If you decide to weight train at home, awesome. Last year being stuck at home definitely showed a lot of people that you can get just as good of a workout for most people staying in the comfort of your own home as going to the gym. It really comes down to just a little extra preparation, and knowing what you have access to.
If you can get access to dumbbells, kettlebells, and actual weights, then obviously you can gravitate towards a regular routine like MAPS Anabolic, or MAPS Performance. If you want additional, in full depth help, then I would recommend checking out our MAPS Anywhere Program for more progressions and complete guidelines towards a full and effective at-home program for those limited on supplies.
If you are someone that just wants the solution, then you can just buy one of those programs and be done with it. If you are more on the creative side, and want to understand the creation of your own program and what goes into it, keep reading.
Sample Routine
Do each exercise for 10-30 repetitions. Here are progressions if the exercise is too easy:
Bodyweight squats -> Single Leg Squats
Push-ups -> One arm Push-up or decline pushups
Band Rows -> Inverted bodyweight rows on suspension trainer -> Pull-ups
Banded deadlift -> Single Leg Romanian Deadlift
Band Chops -> Chop Rotations on suspension trainer
To add/substitute For HIIT circuits (more on this later):
Tuck Jumps
Jumping Lunges
Mountain Climbers
Burpees
Skater Jumps
This is just a sample program to get you an idea of how to choose exercises. In terms of implementing it here is a guideline to keep in mind.
Weeks 1 & 2: Even if you are an experienced lifter, chances are you haven’t done much bodyweight work. We want to spend this time focusing on body awareness, and cueing all your muscles. This is the time to check your ego at the door since no one is watching and there’s no heavy weight to tempt you to overdo it. Focus on quality movement patterns, and recognize your limitations, and get better at them. Increasing your strength by taking your muscles through a proper, full range of motion is key here. Shoot for 10-30 reps, 3 sets of each exercise, and focus on quality.
Weeks 3 & 4: Now that you are more comfortable, try to progress. This can be in the form of making the exercise harder for the same reps, or trying to do one more rep than last week. Make sure to stay 2-3 reps shy of failure as you are still getting used to the mind muscle connection.
Weeks 5 & 6: Now that you’ve really gotten into grooving the proper movements, and challenging yourself let's kick it up another notch. Take the reps 1-2 reps shy of failure. We really want to push the body now (while keeping good form) and maximizing the muscle building signal. We are really building the volume up and that’s okay because a deload is coming to help the recovery.
Week 7: Deload. Take a break from the routine and just focus on some light cardio and maybe doing half the volume (reps and sets) you were in your final week.
Bonus Material:
After you’ve done that cycle, if you find you are passing 30 reps on some exercises or want to add some other tools, continue reading. If we want muscle growth, anything past 30 quality reps most likely won’t be enough stimulation for any significant amount of growth so we need other variables.
ISOMETRIC PAUSES: A muscle can’t grow unless it’s being fired. Most of us spend too much time in the gym going through the motions but not actually firing the muscle to exhaustion.
Try This: Take a 2-3 second contraction at the top of the movement (squeeze as hard as you can when the muscle is fully flexed). Do that for each rep. That should help bring the reps back down to the 10-20 range. By focusing on a squeeze, you’re teaching your mind-muscle connection to KEEP that intended muscle working which is how it gets the signal to grow.
SLOW ECCENTRICS: The other facet of getting a muscle to grow is time under tension. Our muscles get broken down and built throughout that eccentric component of the lift.
Try This: Do 3-4 second eccentrics. So if you are doing a pushup, let your body take 3-4 seconds to lower back down to the bottom position. You’ll feel more lactic acid build up, and thus give your body a stronger muscle building signal to initiate growth.
PRE-EXHAUSTION: Pre-exhaustion is when you take a more isolating exercise and target the muscle more directly before hitting it again with a compound.
Try This: So instead of just doing bodyweight squats, maybe try lunges with your back foot elevated on a chair, and do 10-15 reps with each leg, and THEN go into bodyweight squats. That should take what would normally be 30 easy reps and cut it in half. By isolating the muscle beforehand, you pre-exhausted that muscle making it more tired going into the main lift.
