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Sep 25, 2023

This Gymproluxe resistance band set will swear you off the gym forever

By Owen Gough If there's one piece of equipment you need to level up your home

By Owen Gough

If there's one piece of equipment you need to level up your home workouts, it's a seriously good set of resistance bands. Free weights are great and all, but there's only so much of the highly-coveted pump you can achieve from a dumbbell or kettlebell…strength gains and bulging biceps can be achieved with proper form resistance training too.

Before you go out and buy any type of resistance band — or start stretching out those elastic bands you've got shoved in your desk drawer — we advise you to check out one of the most comprehensive training pieces we have ever used for at-home workouts: the Gymproluxe.

Forget the premium stacks at your local gym, this one bit of equipment straight-up replicates everything you can do there for a complete body blitz in your bedroom, living room or wherever you damn well please. From squats and chest presses to bicep curls, seated rows and weighted press-ups, the Gymproluxe is the Swiss army knife of exercising on the go, and it's sworn us off our gym membership almost immediately.

The Gymproluxe is a complete resistance training system that gives you three levels of resistance across six short latex bands from one manageable, lightweight belt. Offering up to 90kg of comparable weight, there's not a muscle group that can't be targeted with intense focus should you need to fire up the calorie engine on your lunch break at home or in your hotel room while you're away on business.

The six bands are colour-coded and offer 35-70-105lb of resistance – though there are alternative, heavier bands available if this is child's play to your training – which can be swapped out at any time for a harder or easier strain on your muscles.

The belt can be strapped around your back, chest or beneath your feet to run you through all sorts of exercises that would otherwise require heavy investment in a multi-gym and a proper squat rack that you almost certainly can't fit in your home. Hitting a deep chest press is easy with the included bar that slips through the handles, and when switching to a single-muscle bicep curl, simply pull out the individually weighted bands to reduce the resistance and keep smashing your goals.

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The entire set of bands, belt and bar can be stored quite easily in a bag (the bar can be unscrewed into two smaller parts) making it one of the most comprehensive travelling trainers we've ever seen. So long as you can lie down, crouch or you have enough space to squat, you can do a full-blown workout, which is perfect if you've got a lot of trips planned ahead of the summer and still need to squeeze in those gains.

There's a comprehensive list of all 100 exercises available – with helpful video guides on how to complete them – but the world is your oyster when it comes to training with these bands. Leg day? Hit a variety of different deadlifts, squats or hook one end of the band around a table leg for some leg extensions. Need to hit shoulders and chest? Run through a gamut of seated overhead presses, standing fly presses and weighted press-ups without having to reach for different equipment.

Having used the set for around three weeks, we've been able to get a solid pump in our lower pecs and shoulders, simply because our current setup of free weights meant we couldn't quite find the right exercises to target those areas without having to head down to the gym. Our muscles are sturdier and feel a lot less prone to injury thanks to the smoother range of motion you can achieve from resistance bands. We're hardly looking to rival Dave Bautista's boulder-like physique, but we've noticed a significant pump in the short time we've used it.

If you're taking your fitness away from the gym, there's plenty to admire about getting a full-body pump at home from one piece of equipment. And even if you're still dragging yourself to the gym a few times a week, the Gymproluxe is worth its price for maintaining a pump when you just can't fit in the time for the trip. It's a supremely well-equipped exercise band to get you through all different types of targeted exercises in pretty much any environment.

We tested the band and bar set 2.0, but there's also the more advanced all-in-one portable gym, which offers a wider range of resistance bands, foot loops, a door anchor and stronger handles to up the number of exercises available at your disposal to a staggering 150.

Even better, both bands are heavily discounted on the official Gymproluxe website, with up to £100 off, or at least a few months' subscription to your nearest gym.

Gymproluxe Band and Bar set 2.0 is available for £189 £109 from gymproluxestore.com .