Building a budget home gym but not sure what to buy? In this video, I use leg straps for a cable machine with resistance bands. Yes, you heard me, a machine leg attachment with training bands. I review them based on cost, effectiveness, versatility and practicality, and tell you whether you should buy them, whether you should consider them, or whether you should avoid them.
Contents
Cost
Effectiveness
Versatility
Practicality
The Verdict
Cost
These are leg straps. Now, they are designed for cable machines, but with a little bit of ingenuity, you can use them with resistance bands. Use an anchor to secure the bands in a door and create two band loops, clip the leg straps onto the bands, and now you have your very own makeshift cable machine for leg exercises.
I bought this pair of leg straps from Amazon, Japan for ¥1,899. That's a reasonable price for training equipment.
For cost, I rate this product four stars.
Effectiveness
I bought this pair of leg straps about a year ago, and the reason I did was that I had just bought a set containing an anchor, clips and handles to use with resistance bands.
I quickly discovered that the resistance band clips could be used with any of the cable machine attachments that I had. And also, a problem I had before getting the anchor, it was possible to do leg curls with the bands by wrapping the band around my power rack, but this created other problems. Having just the one band loop doesn't create a lot of resistance. It also makes it really difficult to balance out the load between legs. And every now and again, the band would slip off my legs. Now with these leg straps, it's a lot easier to do leg curls and leg extensions in a more effective way in my home gym.
But in all honesty, these exercises aren't very effective to begin with. They're okay. But if you want to build serious muscles on your leg, it's far more effective to do free weight exercises. Leg curls and leg extensions, even on machines in a commercial gym, there are only really good for working your leg muscles after you've already done these more effective free weight exercises. But mostly, this just provides more variation to your workouts to keep them from feeling stale.
For effectiveness, I rate this product two stars.
Versatility
Leg straps aren't going to be winning any prizes for versatility. By design, they can only be used for leg exercises, and even then it's very specific ones. As I've mentioned, they can be used for leg curls and leg extensions. Leg curls can be done either standing or lying down. The leg straps can also be used for leg abductors, where you open your leg away from your body, and leg adductors, where you close your leg in towards your body.
But no one should ever bother doing these exercises. No, seriously. Even on machines, they are the most useless exercises you can do. So that means there are only two exercises that are worth doing with these leg straps. Three If we're being really generous and count lying leg curls as a separate exercise.
For versatility, I rate this product two stars.
Practicality
These leg straps are really compact. You can easily keep them in a bag or on a shelf like I've done. So storage and taking up space are not an issue with this product. No, the problem that'll make these leg straps impractical for a lot of people is that they take a lot of time to put on and take off. It means that between sets you'll be stuck there doing nothing.
Anything you do to manage and track your workouts like recording reps and setting timers will not be possible. And of course it means you can't use these leg straps for circuit training or super sets. For someone like me who likes to use opposing muscle super sets to still do an effective workout in less time, that's a huge problem.
For practicality, I rate this product two stars.
The Verdict
These are the results for these leg straps, but now it's time for the big question: should you buy them, should you consider them, or should you avoid them?
This is a product you should avoid. The very few exercises that these leg straps allow you to do aren't very effective, and being stuck in the leg straps between sets is so limiting in the style of workouts you can do. Having additional options for how you use your resistance bands and the type of leg exercises you can do does seem really good, but honestly, it's just not worth it.
For the most effective fitness and nutrition in the shortest amount of time, contact Tokyo Titan
I am Tokyo Titan, an International Sports Science Association certified bodybuilding specialist personal trainer and nutritionist. Using advanced bodybuilding techniques, I develop a fully customized program optimized for each of my clients' individual needs. Lessons can be provided online, at a convenient location of your choosing, or at my personal gym in Ota City, Tokyo, just 4 minutes walk from Omori-machi Station on the Keikyu Line.
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