3 min read

7-Ways To Make Home Workouts Harder

No gym, minimal equipment, no training partners, little motivation.

Exercising at home can be a great change, but after a while it can start to get tedious. There's only so much you can do with little equipment before you start tapping into your creative side, spending hundreds or thousands on equipment, or worse, give up.

Don't lose hope - here are a few suggestions for how to instantly make your home workouts more challenging!

1 - Perfect Your Form

Are you rushing through your push-ups? Slacking on your squats? Make sure your form is perfect before adding or changing exercises. Doing 10 perfect push-ups is significantly harder than doing 20 sloppy, half-rep push-ups.

Here's a guide for perfecting your pushup.

2 - Slow Your Tempo

Don't rush, slow down. Whether you're doing push-ups, squats, using dumbbells or bands, GO SLOWER!

Going slow creates more time-under-tension (TUT). This is a muscular property where we measure the amount of time the muscles are creating tension.

More TUT means more stress to the muscle - meaning more work is being done. This is great if you're looking to build muscle or lose fat.

3 - Do Isometric Holds

Freeze! Stop! Hold it right there!

Those are your keywords for isometric holds. Find the toughest angle during an exercise and freeze-stop-holditrightthere.

Isometric holds have been a staple in body weight exercises for centuries. It's great for creating more time-under-tension, joint stability, and maximizing the amount of muscles used during an exercise.

Here's an example of an isometric hold from a push-up position.

4 - Less Rest

There are a ton of distractions when exercising at home. Between family, pets, phone calls, TV, and that weird noise coming from your attic, there are lots of reasons to take long breaks during your workout.

Instead of browsing social media or returning that text, keep your pace going and take shorter breaks. Alternatively, go for a jog down the street while you "rest", or take a quick trip up and down the stairs to keep your heart rate up.

5 - Try Single-Limb Exercises

Are squats getting too easy? Try them on one leg. Push-ups becoming boring? Do them with one hand tied behind your back. Sometimes taking an "easy" exercise and doing it with one limb can be exponentially more difficult. Plus there's the added challenge of not falling and breaking your face.

Here's an example of a difficult, yet do-able single-leg squat.

6 - Increase Range of Motion / Change Your Angle

Part of proper form is full range of motion. Make sure you're going all the way up and all the way down. But changing your angle is also equally difficult. Widening your stance, shortening your grip, or changing your posture can turn an easy exercise into something entirely new.

Here are a few examples of push-ups with different angles.

7 - Try New Things

Exercise is a stress. Your body will adapt to stress. Adapting to exercise is how we get stronger and progress.

But doing something new is another way to progress. Go out for a bike ride, run or walk up a hill, or stream a yoga workout.

"Easy" things that you haven't done in a while can be surprisingly challenging.

Bonus - Focus on your Food

Yes, the obligatory "food comes first" mantra. If you're trying to lose weight, build muscle, or see more muscle definition, nutrition is everything. You can't out-exercise a bad diet! Instead of making your exercises harder, spend that effort on improving your diet.

Bonus Bonus - Home Workout Program

Need a home workout program to follow? I got you covered.

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