The plethora of at-home workouts and access to virtual exercise classes has been a definite bright spot in our current situation. Coaches and instructors have begun to utilize dozens of variations and combinations of the squat, push up, and sit up to create equipment-free programming for us to do at home. Usually, this style of exercise primarily targets muscular endurance and has fantastic cardiovascular benefits, but building strength and promoting muscular hypertrophy are difficult to achieve unless you have the means to appropriately load (e.g. have your own fully stocked home gym). This post is meant to serve as an overview of principles to (somewhat) simulate that strength piece we’ve all been missing! In the spirit of keeping it simple, these considerations may be old news but still worth revisiting.
Squat, Hinge, Push, Pull, & core work
The above 5 components target the major muscle groups in the body. There are many options for each to continuously change up your workout. Below are just a few examples.
Squat: front/back squat, overhead squat, split squat, rear foot elevated, walking lunges
Hinge: deadlift, RDL, good morning, deficit deadlift
Push: push up, bench press, floor press, strict press, tricep dips
Pull: pull up, cleans, snatch, row
Core work: plank, dead bug, sit up
With other variables including the use of equipment (resistance band, dumbbell, kettlebell, barbell), position (seated, standing, inverted), and muscular movement (concentric, eccentric, or isometric), there are innumerable ways to incorporate these movements into your activity. If you need some inspiration or are wanting to learn more, reach out to FX PT!
Importance of Rate of Perceived Exertion (Rate of Perceived Exertion)
What is RPE? It’s a measure of how hard you feel like you’re physically working. On a scale of 0-10 where 0 is a feeling of complete rest and 10 is complete exertion (e.g. you are collapsing from exhaustion), you rate your current effort to determine whether the load of exercise is appropriate based on your goals. Programming your exercise based on RPE as opposed to choosing random reps and sets is a far more effective way to ensure progress. Instead of performing arbitrary 3 sets of 10, try performing as many repetitions of an exercise as it takes to reach an RPE of 7-8. Record that number of reps to track over time. If you are consistent, you should see that the number of repetitions you’re able to perform before reaching RPE 7-8 will increase over time, indicating improved tissue capacity and overall fitness.
Playing with Timing: Tempo Work, Isometric Holds
The main parameters of exercise include volume (how many sets/reps are performed of a movement), resistance/load (how much weight/resistance your muscles must overcome to perform the movement), and timing/time under tension (the amount of time your muscles are actively working). If you’re working out at home, your resistance/load is confined to the equipment that you have available (e.g. you probably can’t perform a 1 Rep Max if you only have a 5# dumbbell). Changing volume is possible (just do more!) however that will generally improve your muscular endurance and not so much your muscular strength. Changing the timing of an exercise, though, can have great effects on muscular strength! Let’s provide some examples below.
Try this out: First, perform a regular squat (start from standing, squat, and stand back up). Now, do another squat but this time, take a full three seconds to lower yourself down into a squat position, hold that squat position for 2 seconds, then take three more seconds to stand up. That feels significantly different, right? In the second version, we increased the time under tension for your leg muscles. This is an example of tempo work, and it is a nice way to promote strengthening when you can’t change the resistance component of exercise.
Ok, now this: Get yourself into a squat position and…hold… keep holding…keep holding..aim for a 10 second hold in which you are completely frozen and not moving at all. That is an example of isometric strengthening in which your muscles are holding a contraction without moving. Like tempo work, isometric work is a great way to build strength and target specific muscle groups depending on what movement is performed. There are also clever ways to use household items like a bath towel to perform isometric exercises that simulate squats, deadlifts, and even bicep curls. Reach out to your PT at FX to learn some of these tricks and more so you can continue strengthening at home and put yourself in the best position possible for when your gym reopens!
