Alecs Benedict Gaspar
With the recent emergence of COVID-19, fitness enthusiasts and would-be gym-goers had been forced to complete their workouts at home. However, there also comes a series of highly overlooked home workout mistake that may prevent you from getting the most out of your training.
If you want to maximize your gains at home, then better read on and see if you are committing these mistakes, so you can fix them.
Mistake 1: Not Enough Exercise Variation
Home workouts can be challenging on their own, but variation and, as Arnold Schwarzenegger would put it, “shocking the muscles” would make your muscles grow.
If you have been doing 3 sets of 20 pushups every day as part of your training, there comes a point when you would not gain as much muscle as you did before. What you need to do is to introduce variation. Push yourself to the limit by doing as many pushups as you can for a minute, and do more the next day. If you have been doing planks, try pushing your feet up against the wall and holding the position for a couple of minutes. This is applicable to any exercise in your repertoire, so feel free to challenge yourself in different ways.
Mistake 2: Doing Pushing Movements Too Much
For a lot of beginners, training at home becomes a barrage of set after set of pushups. This could lead to muscle imbalances, posture problems, and an array of impingement.
If you are doing pushing movements one day, emphasize pulling movements such as pullups, chin-ups, or rows the next day. Having no pullup bar should not be a problem. Hang a towel over a sturdy steel bar and do pullups using it, or stick an old book below your door and do some doorframe pullups.
If pullups are not an option, place two sturdy chairs back to back, with enough space in between, put a broomstick over the chairs, and do inverted rows. Your options are limitless.
Do note that this also works vice-versa. You can also have impingement doing too many pulling movements. Try to strike a balance between pushing and pulling.
Mistake 3: Resting for Too Long
One of the primary drivers for muscle growth is time under tension. Working out at home is very comfortable – extremely comfortable, even – that the rest times between each exercise becomes way too long for some, thus losing most of the tension acquired in training.
Most of us are tempted to check our phones or watch television in between sets. Hence, try to avoid distractions and places that can be distracting for you – the garage, the basement, the kitchen. Do your workout where you can remain focused to complete your workout. Remember, training is a mindset, and you would not want to be distracted from it.
Keeping a healthy amount of exercise variation, avoiding impingement, and having a mindset to train seriously can have a profound effect on your physique this quarantine season. Train hard and train smart. Even improving on one of the three mistakes above can offer gains more efficiently. Maximize your gains at home, and come out stronger once the lockdown ends.
