Micki Josue Perreras
Now that you’ve been consistently working out while at home, you might find some movements less challenging. Good job! This means that your body is getting stronger and that you’re now ready to level up your workouts.
Some of the conventional ways to level up workouts include adding weights and using exercise bands. However, this can be intimidating, especially for beginners who are just starting out. Using more advanced equipment and techniques may also require proper guidance from a fitness coach.
If you’re not ready to go in the direction, that’s okay. And if you still find new equipment intimidating, don’t worry. There many other ways to level up basic bodyweight movements to make them a little more challenging. In this article, we’re going to start with three simple ways you can step up your workout without using any kind of equipment. Let’s get started.
1. Slower movements
The first way to make a basic workout more challenging is by doing the movement slower. For example, instead of going down during an air squat in one count, try going down in three or four counts. Do the same going up. Do you start to feel more burn now? Slower movements require more control, and therefore, more effort!
2. Pulses
Another way to level up any movement is by doing pulses. Pulses refer to short-range movements done in “pulsing” motions. To explain, let’s use the basic lunge or split squat as an example. From the top of the lunge, try going down halfway then back up, ten times straight. Do the same coming from the bottom of the lunge. Go up halfway, then down again ten times. Keep the motion short but controlled. You’ll start to feel the burn soon enough.
3. More repetitions or rounds
Finally, you can always add more repetitions (also known as “reps”) or rounds to your workout. If ten reps is no longer challenging, move on to 15 reps. Or if three rounds is no longer tiring, do four to five rounds. You can try both and see which one works better for you. If you commonly do time-based workouts, you can prolong the time. For instance, if you do a movement for 30 seconds straight with 30 seconds rest in between, try doing forty five seconds of work and just fifteen seconds of rest.
Now that you know what you can do to make basic movements more challenging, you can easily modify all your old workouts and incorporate these three techniques. You can try them one at a time, or you can add them all together to your workouts. Whichever you choose, you’ll get the extra challenge you’ve been looking for. And aside from that, you’ll just keep getting stronger.
