So we all miss the gym and the heavy weights, but that doesn't mean we can't challenge ourselves and push our bodies. We just need to be a little more creative. When we lift weights or exercise, the main mechanism that makes the whole thing work is overload. No one factor matters more than the continued effort to push forward. Sometimes we may be forced to lift in less than ideal ways, the gym doesn’t have heavy enough weights, we are stuck at home with no gym access, we are traveling and the only place we have to workout is the hotel room. I get it, I really do, but again there’s still no excuse.
Overload is easy when we can continuously add weight to the bar. But, that is not the only way we can overload. Adding more reps, doing more sets, manipulating tempo, using rest/pause methods, and using less rest will all produce and overloading stimulus, given the increase is an appropriate amount.
Adding More Reps
This one is pretty simple, you just do a few more than you did last workout. When selecting a rep range, many factors are involved but generally 8-15 reps is a good place to start. You want to push it until you can feel like you can do 1-4 more reps. Each week you can add 1-2 reps per set. As you get into a higher rep range (15-20 reps) add weight and drop the reps back down.
Doing More Sets
The number of sets you do will have a bigger impact on the total workload per workout than adding weight or reps. A very effective way to overload would be to add a set each week. An example would look like 2 sets week 1, 3 sets week 2, 4 sets week 3, and back to 2 sets on week 4, all good things must come to an end and we need a little reset here, but then we’re back off to the races!
Manipulating Tempo
Tempo is what we call the speed of the lift. A lot of times tempo is expressed as 4 numbers, the lowering (eccentric), the pause at the bottom of the lift, the lifting (concentric), and the pause at the top (sometimes omitted). Let's take the squat for example. A 4:2:1: 0 or 4:2:1 tempo means we will lower down over 4 seconds, count to 4 as you slowly sit. We will pause the bottom position of the squat and hold it there for 2 seconds. We will then raise up, counting to 1. With no pause at the top, we head right into the next rep. There is no one best tempo per say, in the gym we use 4:2:1, 3:0:1, and 2:0:2 very frequently but you can play around and try different things out. One I like to do is to go as slow as I possibly can through the lowering portion and explode up from the bottom.
Rest/Pause Methods
Rest/Pause is a very cool way of manipulating sets and rest intervals to elicit a training response. With rest/pause, you will do a normal set, either going all the way to failure or very close. At the end of the set, rest 10-20 seconds and complete 3-5 more reps. You can continue to do this until you cannot complete the desired amount of reps (3-5) or you’ve hit a desired amount of sets. Again let’s use the squat for example. We do our first set of air squats and hit 25. We take 10 seconds and we go again, completing another 5. 10 seconds, 5 squats, 10 seconds, 5 squats, we continue this until we realize we can no longer feel our legs and we hobble to the nearest chair. Job well done!
Using Less Rest
When we lift, we need to give our bodies a chance to rest, during this time the body is replenishing its energy stores, energy we will depend on with our next set. One of the cool things about training is we make this system more efficient. With this increased efficiency, we can use less rest to make the workout more challenging, and dare I say overloading. Let’s say week 1 you were lifting and you took 90 seconds of rest in between sets. Week 2 you’ll use 75, week 3 60, and week 4 45. We can then go back to 90 seconds of rest after manipulating another variable (weight/reps/sets/#thiswholearticle).
Working out and being physically active doesn’t have to be super complicated. With little to no equipment, we can still make amazing progress. When our resources are scarce, we may have to be a little craftier, and we may have to push ourselves in some untraditional ways but as long as the desire to improve is there, we will make it. Where there is a will, there is a way, don’t be another excuse and get out there and crush it!
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