Five ways to make bodyweight training more challenging

Greetings from coronavirus quarantine! We are certainly living in crazy times. The gym I work at was closed in mid-March. I’ve spent the last few weeks modifying programs and adjusting coaching plans for my all in-person and online clients who find themselves without a gym. My own training has also been completely upended since I’ll also be gym-less for the foreseeable future.

In this time of uncertainty and chaos, I hope you will make time for movement as long as you are able. I know exercise may no longer be a priority for you with everything going on, but it is one small thing you can do to maintain a sense of normalcy and take care of your physical and mental health.

If you want to upgrade your home gym with some small equipment, check out this article I wrote sharing my favorite recommendations.

Even without these purchases, however, you can still work out at home with no equipment beyond your own bodyweight. The trick is staying engaged when basic exercises become too easy.

Here are some of my favorite strategies to make bodyweight training more challenging, effective, and fun.

Slow down

If a bodyweight exercise is too easy, slow down the lowering portion to 3-8 seconds. For example, when performing a squat you would sit back and down to a slow count of 3-8 seconds.

You can also slow down the entire movement. To use my squat example again, you could lower yourself to a slow count of 3-8sec and also stand up to a slow count of 3-8 seconds. This can be deceptively difficult.

Add a pause

Pauses are traditionally added in the middle of a movement like the bottom of a pushup, squat, or lunge. However, you can add pauses to any portion of a lift. Try adding multiple pauses or very long pauses if you want an extra challenge.

Elevator reps

You can add segments of a movement to each rep to make it more challenging. One of my favorite techniques to intensify bodyweight movements is using 1.5 reps. A 1.5 rep pushup looks like this: start at the top, go all the way down, push halfway up, go all the way down again, then come all the way up. That’s one rep.

If you really want to challenge yourself, you can add even more partial reps with things like ratchet squats. For these, go all the way down, ¼ way up, all the way down, half way up, all the way down, ¾ way up, all the way down, all the way up. That’s one rep.

Practice harder movements

If you’re already relatively strong and don’t have many joint problems, you can use this time to build toward more challenging movements. Learning to do exercises like pistol squats and handstand pushups – or even just being able to knock out a set of 10 perfect pushups – will provide ample challenge without any extra weight.

Density

Instead of just doing straight sets of every exercise, you can use density workouts to get more done in the same amount (or less time).

There are many ways to increase the density of your workouts. Here are two methods I like:

• Density blocks: Pick 2-3 exercises and do as many rounds as possible in a certain amount of time, such as 10-15 minutes.
• Every minute on the minute: Run a stopwatch and perform a set number of reps every time you hit a new minute.

Don’t let the fact that your gym is closed stop you from staying active this spring. With a little creativity, you can still have fun and effective workouts in the comfort of your own home with zero equipment.

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