Many women are looking to transform their bodies through exercise, which is awesome because the benefits of physical training are endless! They want to get strong, lose fat and look lean, all from the comfort of their own home with the goal of emerging like a butterfly from their cocoon post pandemic!
If you have decided to forgo the gym for an at home training option, there’s a few things you need to know.
Firstly training at home doesn’t mean that you are stuck doing boring push-ups and air squats. There are plenty of exercises you can do at home with little to no equipment, BUT there are challenges of setting fire to your gym membership and pursuing the same results from your home gym set up.
IN THIS BLOG WE ARE GOING TO LOOK AT TRAINING FROM HOME THE RIGHT WAY!
The main limitation of home workouts is not having enough equipment and not being able to progressively increase load over time. Remember in a nutshell, exercise is a stress which the body responds to by increasing its physical abilities to adapt to this given stress. Not enough stress, no adaptation occurs, nor improvement.
If training in public isn’t for you or COVID lockdowns have become a point of friction but you still want those gains, let’s look at some of the must haves:
If you are trying to rip up and save money, oh girl I have got a bridge to sell you! So take that yearly gym membership money and invest it into some equipment, if you aren’t prepared to do this you can say good bye to that adaptation process that I touched on above.
Initial top pieces of equipment for your home gym are:
Resistance bands, or crossover symmetry
Dumbbells,
Furniture Sliders,
Suspension trainer (TRX)
Fit ball
And this is just the start, these aren’t going be one off purchases, just as your training program progresses, so will your gym equipment needs. Basically as you get stronger you will need to replace it or get heavier items.
Once you have invested in some essentials there needs to be careful planning (effective programming) and, by applying the following few principles you will get your results!
- Increase volume: Do more sets; add one set every week. Since increasing the weight isn’t always an option, increasing volume will add more time of work per session.
- Decrease rest time: One way to decrease rest time would be to lower your rest intervals by 5-10 seconds every week. For example, for Week One that had sets of 60-second rest intervals can go down to 50, those with 45 go down to 35, and so on.
- Increase time under tension: As in, use a longer tempo. Instead of the typical 3020 = 3 seconds down (eccentric) and 2 seconds up (concentric), use a longer tempo. Try 4220 and focus on achieving a full range of motion and the mind-muscle connection, feeling every fibre, controlling stability and posture throughout the movement.
- Apply shock methods: These drive different hypertrophy pathways to maximise your results. Try using 1 and 1/2 reps. This will increase the time spent under tension during the movement, increasing the metabolic demand on the muscles. Additionally give methods like “rest/pause” a go which is an old school method of performing a set to failure, resting around 15 seconds and squeezing out a few extra reps.
Our TrainHer At-Home Programs factor in all these variables and are some of our most popular programs, designed to help you build your endurance, tone up, and even gain muscle, all from your home in 60 minutes a day, 5-6 days a week.
Our TrainHer At-Home Programs are beginner-friendly but challenging enough for even the most advanced lifters! Our goal with our At-Home Programs is to give you a fun, but still challenging workout from your home, using bodyweight, dumbbells and minimal-equipment. The program constantly changes and is one of our most popular and varied programs.
We have TrainHer Custom At-Home Program options which my team and I will create a bespoke program, designed around your body, your goals and your unique female physiology. If you’re not quite ready for the red carpet, personalised experience of a customised program, one of our TrainHer On Demand™ Programs is what you need.
We have designed these high quality On-Demand, pre-programmed plans for:
– Adventure Races,
– Half Marathons,
– Weight Loss,
– Hypertrophy,
– … and more.
