Fitness Equipment Review: Perfect Bands Kit

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Good variety of exercises, easy to use

Cons: No exercise booklet included, door anchor might not work on all doors.

The Bottom Line:

Two resistance bands

Create opportunity

For good home workout

Great Way to Bring the Gym Home

I have such good intentions of working out at home, and then I just don’t do it.  Frankly, it’s one reason I don’t join a gym, I don’t work out at home, so I why should I spend the money for a gym membership.  But when I have gone to a gym, I’ve enjoyed some of the variety of things you can do.  That’s why I jumped at a chance to get the Perfect Bands Kit.

This kit contains everything you need to get more exercise at home.  The core of the kit are the two rubber resistance bands.  One is 10 pounds and one is 15 pounds, or you can combine them for a total of 25 pounds.  Additionally, you get handles to attach to the bands, and a door anchor.

Notice something missing in that listing?  That’s right, they don’t give you an exercise guide.  The piece of paper that comes with it, which explains how to attach the bands, does give you a web address so you can download and print out the exercise guide.  Frankly, this just seems cheap to me.  Everyone is going to want it, so why not include it?  Still, it is available as long as you have the internet and a printer.

The handles are actually fairly easy to attach to the bands, making it easy to set up and switch out bands if you so desire.  This holds true if you want to combine the bands as well.  I’ve had no problems with that at all.  Everything seems sturdy and durable.  I’ve only had my set for a couple of weeks, so I don’t know how durable it truly is, but I don’t see it falling apart any time soon.

The door anchor is the trickiest part of the set.  You need to put this anchor through a door with enough of a gap in the hinge side for it to fit thought.  (And trust me, you want to use the hinge side of the door.  No, I didn’t break a door, but watching how much it moved when I pulled was very scary.)  Fortunately, I’ve found I can use this in my bedroom without any issues, but the door is rather tight as it closes on the anchor.  I tried it on another couple of doors and couldn’t get them to work at all because it was too thick.

I’m not a creative guy, so without the booklet, I’m sure there are many exercises I would have missed doing with these bands.  The guide includes every muscle group in your body from the neck down.  Yes, there’s even one they say that you can do for your core.  Honestly, some of these I don’t quite get from the instructions, but I need to watch a demo and then have someone correct me as I’m doing it to truly get it correct.  That’s more on me.

But let me tell you, the exercises I do know I’m doing correctly – I feel it.  I quickly found that I got the best results by combining the two bands (which is super easy to do).  And after a couple of reps, I can certainly feel it.  Mostly, I notice this with the upper body exercises, which again is a matter of doing it correctly.  I know these are working.

Another great thing about this set is that it is expandable.  The company offers bands at a greater variety of weights than are offered in this starter set.  I haven’t priced them, but it is something I will definitely look into if I actually start using these on a regular basis.  I’m sure anyone who uses them will find they quickly grow beyond these two resistance levels.

Now, I don’t think these bands are the only thing you’ll need or even want when it comes to home fitness, but they make a great tool to have and include.  I still intend to use them in addition to push ups, sit ups, my over the door pull up bar, and planks.  As you see, I really have no excuse.

Now, to just find and keep the motivation to use the Perfect Bands Kit on a regular basis.  If I can, I’ll find these really help me get my body into shape beyond the running I already do.  Maybe I’ll actually stick to my New Year’s Resolution on exercise this year.  (Okay, you can stop laughing at me know.)

NOTE: I received this product free for review via Amazon’s Vine program.