just need to learn how to use them! But there's plenty of good videos online.

Second on the list would be a second hand kettlebell from gumtree/ebay/shock. There's loads you can do with these for strength/conditioning and again, plenty of instructional videos online.

[Fusion777]

Kettlebell or a pair of dumbbells for that budget. You'll only be able to have one/one set, but it's a good start. Don't underestimate what you can do with basic equipment. Plenty of ways of increasing intensity to make a lower weight harder- supersets/drop sets, more reps, slow negatives, less rest between sets, slower movements, etc.

[ColdoRS]

Put your £40 towards a couple of months gym membership.

Squat. Bench. Deadlift. Overhead Press.

[gregs656]

ColdoRS said:

Put your £40 towards a couple of months gym membership.

Squat. Bench. Deadlift. Overhead Press.

Not sure I agree a gym membership is a great idea at the moment.

Even when my gym was open I chose to work out at home because I can do it in my lunch hour, so actually going to the gym is a bit of a chore in comparison.

[ColdoRS]

gregs656 said:

ColdoRS said:

Put your £40 towards a couple of months gym membership.

Squat. Bench. Deadlift. Overhead Press.

Not sure I agree a gym membership is a great idea at the moment.

Even when my gym was open I chose to work out at home because I can do it in my lunch hour, so actually going to the gym is a bit of a chore in comparison.

I too worked out from home during the gym closures but I couldn’t wait to get back!

I had a heavy kettlebell and a set of resistance bands at home - with some creativity I managed to hit most muscle groups and get the HR up but it wasn’t a patch on heavy barbells - it’s really motivated me and my gym workouts have been great this last week or so.

[Google [bot]]

Douglas Quaid said:

Buy a pull up bar. You should get a wall mounted one for that.

I agree, a great workout. However, I am 6 weeks into 10 of neck brace having broken my neck when mine gave way. C7 unstable fracture, I’m very lucky I’m not quadriplegic. Do not think it won’t give way or that if it does you’ll do minimal damage.

[ColdoRS]

Google [bot] said:

I agree, a great workout. However, I am 6 weeks into 10 of neck brace having broken my neck when mine gave way. C7 unstable fracture, I’m very lucky I’m not quadriplegic. Do not think it won’t give way or that if it does you’ll do minimal damage.

Custard.

[V8covin]

If I could only buy 1 piece of equipment and only had 40 quid I'd be looking for a 2nd hand dip/pull up station.
Something like this.
https://www.hardcastlebodybuilding.com/hardcastle-...
These were less than £60 2 years ago btw

[CheesecakeRunner]

V8covin said:

These were less than £60 2 years ago btw

At the moment however, prices for secondhand gym equipment are utterly mental due to lockdowns.

[V8covin]

CheesecakeRunner said:

At the moment however, prices for secondhand gym equipment are utterly mental due to lockdowns.

Yep although I've seen a couple of similar items around the £60 mark used on ebay

[Hoink]

I bought a pull up mate which might be suitable. Plenty now available on ebay and packs away nicely when not in use.

[Google [bot]]

ColdoRS said:

Custard.

I don’t have custard, hopefully this satisfies you.

[didelydoo]

Pull up bar, kettlebell, duck tape to tape stuff to kettlebell. Couple of resistance bands of cash left.

You can get very strong and build plenty muscle doing that