Are you still training at home? Whether you don’t yet feel comfortable going back to the gym, or if you have nailed your home gym set up, there’s so much you can do with minimal equipment to keep up your strength.
Studies have shown that there is no difference in the amount of muscle growth grown when training at 30% or 80% of your 1 rep max and training to failure.
So gains can still be won at home. All you have to do is make sure is you are taking the body through all 6 training principles during your high-volume workouts, train to failure and you keep making gains. You will then return to the gym in a strong position, if that’s what you’re planning to do.
The six training principles are:
- Squat Pattern e.g. lunges, split squats, pistols, step-ups and skater squats
- Hip Hinge e.g. single leg RDL, banded RDLs or Good Mornings, heel-elevated hip thrusts, back extensions, and glute bridges
- Horizontal Push e.g. push-ups, backpack push-ups, band push-ups, heel-elevated push-ups, one-arm push-ups and dips
- Horizontal Pull e.g. inverted rows, towel rows, single-arm backpack rows, seated band rows
- Vertical Push e.g. handstand push-ups, pike push-ups, band shoulder press
- Vertical Pull e.g. chin & pull-up variations, band lat pulldowns
And remember, keep it short and sweet.
Workouts don’t have to be long. You can get a lot done if you know how to plan a session and use a stopwatch correctly. A good session for me is to see how much time I have available and what equipment I have.
Say I have 30 minutes, I split it as:
- 5 minutes warm up to prepare the body
- 20 minutes of workout time
- 5 minutes to cool down and stretch off
I then look at how I can make that 20 minutes as intensive as possible. The idea when you’re short on time is to go hard and fast.
If it’s running, then it will be sprints with minimal rest or a 20 minute best effort to cover as much distance as possible.
If running isn’t your thing, then set up a circuit of 4 exercises and complete 5 sets and work for 50 sec and rest for 10 between exercises.
The idea is to get your heart rate as high as possible and keep it there.
If you’re training at home with limited equipment, and feel like you’ve hit your plateau, then why not drop me a line? I can schedule you a progressive training programme that is personalised to your available equipment and your fitness goals. My programmes are delivered to the LK Fitness app, which means I can train you wherever you are in the world.
If you want to try out a few new exercises and circuits first, there are lots of great free workouts available over on my Instagram page. I post a new home workout or gym workout every week so give me a follow for all that free stuff.