Workouts at home in today’s context have become a panacea for many fitness and sports lovers. Even professional athletes, whose life is a continuous training process, were forced to look for a solution to how to keep themselves in shape in this way. Workouts at home are possible with your own bodyweight, with a set of minimal equipment (rubber bands, dumbbells, etc.) or even with a barbell – anyone is lucky. Recently, I have been really asked questions about what I can do at home to keep myself in shape.
Of course, there are a lot of varieties of workouts at home: yoga, Pilates, HIIT and circuit training, stretching and so on.
I want to share my life hacks and tips for workouts at home to make them more diverse and productive:
1. More reps.
You will definitely breathe well, burn calories and pump muscles. A large number of reps in exercises (from 15 or more) will also allow you to pay mental attention to all parts and technical elements of the exercises.
2. Add static.
I know that static drives wild many, but we understand that such a training mode increases calorie consumption and perfectly strengthens stabilizing muscles. When professional athletes train, in their weightlifting programs, the duration of a static pause is no more than 3-6 seconds, and when it is exercises with light bottles of water, a pause of 15-20 seconds will help you significantly increase the intensity of work. Static pauses can even vary reps in one set.
Example: When doing bottle flies: 5 reps + 15 seconds pause, and so 4 times in one set. It won’t be boring for sure!
3. Play with tempo.
Each movement has a static, concentric and eccentric phase. Lengthening of each of them in time, in different classes, will increase the training effect.
Example: If you perform 10 push-ups during 3 sets of this workout, add a load: very slowly (4-6 s) go down and actively push back. In the next session you will be able to add statics (3-4 s) in the lower position.
4. Cut rest time.
Everyone knows that it is recommended to rest 2-3 minutes between sets during normal training in weightlifting, and in strength training even 4-5 minutes. Working with the bar even in superset mode, you can reduce the rest to 30-45 seconds. Yes, it will not be like a 6 reps heavy leg press, but this workout will definitely not seem easy to you either.
5. Focus on stabilizing muscles.
Have you ever tried slackline? Is it different from walking in a straight line on the ground? Of course so. And this is because the line is an unstable support. To accomplish this task you need more muscle fiber, which, as you guessed, produces more energy.
Example: with the same push-ups you put a ball or even two towels under your arm, you will immediately feel how much more effort you will need to successfully perform exercise, as it will be more involved in the stabilizer muscles. And if you want even more feelings – add pace!
6. Reduce the number of support points.
This is a very simple but effective way to increase the load without any equipment. Example: Do you do the usual squats with both legs? Try to squat on one leg instead or move your foot to the side or point your knee up while lifting. Doing push ups? Do this standing on both hands and one foot throughout the set.
7. Barefoot training
Wearing shoes makes your feet “deaf and dumb” in terms of their performance. Imagine that you are walking down the street on your hands and do not use your fingers, but only your palms. Now you can imagine what would happen if you didn’t use a full foot for years. Pay attention to this and bring the important function of the foot back to normal!
Example: Walk barefoot around the house for the next week and notice how you use your toes. Use them for movement as often as possible. Pay attention to your feet when doing squats, jumps, push-ups. Restore and improve muscle performance throughout the body.
8. Do crazy stuff.
Joe Weider said, “Surprise your muscles.”. It’s possible to do even at home. As an example, a popular format of the training program for MMA fighters: the one-round fight of 8 exercises on 8 reps:
- Squats
- Push-ups
- Twists
- Back lunges
- Burpees
- Side lunges
- Superman
- Jumping Jacks
After 3-4 rounds it won’t definitely be easy for you, and if you speed up or slow down, or at the beginning of each minute add 2-3 burpees, extra kilograms that appeared at quarantine will definitely burn.
To sum up, I will say that home workouts will not increase strength but will help to maintain muscle tone, work on some technical elements, coordination, and flexibility. And this is an excellent solution for keeping you healthy and moving to new results!
