While gyms and fitness facilities are closed, and most of us are staying home, bodyweight exercises are a great option for strength training, especially if you don’t have access to weights and equipment.
Bodyweight exercises are convenient because you don’t need equipment and can do them anywhere, and effective because they do have the ability to improve strength if done correctly.
While bodyweight exercises are effective, especially for beginners, our bodies adapt quickly, which overtime can make the exercises less challenging, easier to do, and eventually slow down the rate of physical change and progression. Typically to progress, we’d simply increase our weight, so the question is: how can we progress our workout when doing bodyweight exercises?
Normally, we could increase the number of repetitions in a set (example: doing 15 repetitions instead of 12 repetitions) or increase the number of sets (example: doing 4 sets instead of 3 sets). But there are other ways!
Here are six other ways to effectively increase the intensity and level of challenge when doing bodyweight workouts.
*Note: If you happen to have a pair of light dumbbells laying around, anywhere from 5 lbs to 10 lbs, that’s even better! To be creative, you can even use canned food as light weights. You can still apply the following methods to exercises with light weights that you have at home.*
ISOMETRICS
Isometric exercises involve holding a static position for a period of time (example: holding a plank). However, you can apply isometrics (holding the movement) to any exercise. Holding the movement for a few seconds can be done mid-range or at the top/bottom of the movement. Here are some examples that you can try:
- Hold at the bottom of a squat before coming up
- Hold at the bottom of a push up before coming up
- Hold at the top of a glute bridge by squeezing the butt muscles before coming down
- Hold a lunge by keeping the knee at the 90-degree angle almost touching the floor
- Hold a tricep dip at the bottom of the movement with the butt almost touching the floor
ADD THE FULL STOP
Isometrics are great but take it further by adding a 5- to 10-second pause at the bottom and top of a movement. Squats will become a whole new level of challenging.
INCREASE THE RANGE OF MOTION
Range of motion means how far your body has to physically go to complete the exercise. Increasing the range of motion or angle of movement can increase stability, recruit more muscle fibres, and challenges the set range of motion that our body becomes accustomed to after doing a specific exercise for a long period of time. Here are some examples you can try:
- When doing squats, add something sturdy, about an inch high (like children’s floor mats) under your heels to elevate them.
- When doing lunges, place your back foot up on a chair or bench to elevate it (also known as a Bulgarian split squat).
- When doing push ups, place your hands on sturdy blocks, or place your feet up on a chair or bench.
THE MID-RANGE REP
This means adding a half repetition in between a full repetition, which is known in fitness jargon as “increasing time under tension”, meaning the muscles have to work harder. To help you understand, think of it this way – when doing a squat, you’d start in a standing position, go all the way down, come up halfway, go back down, and come back up fully to the top in standing position.
It helps to say it out loud or in your head, “down, halfway, down, back up”.
This method can be applied to any exercise, like lunges, push ups, chin ups, tricep dips, bicep curls, presses, and so on.
DECREASE STABILITY
By decreasing our stability and balance, we are increasing the challenge, recruiting more muscle fibres, while improving our balance and stability, which can help with athletic performance and daily physical activities. While performing bodyweight exercises, you can do this by changing arm or foot placement. Here are some examples you can try:
- Single leg deadlifts
- Single leg squats
- Single leg glute bridge
- Single arm push up
- Single arm or single leg plank (or both)
To replicate to effect of a bosu ball or medicine ball, which creates instability and forces us to balance, alternatively try using a soccer ball, volleyball, or basketball (if you happen to have one at home) and place one hand or one foot on it.
COMPOUND EXERCISE SETS
To increase the challenge while doing bodyweight exercises, instead of completing individual sets of each exercise before moving on to the next one, try combining two exercises back-to-back. For example:
- Complete one set of squats, followed by one set of lunges, and then repeat for the remaining sets.
- Complete one set of step ups (on a box or step), followed by one set of single leg deadlifts.
Happy work out! Let me know if you try these techniques and if it made your bodyweight workout feel more challenging than before. As always, leave a comment or drop me a line on Instagram @greensoulvibe.
Yours in best health,
Jasmin💚