Bringing Your Home Workout to the Next Level

|

Hello! I’m John Li, a personal trainer at the 14Y. Today, I’m sharing some tips about how to bring the home workout you’ve started to the next level.

Working out at home can be a challenge, since the machines and weights you find in the gym are usually not available, but it’s certainly not impossible.  Here are a few tips to change up your home routine to match, or even surpass, the intensity of your regular workouts.

Think primarily full body workouts instead of working individual body parts. Choose moves that involve moving your whole body. The more muscles you involve, the more energy you’re expending. It’s a great way to kick up the intensity of your workout and utilize your muscles in a way that you never have before. For great options for full body workouts, 14Y members can check out one of our Virtual Fitness Classes.

Increase volume and frequency. Volume is the number of total repetitions for an exercise. Frequency is how often you are exercising. Look into increasing the number of repetitions per exercise to tax the muscles and make up for the lack of available free weights and machines. You can increase frequency by working out more times a week than your usual.

Last but not least, you want to look at how the exercise is being executed. Slowing the execution of a rep stresses the muscles a lot more than performing the movement at a fast pace. Slow tempo training has been a cornerstone of traditional strength training since the beginning of resistance training, and is often incorporated in any exercise program to reinforce movement patterns or place additional stress on certain muscles. This could really kick up the intensity of your workout if you combine it with the other tips I mentioned, though it also works as a stand-alone method.

Try these tips, get creative and don’t be afraid to increase the intensity of your home workout!

Check out the 14Y’s Virtual Fitness classes to get moving and jump start your day, or head over to the 14Y’s Fitness playlist for tips and tricks by our staff.