Four weeks of full-body training with a resistance band and a door in your home, starting Monday, November 2.
- Seven exercises for legs, back, chest, and core, explained one by one.
- Three workouts a week, each under half an hour.
- The schedule for the month, November 2 to 29.
- How to make the exercises a little harder each week.
- Which bands to buy and how to anchor them to a door.
A resistance band costs little and fits in a drawer. For training at home through the winter, it’s hard to ask for more.
Before you start, there’s one thing to know: a band doesn’t stay the same weight the way a dumbbell does. The further you stretch it, the harder it pulls. Picture a hill that gets steeper as you climb. The start of the movement is easy, the end is hard. In the squat, for example, the tough part comes right as you’re about to finish standing up.
The program uses exactly this to make the exercises a little more demanding every week. It trains the whole body together: arms and shoulders on their own already have a workout of their own, and the same goes for using a band to improve your posture.
The Exercises in Each Session
Do the seven exercises in this order. Six of them call for a band with handles; the bridge needs a small loop band, known as a mini band. You’ll find the reps in the table.
Squat with the Band Under Your Feet
Stand on the band with your feet slightly apart and hold the handles at shoulder height. Lower yourself as if you were sitting down on a chair, chest up and heels on the floor, then stand back up. Watch the top of the movement, where it’s hardest: your knees shouldn’t cave inward.
Door-Anchored Row
Anchor the band to the door at chest height, take the handles, and step back until the band starts to pull with your arms straight. Bring your hands toward your stomach by driving your elbows back, close to your sides, then return slowly. Keep your shoulders down and your torso still. Don’t lean back to pull.
Romanian Deadlift
Step back onto the band and hold the handles in front of your thighs, knees slightly bent. Push your hips back and let your torso lower, hands sliding down your legs to just below the knees. You’ll feel the pull in the back of your thighs. Then come back up. Your back stays flat: if going lower means rounding it, stop sooner.
Standing Chest Press with the Band Behind Your Back
Wrap the band behind your back at shoulder-blade height and hold the handles in front of your chest. Set one foot slightly ahead of the other for balance. Press your hands forward until your arms are straight, like a push-up done standing, then return slowly. Your torso stays still; only your arms move.
Mini Band Glute Bridge
Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor, and the mini band just above your knees. Drive through your heels to lift your hips until your shoulders, hips, and knees form a straight line, hold for a second at the top, and lower. Keep your knees pressing slightly out against the band. If they collapse inward, the mini band is too strong.
Overhead Press
Standing on the band, bring the handles to shoulder height. Press them up until your arms are straight, then bring them back down. Don’t arch your back to get them up there: squeezing your glutes helps, and if that isn’t enough, use a lighter band.
Pallof Press
Anchor the band to the door at chest height and stand side-on to the door, holding the handle with both hands in front of your chest. Step sideways until the band is taut, then extend your arms straight out, hold for two seconds, and bring them back. The band pulls you toward the door, and the whole job is refusing to let it turn you. Once you’ve finished the reps on one side, switch sides.
The Program Week by Week
You train three times a week with a rest day in between. The table uses Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but you can move them around to suit your week. Each workout is a circuit: do the seven exercises back to back, rest for a minute and a half, and go again, for three rounds. Before you start, warm up with a light round at half the reps. The whole session takes less than half an hour.
You’ll pick the right band during your first workout. It should let you do ten clean reps while feeling like you have four or five more in you. Most people end up needing two: a stronger one for squats and deadlifts, a lighter one for the exercises that work your arms.
| Week | Days | Rounds | Reps | What Changes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | November 2, 4, 6 | 3 | 10 | Learn the movements |
| 2 | November 9, 11, 13 | 3 | 15 | More reps |
| 3 | November 16, 18, 20 | 3 | 10 | Tighter band |
| 4 | November 23, 25, 27 | 3 | 10 | Slower movement |
For the Pallof press, reps are counted per side.
Week one is about getting comfortable with the exercises. Move without rushing or jerking, and check the cues above on every rep. If a band still feels too light at the tenth rep, swap it right away: better to find out on day one than halfway through the month.
Week two is the simplest to understand. Same band, five more reps. The hill hasn’t changed; you just climb it more times.
In week three the hill gets steeper. The easiest way to do that is to shorten the band: wrap it once around your hand or, for the door exercises, take half a step back. That way the band is already taut when you begin, and the easy part of the movement disappears. If the fifteen reps in week two felt easy, shortening won’t be enough, so move up to the stronger band. Reps drop back to ten. The mini band can’t be shortened for the bridge: if fifteen reps were easy, switch to a stronger one; if not, stay at fifteen.
In week four you keep the band from week three but slow down. When you reach the end of the movement, the hardest point, pause for one second, then return on a slow count of three. In the Pallof press, hold for three seconds instead of two. It looks like a small change. It turns out to be the toughest week of the month.
You’re ready for the next week when the last two reps of every round are hard but still done well. If one exercise isn’t there yet, repeat the week for that exercise only and move on with the rest. A five-week month beats four sloppy weeks with your back rounding on the deadlift.
When the month is over, start again from week one with the band you finished on. The hill will be a little steeper than it was in November.
Choosing Your Bands and Anchoring Them Safely
You need two kinds of band. The first is a tube band with handles, usually sold as a set of different resistances with a door anchor included. The second is the mini band, the short loop used for the bridge. Each color stands for a different resistance, but colors vary from brand to brand, so it’s better to buy a single set and compare the bands against each other.
The door anchor is a strap with a bulge at one end. The bulge sits on the far side of the door, the strap goes through the gap, and the band slides through the loop. Place it on the hinge side, lock the door, and make sure the door opens away from you: that way, when you pull, it shuts tighter instead of swinging open. Never tie the band to the doorknob.
Look the band over before every workout. If you find a crack or a sticky spot, replace it. Keep it away from heaters and direct sunlight. And when you’re standing on it, wear shoes that won’t slip: a band that shoots out from under your foot comes back at you with all the force you put into stretching it. Not a pleasant feeling.