1. Focus on the tempo – slowing the movement down both on the eccentric and concentric part of the lift will create more time under tension and challenge the muscles to work harder. For example in a squat lower for 3 secs hold at the bottom for 1sec and squat up over 3 secs
2. Add in partial reps. This is something I found worked for me when training through the first lockdown to make the weights I had available feel a bit more challenging. For example adding in a half rep at the top of a lat raise or adding in a half rep at the bottom of a lunge.
3. Do more single arm / single leg work. We all like the big compound lifts in the gym because they feel nicer and they let us lift a fair bit of weight. The single limb work is often spent using lighter weights and for some it’s very challenging. It’s also very rewarding and can bring up weaker areas. I personally did a lot of single leg work through the first lockdown and I felt it helped me to maintain my strength as well as improve on weaknesses. You don’t need much weight to make a split squat feel intense.
4. Get creative – your muscles don’t know what weight your using but they do respond depending on the challenge it’s given. Can we use bands, towels or our own bodyweight to create the right stimulus ? I found using a towel over the corner of a door a useful tool for pull ups, although my feet stayed on the floor it was challenging enough to work to that of the rep ranges i would in the gym. Doing banded press ups became my bench press, adding a wall squat before a set of dumbell squats made my quads work a lot harder. I even managed to get value out of using the hoover and a band for various exercises (see pic). If there’s a will there’s a way !
5. Reduce rest periods and work to higher rep ranges. If you continue to train you will at least maintain your strength to some degree. We can also build muscle in all rep ranges it doesn’t need to be low rep high weight we can make progress with high rep low weight also. Use your lighter weights for higher rep ranges and keep your rest periods shorter. This will both provide you with the training stimulus your looking for as well as improving your general fitness, recovery times, higher calorie burn etc.
Let me know if you found this helpful and please share anything you feel has worked well at home for you! For those that are not a member of the gym but would like to tap into our expertise and join in our group online sessions drop me a message and I’ll send you the details. https://bspt.typeform.com/to/WmzpcIw5
By getting involved you’ll not only be helping yourself you will also be helping a local business survive too #supportlocal