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Sunday 15 June 2025 is our next London to Brighton Bike Ride. Sign up now!
A great way to meet new people and share your skills – we'd love for you to join our team
Find your nearest BHF shop, and book and clothing bank
Read the most comprehensive statistics on the effects, prevention, treatment, and costs of heart and circulatory diseases in the UK
We pick up furniture and electrical items from your home for free. The items you donate are sold in our stores to help fund our lifesaving research
BHF funds the science that saves lives. Your donation helps us discover new ways to beat heart diseases
Cardiac Rehabilitation Exercise Physiologist, Hara Markos, shares her top resistance band exercises to help improve your strength and flexibility.
Resistance bands are large elastic or fabric bands used for strength training and improving balance, flexibility and mobility in all areas of the body.
They can help build muscle, improve physical function and strengthen bones without having to use heavy weights or signing up to an expensive gym membership.
Resistance band exercises can also improve your balance, reducing the risk of falls and injury, and making everyday activities, like carrying something heavy or climbing stairs, easier.
Here are my tips on how to use resistance bands, plus 10 different exercises you can try for your back, shoulders, chest, arms and legs.
There are a few different types of resistance bands. Some are just long bands, while others form a loop and some have handles at both ends.
You can also get them in a variety of sizes and resistances (which is how hard they are to stretch).
For the exercises below, you just need a long elastic band, so most resistance bands should work.
Make sure the band you use has the right amount of resistance for you – it needs to be stretchy enough for you to complete the entire movement but have enough tension to feel it in your muscles.
You might want to get a set of several bands so you can change the resistance as you try different exercises and get stronger.
You can choose to perform all these exercises either standing up, sitting down or a combination of both.
In the video above, you can watch me demonstrate the exercises standing up, and Peter Richards, who has participated in cardiac rehabilitation, perform them sitting down.
Inhale as you begin each movement and exhale as you do the movement.
If you’re finding the exercise too difficult to complete while keeping the right form, use a band with less resistance, so it’s easier to stretch.
Try to perform some or all of these exercises at least 2 to 3 times a week. Make sure to leave at least a day in between each session so your muscles can rest.
If you have a heart condition or high blood pressure, check with your doctor or cardiac rehabilitation team before you get started.
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This exercise targets your upper back muscles, which can help to improve posture. It also opens your chest.
This can be helpful after you have fully healed from a sternotomy (a procedure where the chest bone is cut to operate on the heart).
Next step: Start the exercise with your hands closer together so the band is tighter to make it more challenging.
This exercise strengthens your ‘lats’, which are large muscles in the back.
Tip: To decrease the resistance, start with your hands further apart.
This movement builds strength in the rotator-cuff muscles, which helps the shoulders stay stable as you move.
Next step: After you move your hands to your side, straighten your arms out to the side for an extra stretch.
This is another exercise that can strengthen the shoulder muscles.
Tip: Raise each arm at a time to decrease the resistance.
As well as mobilising your shoulders, this exercise builds strength in the muscles in your chest.
This can help with things like pushing open a door or lifting yourself up.
Next step: To increase the resistance, start by holding the band tighter across your back.
Have you tried these stretches? Did they help you? Email your thoughts (and, if you like, photos of you trying them out) for a chance to be featured in the next magazine.
Try these bicep curls for stronger upper arms that will help you carry the shopping home or lift a heavy laundry basket or gardening waste and tools.
Tip: You can lower the resistance of the exercise by lifting each arm at a time.
This exercise helps to build strength in the triceps, which are muscles at the back of your upper arm that help you push.
Tip: If you cannot pull the band all the way back, extend your back arm as much as you can before returning to starting position.
Get stronger leg muscles and more mobile hips and knees with this exercise.
Tip: Hold the ends of the band lower and closer to your feet to decrease the resistance.
Abductions can strengthen the abductor muscles that sit on the outside of your hips, which can help improve your balance.
Tip: If you feel wobbly standing up, hold onto the wall or the back of a chair for support.
This is a more challenging exercise that builds strength in your leg muscles, as well as improving mobility in your hips, knees and ankles.
Tip: If you cannot stand up, try a seated leg press (see above) instead to build strength in the leg muscles.
Hara Markos is a Cardiac Rehabilitation Exercise Physiologist at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex, where she helps people recover from heart conditions or surgery through exercise. She's also a course tutor and assessor for the British Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation (BACPR).
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