5 Ways to Make Home Workouts Harder

We looove a good home workout. That's why we've created an online platform where you can access over 200 videos whenever you want. But they can get a little mundane and seem too easy after a while, especially if you have limited equipment. Want to break a sweat without breaking the wallet? Try these 5 ways to add more challenge to your home workouts!

Increase Your Range of Motion

Range of motion refers to how far you can move a muscle or joint. Your muscles do more work (and therefore become stronger) when they move through a larger range of motion. Adding a deficit by performing specific exercises on a raised platform or step is an easy way to do this. Here are some ideas you could try:

• Elevate your front foot while doing split squats or back lunges. 
• Elevate both feet while doing glute bridges. 
• Place your hands on blocks or dumbbells while doing push-ups.

Go Slow

When you perform an exercise at a slower rate, you put your muscles under tension for a longer period of time. This helps to increase muscular strength and endurance. Tempo squats are a great way of incorporating slower reps into your workout. Instead of doing a squat at your regular speed, spend 3-4 seconds lowering into the squat, pause for a second at the bottom, and then do a 3-4 second ascent. Try this technique with other exercises such as push-ups, split squats, deadlifts, and shoulder presses…the possibilities are endless!

Pause and Pulse

Want a really good burn? Try adding pauses and pulses to your workouts. Both pauses and pulses are usually added when transitioning from the lowering to the rising phase of an exercise (for example, at the bottom of a squat before you stand back up again). Pause reps are done by deliberately pausing for a few seconds at a strategic point of an exercise. Pulse reps take that a step further and you essentially move up and down slightly while holding that position. Just like tempo reps, pauses and pulses can be added to a variety of movements to make them more challenging. But beware, these will really turn up the intensity of your workouts!

Do More Reps

This is the easiest way to add intensity to your home workouts, especially if you have limited workout equipment. While we always encourage lifting heavy, using less weight and doing more reps has its benefits as well. For example, higher reps help to build muscular endurance as well as tone your muscles. So how many reps is considered “high”? We recommend working up to 3 to 4 sets of 15 to 20 reps of an exercise. If you feel that you still have more in the tank, by all means, keep going beyond 20 reps. Just be careful not to go to failure on each set!

Use Resistance Bands and Sliders

Don’t have dumbbells? Don’t worry! You can still make your workouts harder by using non-weighted equipment such as resistance bands and sliders. Bands make workouts more challenging by providing an external resistance that your muscles have to work against while sliders, on the other hand add an element of instability to your workouts. Both of these tools can really add some spice to your regular workouts!

Try some of these techniques during your next workout session at home. You will thank us! (or maybe not!)

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