The Ultimate At-Home Strength Workout To Do With A Power Tube
Strength training tops of list of training styles when it comes to your health and wellbeing. It not only helps to speed up your metabolism, and reduce body fat, but it is essential for the health of your bones and joints, especially as you age. Strength training is also essential for building overall strength in your body, for injury prevention and for helping you maintain muscles mass. Additionally, the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that regular resistance exercise can increase your overall lifespan.
So, how often should you be lifting weights or training with resistance? To keep your muscles strong and engaged, it’s recommended that you strength train at least two to three times a week. As with cardio, it’s essential to warm up and cool down before your workout, so be sure to incorporate some dynamic moves and stretches into your pre- and post-exercise routine (think star jumps and quad stretches).
If you are not someone who enjoys hanging out in the weights room, the good news is that you can easily do some strength training from home. All with the help of products such as an active tube, active loop, active band and more.
Rugby union legends George Gregan and Matt Dixon have recently created a range of products designed to help you build your strength, flexibility, and mobility from the comfort of your home. The equipment is affordable, takes up minimal space and you can pick them up online or at any good pharmacy. Below you will see a full body workout that I have put together for you using one product, the active tube.
Give this workout a go and remember that you want to aim for around 45-60 minutes of exercise per day.
Full Body Power tube Workout
An active tube is essentially a resistance tube, with handles on it, which makes it easy to mimic any “pull” movements that you would do on a fitness machine. For some of the exercises, you will stand on the tube to keep it steady. For the others, find a suitable fixed point that you can wrap the tube around, such as a railing, that will keep it in place while you are exercising.
The exercises are as follows. Do 12 reps of each exercise, and 3 rounds. If you are feeling up to it, add 1 minute of cardio between each round. You can do a minute of running, jump rope, burpees. I will leave that decision to you.
Active Tube Low Row
- For this exercise, you will need the power tube to have a fixed point ie. Have it wrapped around a railing to keep it sturdy.
- Stand directly in front of the centre of the power tube. Have your core in tight, your shoulders back and down, feet hip width apart and the active tube handles in each hand.
- Row your elbows into your waist to the count of 3, then release your arms back to straight to the count of 3.
- You should be feeling this exercise in your lats, back, core and even your glutes if you are doing it right.
Woodchop
- For the woodchop, you will do 12 reps per side. The goal of this exercise is to work your obliques and your shoulders.
- Start facing the fixed point where the active tube is.
- Then step your left foot out diagonally (refer to the picture), and chop the resistance band towards your left hip as you move.
- The movement should be similar to the one you would do if you were chopping wood, so you are moving your leg back for momentum, and pulling the resistance diagonally across your body. It should be working your obliques, shoulder and glute on your standing leg.
- Do the movement in one count so it will be quite explosive on the way down but take 3 seconds to get back to your starting point. You want to resist on the way back to better work your core.
High Row
- This version of the row will be very similar to the low row, however your arms and hands will stay up in line with your shoulders, and you will row and release from there. So,
- Stand directly in front of the centre of the active tube. Have your core in tight, your shoulders back and down, feet hip width apart and the active tube handles in each hand, but have your hands up in line with your shoulders,
- Row your elbows back until they are at 90 degrees to the count of 3, then release your arms back to straight to the count of 3.
- You should be feeling this in your shoulders, lats and back.
Bicep curl
- Take the active tube off the railing, and instead stand on it evenly, so the handles are even in your hands.
- Stand hip width apart, suck your core in and keep your elbows tucked in at your waist.
- Slowly curl the band up until your hands are at your shoulders, then slowly lower the band for 1 rep.
Deadlift
- For this exercise, you will once again be standing on the active tube, hip width apart and holding the handles evenly in your hands.
- Push your glutes back, and keeping your core in and your shoulders back, lower down into a deadlift. Your core will be aiming for your thighs, but keep everything straight and tight.
- Then slowly stand back up to straight.
- The photo shows me using a active band, but you can use a active tube for this exercise too.
Resistance squat
- For this exercise, stand on the active tube, feet hip width apart.
- Sit back into a squat, slowly lowering down.
- Then slowly stand back up. You will have more resistance on the way up due to the resistance of the active tube.
So, it is that easy to get a full body resistance workout with a power tube from the comfort of your own home. Feel free to check out the Medifit site for more of my exercise programs too. It is good to keep your body guessing and mix up your workouts.
Van Marinos is an exercise scientist, and expert for Medifit and the founder of Community Moves
