How do you make body weight exercises more intense? When you’re stuck at a certain pace and difficulty level, you should step up your game instead of giving up on your fitness goals. There are different ways to increase the intensity of your body weight by natural bodybuilding training. With a little creativity, you can build muscles at home – even without weights and fitness equipment.
Admittedly, body weight exercises are not like weight training where you can just add a few pounds of weights and progressive overload is achieved. When building muscle without weights, you have to increase your pace and create exercise variations to progress.
Again, how can you do it? Here are some creative techniques to increase the intensity of your simple body weight exercises:
1. Flex before doing your reps. Flexing may look like a vain and narcissistic thing to do but it actually helps bodybuilders’ gain more muscle mass. They call this exercise “ISO-tension,” the method of contracting your muscles and holding the pose in the same place.
Admittedly, body weight exercises are not like weight training where you can just add a few pounds of weights and progressive overload is achieved. When building muscle without weights, you have to increase your pace and create exercise variations to progress.
Again, how can you do it? Here are some creative techniques to increase the intensity of your simple body weight exercises:
1. Flex before doing your reps. Flexing may look like a vain and narcissistic thing to do but it actually helps bodybuilders’ gain more muscle mass. They call this exercise “ISO-tension,” the method of contracting your muscles and holding the pose in the same place.
You just have to flex hard, hold it for at least 10 seconds, and do some reps on the muscles you just flexed. You’ll soon find out that flexing a group of muscles before working them out is more difficult and intense than exercising without flexing first. You can also flex your muscles in between sets.
2. Flex while doing your reps. Another variation of the flexing challenge is to flex while doing your reps. this is much more difficult to do than the first one simply because you are applying more tension on your muscle building. Martial artists master the art of flexing while moving because it gives them a stronger punching power.
When you do your push-ups, do it slowly while flexing your triceps, biceps, shoulders, and pectorals. When you do your deep knee bends, flex your hamstrings, hips, gluts, quadriceps, and calves. Keeps your muscles hard and steady while doing your reps. it’ll be more strenuous, but it’ll be worth it.
3. Increase your reps, decrease your rest. Another way to put more tension on your muscles is to decrease your rest time between sets. This is a straightforward way to apply progressive overload even without the use of weights.
For example, start with a 60 rep set and 60 second rest period. On the second set, do 80 reps and then rest for 45 seconds. On the third, do 100 reps and rest for 30 seconds. I bet you won’t last that long in the 4th set.
4. Try the 100 rep set. Do 1 set with 100 reps on all your exercises and have very little rest in between sets. Expert bodybuilders say that this technique will make your muscles more responsive and adaptive to heavier and more intense training.
Another variation is to do reps to total failure, rest for 30 seconds at most, and then do another set. The bottom line is to grind out as many reps as you can. This will build not only your muscles but your endurance as well.
5. Exercise in slow motion. This is the exact opposite of doing your reps as fast as you can. This technique uses slow continuous tension – you shouldn’t rest in the top or bottom positions. The positive phase of one rep should take 12 seconds while the negative phase should take 6 seconds. Make a smooth transition from positive to negative. It will exhaust your muscles very quickly.
2. Flex while doing your reps. Another variation of the flexing challenge is to flex while doing your reps. this is much more difficult to do than the first one simply because you are applying more tension on your muscle building. Martial artists master the art of flexing while moving because it gives them a stronger punching power.
When you do your push-ups, do it slowly while flexing your triceps, biceps, shoulders, and pectorals. When you do your deep knee bends, flex your hamstrings, hips, gluts, quadriceps, and calves. Keeps your muscles hard and steady while doing your reps. it’ll be more strenuous, but it’ll be worth it.
3. Increase your reps, decrease your rest. Another way to put more tension on your muscles is to decrease your rest time between sets. This is a straightforward way to apply progressive overload even without the use of weights.
For example, start with a 60 rep set and 60 second rest period. On the second set, do 80 reps and then rest for 45 seconds. On the third, do 100 reps and rest for 30 seconds. I bet you won’t last that long in the 4th set.
4. Try the 100 rep set. Do 1 set with 100 reps on all your exercises and have very little rest in between sets. Expert bodybuilders say that this technique will make your muscles more responsive and adaptive to heavier and more intense training.
Another variation is to do reps to total failure, rest for 30 seconds at most, and then do another set. The bottom line is to grind out as many reps as you can. This will build not only your muscles but your endurance as well.
5. Exercise in slow motion. This is the exact opposite of doing your reps as fast as you can. This technique uses slow continuous tension – you shouldn’t rest in the top or bottom positions. The positive phase of one rep should take 12 seconds while the negative phase should take 6 seconds. Make a smooth transition from positive to negative. It will exhaust your muscles very quickly.