Skip the gym – pack on upper body muscle with a resistance band and this 15 minute workout

Building muscle doesn’t require a gym membership, or having to spend a fortune on expensive home gym equipment ; a resistance band is one of the most underrated training tools you can buy for operation muscles. Not only is this long piece of elastic a great way to increase the intensity of bodyweight exercises without breaking the bank, it can also beef up the muscles and increase strength. In just15 minutes, this workout will hit all areas of your upper body, including the biceps, triceps, delts and lats. So, grab your band and get ready to get your pump on.

The National Academy of Sports Medicine says: “One meta-analysis revealed that when testing either band against free weights and machines on increases in muscular strength for both the lower and upper body, no differences were found between methods.” If you were therefore doubting whether you’d get an effective workout using bands, there’s no need to.

For this workout you’re going to do each exercise for 40 seconds of work, followed by a 15 second rest. Ideally, you’re going to need a long pull-up band for this workout like this one (external link) and, if the resistance isn’t heavy enough, just stand on it to shorten its resistance. There’s no repeats, so once you’ve completed all the exercises the below, you’re done! Here’s the workout:

• Overhead tricep extension (right side)
• Overhead triep extension (left side)
• Bicep curls
• Single arm raises with a hold (right side)
• Single arm raises with a hold (left side)
• Standing chest press
• Band pull aparts
• Alternating lat pull down
• One arm shoulder press (right side)
• One arm shoulder press (left side)
• Bent over row
• Single arm diagonal raise (right side)
• Single arm diagonal raise (left side)
• Tricep kickbacks

It's not only your upper body that you can train with resistance bands, check out this full-body banded workout to hit all your muscle groups. If it's just a lower body workout you fancy instead, then five-move session a go!