Training at Home Without Equipment
So you’re stuck at home, COVID-19 is present, and the stores still haven’t restocked the dumbbell section!
The good news is that we can still make gains.
But first, let’s review some training principles.
IF the goal is hypertrophy (i.e. muscle growth), then we primarily care about three principles:
Volume: How many sets of chest work will I perform this week? (ex. 10 sets of chest work on Monday & 8 sets of chest work on Thursday)
Intensity: How close is the resistance to my absolute max? Can I increase the resistance?
Tension: When doing my bench press or push-up… is the chest actually doing the work, or am I using momentum? How long is my chest forced to do the work?
But if you have ZERO equipment.. then “intensity” (as defined above) is out of the equation. You cannot add weight to a non-existent barbell.
Which means… we must leverage the other factors: Volume & Tension.
Tension
Our Definition: Amount of time the muscle is forced to fight against resistance.
Practical Recommendation #1: Isolate one leg or one arm at a time… let that one leg do ALL of the work. A few examples..
Practical Recommendation #2: Slower reps. Go slow enough to truly FEEL the muscle throughout the entire rep. We want THE target muscle to do THE work.
Slow Lateral Raises - For those with light dumbbells
Volume
Our Definition: The number of training sets achieved for a muscle group during the week. (ex. 15 sets of chest work per week).
Practical Recommendation: Workout more frequently! We know you have free time during Quarantine.. Instead of training legs once per week, train them two or three times. That way, you’re doubling or tripling your weekly output.
Conclusion
When life removes Door #1… kick open doors #2 and #3.
For our workouts... that means slower reps, single leg movements, and training more frequently.
You’ve got options; now GET AFTER IT.