My Top 5 Training At Home Tips
Fitness is a large part of our everyday lives. For some, it is to stay or get in shape, to perform in a sport, to rehab or mitigate injury and for others it’s a tool to improve their mental health. There are many mental and physical benefits to training that make it one of the best activities you can do for health and wellbeing.
Now, whether you’re a regular gym goer or someone who throughout the quarantine is looking to improve their health, the information put out can be difficult to navigate through. To simplify some of the information, here are my top 5 tips for effective training at home.
Be Active Daily:
This may seem like a given, but it can be very easy during periods of high stress or uncertainty to forget some of the basics when it comes to taking care of your health. Choose something daily, that you can do to continue moving the needle in a positive direction. This can be anything from a long walk, a bike ride, rollerblading, a mobility routine, walking up and down the stairs or a weight training session. The big thing here is to make it a priority, it can be very easy to allow yourself to skip moving daily when it’s not scheduled into your day to day routine. An easy way to prioritize moving is to just simply write it down in a calendar, preferably somewhere where you can see it, this will keep it at the forefront of your mind. You can also have a friend, significant other or family member to help hold you accountable, it is always easier to do something when you know someone else is invested in it as well.
2. Focus on tempo:
This is probably my biggest tip for those who have been continuously training at home since the gyms closed down. For many gym goers, our measure of progress comes from more weight on the bar during an exercise. If, like many you are limited in the amount of weight you have access to, shifting your focus to tempos and control throughout your movements can pay dividends when the gyms open back up.
Our muscles can undergo 3 types of contractions, eccentric (lengthening), concentric (shortening) and isometric (static contraction), most people only focus on the concentric part of the movement and neglect the other 2. Being in a situation where limited availability to weight is a big issue for many, pivoting our focus to eccentrics and isometrics are a fantastic way of challenging our bodies. Using prolonged eccentrics (lowering on a squat for example) and pauses (bottom or mid portion of a squat) are a great way to make exercises subjectively difficult without being objectively heavy.
Not only are eccentrics and isometrics great for making exercises more challenging, they also have great benefits for rehabilitation, hypertrophy and strength gains.
3. Utilize Full Body Sessions:
Full Body training sessions are a great choice not only at home, but in the gym as well for many reasons. Full Body sessions have shown to increase muscle growth, improve motor control and skill acquisition as well as increase fat loss and conditioning.
For example, if you train legs really hard once a week and can’t train them again that week because of recovery time, it will take longer to improve the skills required for those movements. If volume is split up throughout the week, those movements can be trained with higher intent and frequency. This higher frequency will allow for an increase in skill and motor control associated with those exercises.
Full body sessions can be a huge aid for those looking to improve body composition as well. Due to the nature of alternating from upper to lower body exercises and vice versa, the body is required to work harder by transporting blood throughout the whole body at a higher rate. Full body splits can allow you to maintain a higher relative heart rate during the session due to the shorter rest times. We can utilize shorter rest times between sets because as you’re completing the second exercise the muscles used to complete the first exercise are getting to rest.
Some examples of programs that utilize full body splits include; Peripheral Heart Action Training and German Body Composition Training. Both are great methods that utilize full body splits and can keep your training exciting and productive during this time.
4. Move with INTENT:
Intent can be very tricky to work with in training due to it being completely subjective, there is no way for us to really measure intent. So how do you implement moving with intent into your training? The key is to set an objective or goal to each of the movements and make that the primary purpose of the exercise. An example of this is if performing a movement for stability in the hips, understanding the purpose of that exercise will allow you to move with intent to challenge the specific areas. Rather than doing a movement to simply do it, add purpose and intent to those movements and you will see an increased benefit from them.
5. Aerobic Training:
So, if you’re like me and tend to neglect cardio work while in the gym, being in quarantine is a great excuse to put more focus on your aerobic system. If you have a lack of equipment making strength training difficult to do, upping your effort for cardio work is the way to go.
It doesn’t have to be difficult; going for hikes, bike rides or runs can be a great way to improve your cardio. Just like resistance training, it’s important to start slow and improve over the weeks. You can progress your cardio training with increased distance, speed or time during your sessions. Not only are these forms of exercises great for cardiovascular health, they also help get you outside which is extremely important to not only get vitamin D but also get out of the house which can improve your mood.
There you have it, my top 5 tips for effective training at home. I hope this article helps clear things up for you and allows you to start or keep training at home, making improvements in your health and performance as we all anxiously await the gym doors to open again.
Dylan
