Written by Kirsten Yovino | CPT Brookbush Institute
Fact checked by Tyler DiGiovanni, BSBM
FACT CHECKED
Are you looking for the best ways to use your fabric booty bands or are you thinking about buying booty bands and you just want to see how you can use them? Perfect. This has everything you need to know regarding how to use booty bands. We are covering all of the best uses for these short, lightweight, highly beneficial hip resistance bands.
WHAT IS A BOOTY BAND?
Booty bands are short continuous looped resistance bands that you place around your thighs, calves or ankles (most commonly speaking). They are used for better activation of the lower body muscles during free weight exercises or for additional resistance to bodyweight movements like squats, lunges, kicks, side steps, and so on.
Booty bands can be made from latex rubber or a fabric elastic material. The latex rubber booty bands generally provide lighter resistance and they are more stretchable, making them somewhat more versatile. However, the fabric elastic booty bands provide more resistance, so they are more effective for glute/leg activation and resistance to lower body exercises.
There are pros and cons to both latex and fabric resistance bands. We prefer fabric bands because they are non-slip, they don’t roll up, they are more comfortable, and they have more resistance. It’s up to you which you choose, as both can be used in the ways we will discuss below.
Read our ‘Latex vs Fabric Booty Bands’ article to see which is better for you.
Note: Booty bands have various names, such as hip bands, glute bands, and mini bands. What you really need to pay attention to is whether it is a fabric or rubber booty band, as well as the resistance level. Both fabric and latex bands can be good for beginners to advance.
HOW DOES A BOOTY BAND WORK?
When you wear booty bands for free weight exercises like barbell squats, the booty band stimulates the muscles of the lower body, especially the glutes, causing better activation during these exercises. It essentially cause you to contract better by forcing pressure on your legs.
As for bodyweight exercises, the booty bands add resistance, making the movements harder. By increasing the difficulty and tension on your muscles, you will build muscle and strength.
There is more to how booty bands work, but this will all be explained when we go over all of the various uses for booty bands below.
So, without further ado, let’s get into that…
HOW TO USE BOOTY BANDS?
The two main purposes of fabric booty bands are bodyweight exercises that target the glutes, hip and legs, and variations of free weight squats, as well as hip thrusts and deadlifts, while wearing booty bands. So, let’s talk about those two first, and then go into some more alternative uses for booty bands.
1. Free Weight Exercises (Glute Activation, Better Form, Hip Stability & Mobility)
If you want a nice, big round ass, it is advantageous to do more than bodyweight exercises. You should really use free weights. Exercises like barbell or dumbbell squats, hip thrusts, deadlifts, and RDLs are essential for building powerful glutes. However, a lot of people have trouble properly activating their glutes during these lifts. Oftentimes, it is a mind-muscle issue, a form issue, a weak glutes issue, or all of the above. Fabric booty bands solve this problem with ease.
When you squat, hip thrust, or deadlift with fabric hip bands, your glutes will be fully activated due to the way the bands put pressure on the legs. You will immediately feel the difference. They are called booty bands for a reason!
More to squats specifically. Booty bands will help you maintain better form and get greater depth. They prevent knee buckling and they create more tension in your entire lower body (especially the hips). This will allow you to get greater range of motion because your joints are more stable. Most people don’t have enough mobility because they lack the stability and confidence in their strength to go deep. And getting deep in a squat (at least to parallel) means more glute activation.
Related: Glute Activation Exercises with Fabric Booty Bands
How to Squat with Booty Bands?
This is simple, place the fabric booty band around your thighs (about midway), and perform as squat as you normally would. Keep good form and keep your legs pressing against the band. Let the band do the work on activating your glutes. You will definitely feel the difference from a squat without booty bands.
All in all, wearing booty bands during squats, hip thrusts and deadlifts and other relevant lower body exercises, no matter what kind of free weights you are using, will benefit your glute gains due to better activation of the muscles.
Have hip pain when squatting? Try these resistance band exercises out.
2. Lower-Body Bodyweight Exercises
Whether you do bodyweight-only workouts, you want to add some bodyweight workouts to your resistance training, or you need to do a workout while traveling or at home, fabric booty bands can take your lower body bodyweight exercises to the next level.
There are so many ways to use booty bands for lower body movements that target the glutes and hips.
Here are some examples:
Side steps (with or without squat)
This is a great exercise for the hip adductors and glutes. We all want stronger hip adductors and glutes as they make us more powerful and dynamic in our movements. The hips and glutes play a major roll in our sports and athletic performance. But, not only that, they will give us that toned, well-defined glute side “dent”.
FYI- this exercise also targets the thighs and calves!
Bodyweight Squats
Just like barbell, dumbbell or kettlebell squats, when you do bodyweight squats with booty bands, your glutes will be better activated, allowing you to grow a nice tone booty with just bodyweight squats.
Glute Bridges and Hip Thrusts
The same thing applies here. Booty band glute bridges and hip thrusts without weights will add more resistance and tension to your glutes and hips, which will amplify the effectiveness of these exercises.
Clamshells
Clamshells hit the hip abductors, which includes both the gluteus maximus and medius. Without the bands, the exercise is fairly easy, but with the booty bands it becomes very challenging and efficacious.
Donkey Kicks
Donkey kicks really work the bulk of your butt. You can feel this even without booty bands. But with fabric resistance bands, you are sure to build a big, round booty. This is one of those exercises that says, "I want a big, tone booty, and I’m going to get it".
These are just 5 of many ideas. There are so many other bodyweight exercises that can be intensified with fabric booty bands.
Note: The band will be around your thighs for all of the above exercises. However, you can try some with the band around your calves or ankles to see how that works for you too.
Related: The Best Booty Band Workout That You Can Do Anywhere
3. Core Exercise
Your core is where all of your movements emanate from. It is truly the most important area of your body to focus on if you want to perform at optimal levels. Unfortunately, it is also an area many people overlook. If you are the type to never miss a leg, back, chest or shoulder day, but you sometimes skip core, you really need to rethink your approach to fitness. Now that we have given you a short rant on the importance of core workouts, let’s talk about how fabric bands come into play.
It should be noted that your glutes and your entire hip complex are part of your core. If you want a strong core, you need work on your glutes and hips, as well as your front and back side of your middle torso. The point is, your core is not just your abs!
With that in mind, you can immediately discern why fabric bands are good for core strength. After all, they help you target and engage, and thus, strengthen, your glutes and hips.
However, in addition to that, fabric bands can be used for core specific exercises. In fact, there are many core exercises that you can do using fabric bands, and they are really effective. Just as fabric bands add resistance to other bodyweight exercises like squats, you can use fabric booty bands to add resistance to core exercises.
Here are several examples of core exercises using a booty band:
Lying Leg Raises
Lie on your back with the band around your ankles. Press your hands into the floor and keep your legs straight. Lift one leg up as high as you can while pressing your other leg to the floor. You will immediately feel this one!
Bicycle Crunch
Lie on your back and put the band around your feet. Put your hands by your ears with your elbows pointing forward. Raise one foot with your leg bent, bringing your knee towards your opposite elbow. The resistance band will make this movement difficult. Bring your leg back down and do the same thing on the opposite side. Alternate from left to right for a set amount of reps. It should be a smooth continuous alternation.
Glute Bridges
Place the band just above your knees. Lying face up, knees bent and arms at your side, lift your hips to the sky as high as you can. Squeeze your core and glutes and hold the position for an allotted time.
This is an isometric exercise. However, you can add thrusts to this exercise to make things a little more dynamic. Basically you just bring your hips down, thrust up, hold for a couple seconds and repeat.
Glute Bridge Variation #2
If you want to increase the difficulty, place the band around your waist and your hands under your butt on top of the inner part of the band. Do the same movement as above, but press your hands down to the floor, on top of the band, so that it stays on the floor as your hips go up. Your arms will be holding the band in place so your core (and your arms) receives the tension.
Horizontal Scissors
Lie on your back, legs straight, fabric band around your ankles. Raise your legs off the ground, keeping your glutes to the floor and arms straight and to the side of your body. Your legs should be about a foot from the ground. Open and close your legs in a horizontal scissor-like motion.
Plank Jacks
Get into a standard plank position, with the band around your ankles. Jump your legs out and in as you hold the plank position.
This is just one of many plank variations you can do. You have plank kick backs, side plank with leg raises, plank walks (band around your wrists), mountain climbers, and many more.
Stiff-Legged Deadlifts
Remember, your low back is part of your core!
Step on the band with one or both feet. Grab the band with your hand and perform a stiff-legged deadlift.
All in all, there are tons of ways to use fabric mini bands for core exercises, as to increase the difficulty. Bands can work with so many core exercises.
4. Lower Body Warm Up
Fabric resistance bands are great for lower body warm ups. They prime the lower body, getting the blood flowing, joints lubricated, and mind-muscle connection in full swing. By doing this, you will also improve your range of motion, because when the blood is flowing to the muscles and joints and everything is warm, your mobility increases.
Of course, you can do a bodyweight-only warm up, but with the fabric bands, you are more effectively priming those muscles for the strength workout to come. So, if you plan to use free weights in your main workout, we recommend a booty band warm up. However, if your main workout will involve just bodyweight exercises and booty band exercises, you can stick to typical bodyweight warm up movements.
Now, to the point of “how to warm up using booty bands”, we recommend that you do a quick mobility routine for a few minutes, which includes dynamic stretching and some simple bodyweight movements, then throw on the booty bands and perform a few lower body exercises (3-5) for 5-8 reps. You don’t need to go overboard with the reps. Just get your muscles ready for the weights to come. Good warm up exercises with booty bands are squats, side leg lifts, clamshells, and stiff legged deadlifts (all without free weights, just bodyweight movements).
5. Upper Body Exercises
Although fabric bands are not typically used for upper body exercises, as they don’t offer as much stretchability as rubber mini bands, there are some cool ways to use them as such.
For example, if you get into a half-kneeling position, you can step on the band with your front foot and grab the other end with your hands and do rows or bicep curls. Because there is not much stretchability, the kneeling position allows you to shorten the range the band needs to stretch.
With fabric bands, you will have to get creative if you want to hit the upper body. Take your booty band and test some ideas out. If it feels like it is working the muscle properly, then you just came up with something good!
Mostly, you will be using one hand to stabilize the band and keep it in place, and the other arm is the working side. Although one side is being targeted, the stabilizing side is also working in an isometric fashion. Just be sure to hit both sides evenly!
Note: For upper body exercises, we don’t really recommend rubber mini bands or fabric resistance bands if you have other options. The best resistance band option for upper body exercises are 41” loop latex resistance bands. With those, the options for upper body exercises are endless, you can literally do anything with them that you can with free weights. Examples: Resistance Band Chest Exercises, Resistance Band Shoulder Exercises, Resistance Band Back Exercises.
So, while upper body exercises with booty bands are possible, if you have access to other resistance training tools, that is ideal. Even if not, there are tons of effective bodyweight exercises that you can do to hit your upper body (i.e. push ups, pike push ups, pull ups, inverted rows).
Bodyweight Shoulder Exercises & Bodyweight Back Exercises
WHY EVERYONE NEEDS A FABRIC BOOTY BAND?
We truly believe that fabric resistance bands (aka booty band, glute bands, or hip bands) are essential for men and women alike. You may not want to use them every squat session, but sometimes its great to throw on a booty band to switch things up and make sure your glutes are keeping up with your quads and the rest of your body. The glutes and hips are one of the hardest muscles to engage. They are also one of the most important muscles to strengthen as they play such a huge role in your overall performance, strength, stability, and how you move.
Plus, fabric resistance bands are lightweight, portable and space-friendly. Resistance bands are probably pound-for-pound, dollar-for-dollar the most effective training tool out. Moreover, they are safe and durable. Your fabric resistance bands will last you a very long time. It’s a good purchase that will provide you a ton of value.
If you want fabric resistance bands, check out our pink and black fabric booty bands. They are the highest quality fabric resistance bands you will find and our prices are unbeatable.
Shop Fabric Resistance Bands at SET FOR SET
Kirsten Yovino
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