How To Increase The Intensity Of Your Home Workouts
With the closure of gyms and events cancelled, many of us will be exercising at home.
Over time you may start to feel your body has become used to your workouts. Exercise might not be as fun, challenging, or effective as it once was.
We’ve put together five ways you can make your home workout more intense and keep yourself motivated during your home workouts.
Try High Intensity Interval Training
If you’re finding your existing workouts a little easy, it’s time to up the anti and get comfortable with being uncomfortable. It’s time to be honest, are you really pushing yourself 100%? HIIT sessions can give you the incentive you need to push harder because the period of work is so short. A typical HIIT workout will involve just 30-40 seconds of work followed by 20-30 seconds rest which is then repeated over 20-30 minutes. This type of exercise means that the end is always in sight and you can really push yourself in the workout periods. Try getting those squats a little lower, running a little faster or jumping a little higher. Just small tweaks can make a really big difference.
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Mix It Up
Your muscles adapt really quickly to a routine so if you do the same workout regularly, they start to work more efficiently meaning less results for you. To combat this, simply try some new exercises or an online class that you haven’t tried before and mix it up! Not only will your body be challenged but your mind will be stimulated too so you won’t get bored as easily.
Set Goals
Goal setting is a great way to see how far you’ve come and track your progress. What may have been really difficult for you once will not always be as difficult as the body adapts and you increase your fitness.
Make some small goals for yourself that you feel are achievable with a bit of practice and revisit them every few weeks. This could be the time it takes you to complete a 5k run, how many press-ups you can do or how many squat jumps you can complete in your HIIT session. Whatever your goal, keep it in the forefront of your mind and make new ones as soon as they are reached.
Increase The Reps
If you tend to do a circuit of exercises 3-4 times through why not increase the amount of reps you complete? If you normally complete 10 reps of an exercise, try 12 next time or carry on until you feel your muscles hit fatigue; this is when the biggest changes happen!
Increase The Weight
If you feel like you need some more resistance to really get those muscles fired up, it’s time to increase your weight. If you don’t have access to things like dumbells or kettlebells don’t worry, it’s time to get creative. Use milk cartons filled with water or sand or fill a rucksack with some tins or heavy books. Use your imagination and you can really push yourself!
