Whether you exercise at home or love the gym, these two bits of kit from Les Mills will give your workout an instant boost. They’re effective, easy to store – and on sale
It might be a terrible cliche, but one of my resolutions for the New Year was to take my fitness more seriously. I typically do home workouts that fit in easily around my daily routine, but sometimes you just don’t feel like you’re getting quite the same effect as you would from a workout at the gym.
Although I’d love nothing more than a fully equipped home gym, space is very much an issue, which is why having piles of dumbbells or equipment is a no-go. Enter the Les Mills SHAPES Bundle 2.0, which includes two very simple pieces of equipment that have instantly made a difference to the intensity of my workouts – and they’re small enough to fit in a drawer.
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The Les Mills SHAPES Bundle 2.0 is currently on sale down from £64 to £55, and contains three different resistance bands and one set of bamboo sliders, both of which can be instantly incorporated into your existing exercise routine to level it up. As well as the bits of kit, you’ll also get three months of Les Mills Premium membership for free, which gives you loads of really great workouts you can follow along with.
The resistance bands were a brilliant addition to my workout, and you get three different “strengths” of bands; light, medium and heavy, which you can use for all kinds of exercises. You can wear them around your thighs to add extra intensity to glute bridges and squats, or around your forearms to create resistance that mimics a fly machine at the gym.
I found these the easiest to include in my routine, as they can roll up super small and be put in a gym bag, or left with your mat and trainers in a cupboard. They’re also a great way to monitor changes, as you can increase the band strength once you find yourself feeling stronger.
They’re really handy for doing more dynamic warmups before you exercise, helping increase strength and flexibility, and the rubber grips on the inside are great, as they stop the bands from sliding around on your body or dropping down while you move.
The other item in the kit is the bamboo sliders, which can be used to create a more intense workout, and assist with things like strengthening your core, increasing your range of motion and making simple exercises more difficult. You can use them to slide your leg out into a lunge rather than stepping, or with planks and push ups to move your hands or legs outwards to build core stability.
The idea behind them is that they force you to use all of your muscles during the movement, rather than isolated muscles. Although they’re touted as being usable on all surfaces, I will admit I found they didn’t slide too well on my carpet, which has a medium pile. However when I tried them on a hardwood floor they were brilliant, so that’s something worth considering when you’re setting up your workout zone.
If you want some that slide more easily on carpet, these Peachy Bay Core Sliders for Carpet and Hardwood Floor, £6.79 on Amazon, have gotten rave reviews from people who’ve found they work on all carpet piles. If you also would prefer to just add the bands to your workout, you can shop them individually from Les Mills, with the set of three Sculpt Bands costing £45.
Both items also come in a handy mesh bag, which means you can keep them all together and makes them easy to chuck in a bag, cupboard or drawer. I’ve definitely enjoyed using both items in my exercise routines lately, and they’ve helped me feel like even my home workouts have given me more intensity without spending more time actually working out.
Shop the Les Mills SHAPES Bundle 2.0 on sale now.
