How To Achieve Progressive Overload At Home (10 Ways!)
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How To Achieve Progressive Overload At Home (10 Ways)
If you're currently doing a home workout to build muscle and are limited on equipment, you might think that achieving progressive overload is out the question.
However, the truth is that there are many methods of progressive overload available besides just lifting more weight.
Yes, it's possible to build muscle without equipment if you know what you're doing.
The first method for achieving progressive overload at home is to just train for more reps with the same weight. Sets as high as 30 reps are still effective for building muscle at home, so this method alone can be used for quite a while before even needing to do anything else.
Secondly, you can use more challenging exercise variations. For example, graduating from a push up to a decline pushup, side to side push up or clapping push up. Or doing split squats and then pistol squats. Or bench dips and then chair dips.
Third, you can perform slower negatives. Instead of lowering the weight in 1-2 seconds, slow it down to 3-5 seconds.
The fourth method to achieve progressive overload during your home quarantine workout is to implement a static hold in the fully contracted and/or fully stretched position of the exercise. For example, holding for a 1-2 second count at the top of a pull up, or a 1-2 second count in the bottom of a lunge. It can sometimes be challenging to build muscle at home without weights, but just using slower negatives and pauses can go a long way on their own.
Number five on the list of methods for home progressive overload is to utilize pulse reps. This is where you start by performing a half rep, return to the starting position, then perform a full rep, back to the starting position, and then repeat. This will help you achieve greater muscle building stimulation but with less weight.
Sixth is to increase your weekly training volume. So perhaps instead of 8 direct sets for a given muscle you bump that up to 10, 15 or even 20 sets as part of your home quarantine workout.
You can also increase your training frequency by hitting a given muscle more often during your home muscle building workout plan.
Eighth on the list is to incorporate rest pause. This is where you perform a given set, rest 12-15 breaths, perform a few more reps, rest again, and then finish off with a final round of reps.
Similar to rest pause are drop sets. Same idea but instead of resting after the set is done, you'll immediately reduce the weight and crank out additional reps, repeating this once or twice.
And then lastly on the list of ways to achieve progressive overload at home is to just train closer to failure on each set. If you're currently only going within 3-4 reps of failure you can bump that up to 1-2 reps short. Or if you're already going 1-2 reps short, trying taking some sets all the way to complete failure.
So as you can see, it is possible to build muscle without weights by incorporating methods of progressive overload that don't involve increasing the external resistance. Also keep in mind that these methods can all be combined, in which case there's virtually no limit to how far you can progress with your home muscle building workout.