We are big on the idea that to make an exercise harder you just pick a bigger weight. However, you may be limited with your equipment choice, especially if you are working out from home or if squatting the lawnmower at the cottage just doesn’t feel quite right.

There are plenty of other ways you can experiment with to make any exercise more challenging. Here are just a few:

Change the Tempo/Time Under Tension

What do we mean by tempo? It’s basically the pace that you do a certain exercise. Take a Goblet Squat for instance. The tempo might be 4-0-1. This means the essentric (or lowering phase) takes you four seconds, there’s zero pause at the bottom of the squat, and you take one second to explode up back to  the start.

Say you change the tempo to 4-2-1. If you’re lifting a heavy weight, that 2 second pause at the bottom will really let you know if you’ve got the correct muscles engaged to control the exercise. It also makes it harder to perform as you are not using the elasticity or momentum that you get from not pausing at the bottom.

Longer, Fuller Exhales

This is a unique way to make a core exercise more challenging. You never really see people do this, and is in a way, an extension to the above. When you are in the fully lengthened position, in say a TRX/barbell rollout, an inchworm or even an extended plank, take a big long exhale and hold for 2-3 seconds. Your ribs will pull down adding extra pressure to your obliques and abdominals.

NOTE: This can be a pretty advanced method that can put a lot of pressure on the low back, so make sure you have the foundations of the exercise covered first and a strong base of core strength.

Hand or Feet Positional Changes

Changing your feet or hand position is a very common way to make something more challenging. If push-ups are easy, try staggering one hand in front of the other. If a lower body exercise is way too easy try narrowing or altering your foot position to take a less stable stance.

Go Single Limb

Step-Ups with weights on a box can be pretty straightforward with two feet. Take one away however and you’ll really see where strength dysfunctions and asymmetries lie within your body.

You can also lift one leg for less stability in moves like a TRX lunge or Plank. TRX Rows are also pretty tough using just one arm.

Elevate Your Body

Here’s a pretty common example - push-ups can be made harder by elevating your feet onto a box. Same goes with planks, plank push-ups, rollouts etc…

Use an Unstable Surface

The best unstable surface exercises we use involve at least some connection to the ground. By throwing a couple of towels under your feet, like a Floor Washer, makes this way more harder than a regular Mountain Climber.

Val Slide or Shuffle Board exercises such as a Push-Up or Lateral Lunge really challenge your stabilizing muscles. Other unstable instruments you can use are Equalizers or a TRX, where you don't have the luxury of spreading your fingers wide for support on push-ups, and some of you know just how hard that gets with your feet in the straps.

Varying the way you approach and do an exercise is important. If you can bang out a high number of reps or don’t have a rack of different weights to grab, use one of these methods listed here to push yourself to the next level. This is especially true if you hit a little plateau and can’t seem to get stronger in a certain area or exercise.

Kevin

P.S. These are some great tactics that you can use in our virtual classes. Click here to check out our Virtual Membership, from just $97+HST per month.