The Bands That Fit in a Dresser Drawer and Changed My Mornings

I did not start exercising because I wanted to be in shape. I started because of a bucket of potatoes. I was 64, coming up the back porch steps with the bucket in one hand, and my right foot did not land where I told it to. I did not fall. I set the bucket down and stood there with my heart going. The doctor checked my heart and said it was fine. The problem was my legs and my balance. I carried mail on a rural route for 31 years, so I know what a bad step feels like.

My daughter Karen is a nurse. She lives two hours away and she is the one who pushed me to do something. She suggested a seated elliptical first, and I bought one. A few months later, my physical therapist handed me a sheet of paper with a few exercises on it, and at the top it said THERABAND. That was three and a half years ago. The set came with three flat bands, each five feet long and four inches wide. Yellow, red, green. I hung them on a hook behind the spare-bedroom door and figured I would give it a month.

The first morning I sat in a sturdy kitchen chair and looped a band around the door handle. The yellow one. It felt like nothing in my hands. I pulled it back toward my waist in a rowing motion and thought, this cannot possibly do anything. I did two sets of ten. The next morning I did it again. By the end of the second week I could feel it between my shoulder blades when I sat up straight. Not sore. Just there. That was the first time in a long while that a part of me had spoken up.

I started on yellow because the red one felt like too much. That is not a joke. A flat strip of rubber that weighs less than two ounces was too much for my back at first. I am not embarrassed to say that now. I would rather start too light and keep going than start too heavy and quit in a week.

One of the yellow bands tore after about two years of near-daily use. It did not snap and hit me in the face. It just gave out along an edge one morning. I replaced it. That is the only problem I have had with them.

I started on the yellow band because the red one felt like too much. Three and a half years later I do my rows with green, and I can carry two feed bags up the porch steps without touching the rail.

What I do now is not complicated. I use the THERABAND bands for seated rows, chest presses, and shoulder work. I use red for most of it and green for the rows. I do about 25 to 30 minutes most mornings, five days a week, after coffee. Some mornings I do less. Some mornings I do the balance pad instead. The point is that I do something.

The garden is where I notice it. I have a big vegetable garden behind the house, mostly potatoes, carrots, beets, and squashes. Kneeling down to pull carrots used to be a one-way trip. Now I can get up off the garden kneeler without putting a hand in the dirt. I can carry a bucket of potatoes up the porch steps and not think about it. That is the whole review, really. I can do the things I need to do.

Joan joins me some mornings. She is 66 and she does a few of the shoulder moves with me. She is not as interested in the rows. That is fine. The bands hang on the hook and they are there when either of us wants them.

The other thing I like is that the THERABAND bands fit in a dresser drawer. When we drive to Karen's for a weekend, I put the red and green bands in my bag and I do not miss a morning. A gym membership would not fit in a dresser drawer. I would not use it anyway.

I am not a trainer. I do not know what the right dose is for you. I know that I started lighter than I thought I needed to, and that I kept going. I know that the bands are still on the hook behind the door, and that I still use them.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

I would tell you to check with your doctor or a physical therapist before you start. I did, and it was not a big production. I would tell you to start with the lightest band in the set, even if it feels like nothing. Especially if it feels like nothing. The first week is not about getting stronger. It is about showing up. I would tell you to put the bands somewhere you will see them. A hook behind a door is good. A drawer is good if you open it every day. The back of a closet is not good. I would tell you that the THERABAND set is not a cure for anything. It is a tool. You still have to do the rows. And I would tell you that the first morning is the hardest one, and after that it is just a thing you do, like coffee.