As simple, useful, and beneficial as bodyweight training is, there’s one aspect that makes it a little more challenging to use than, say, free-weight training: It doesn’t have a quantifiable way to measure your progress. With weights, it’s super easy to track success: If you increase the weight you’re lifting, you’re getting stronger. Plus, you can add weight in 2.5- to 45-pound increments to provide the needed progressive overload to make a change.
No training system or tool is perfect, but there’s a way to fix this shortcoming in bodyweight training: with a system of intelligent progressions. My goal in this chapter is to empower you with the ability to make any bodyweight exercise harder or easier instantly. There are dozens of ways to take any bodyweight movement and make it feel 5 to 10 pounds heavier or lighter just like with weights.
These progressions and regressions can be accomplished through simple tweaks to your body position or by using everyday items like chairs, benches, boxes, towels, poles, ropes, tree branches, walls, water jugs, broomsticks, heavy rocks, etc., or by using commercial fitness tools such as dumbbells, kettlebells, sandbags, resistance bands, weight vests, weight plates, chinup bars, suspension trainers like the TRX, and more. The point is that you can make the exercises harder by adding mechanical resistance or you can do it totally equipment free. The options are really endless, which is why bodyweight training is so versatile and useful for virtually anyone of any fitness level who wants to improve his or her body and strength. Let’s review how to use these tools and methods to scale any exercise.
IT’S ALL ABOUT LEVERAGE
Leverage is a mechanical advantage (or disadvantage) achieved through using a lever (or levers). In terms of your musculoskeletal system, your bones are the levers, your joints are the fulcrums, and your muscles are the movers that apply force. The less the mechanical advantage, the more muscular force that is required to create movement or to maintain certain positions. This forces your body to adapt by becoming stronger and more muscular. You can achieve a mechanical disadvantage (i.e., make a movement more difficult) by either:
• Changing your body position
• Lengthening or shortening the primary muscles involved beyond their natural, resting length
Force equals force. When it comes to progression, it doesn’t matter how exactly you go about creating more muscular force, it just matters that you do. Though traditionally, increased force has been accomplished through lifting heavier weights, a mechanical disadvantage can make your muscles work harder, or create more force, which makes the exercise feel “heavier” without actually adding weight to the movement. Confused? Don’t be. I’m going to break all of this down for you step-by-step so you can maximize every rep to the fullest.
THE SEVEN WAYS TO SCALE ANY EXERCISE
Here are your options for making any exercise harder or easier. Note that when you scale certain dynamic exercises, you may use several different types of scaling. For example, moving from a Split Squat to a Forward Lunge technically employs progressions in stability, tempo, and complexity.
1 External Loading
This is the most basic progression there is: Increase the load to make an exercise harder or decrease the load to make an exercise easier. You can add an external load with weight plates, barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, medicine balls, sandbags, chains, and resistance bands, or even outdoor implements like rocks or logs. In terms of bodyweight training, some examples include:
• Holding on to any of these implements to make lower-body exercises like Squats, Lunges, and Stepups more difficult
• Placing these implements on your lap to make glute exercises like Hip Thrusts and back exercises like Rows more challenging or putting them on your back to make core exercises like Pushups and Planks more intense
• Hanging weights on or around your trunk or shoulders to make Hangs or Pullups harder
One of my favorite ways to add an external load is using a weight vest. It’s less cumbersome and more natural, and it provides for easier setups and transitions. A good weight vest fits snugly to your trunk so it doesn’t move around on you during training. It also shouldn’t impede the natural movement of your arms, shoulders, or hips. I like adjustable weight vests that allow you to quickly increase or decrease the load. My favorite weight vests are produced by Hyperwear.
Other than weight vests, resistance bands are the safest, easiest, and most convenient way to add an external load to most bodyweight movements. Resistance bands provide a dynamic variable resistance that peaks toward the top of a movement and tends to be easier on your joints than dead weight. You can wrap a band around your trunk and hold the ends with your hands to make Pushups and Planks harder or place it around your hips with your hands pressed into the floor to make Hip Thrusts more difficult. You can secure one end of the band to your feet and attach the other end to your shoulders or hands to make Squat variations tougher. Another option is to anchor a band to the floor and wrap it around your shoulders to make Pullups a beastly task. Or to assist you on Pullups, anchor the band to the Pullup bar and secure the other end to your body. I recommend the continually looped and color-coded elastic bands that you can find at resistancebandtraining.com.
You can also unload your body weight with self-assisted squatting exercises by placing your hands on any stable support system like a pole, railing, or door frame or by holding on to the handles of a suspension training system like a TRX. This is a particularly useful rehab technique for those with a history of lower-body injuries. It’s also a great tool for active recovery between workouts or for higher-rep endurance training.
2 Relative Loading
Relative loading refers to the use of leverage to shift more weight onto the working muscles and joints involved in a given movement. This can be accomplished by changing your body angle or your joint angle.
Body angle describes the relationship between your body and the floor. There’s no better exercise to demonstrate body-angle progressions than the Pushup. Beginners start performing Pushups with the hands elevated on a bench, wall, or table, because this position shifts the weight from the upper to lower body, making the exercise easier. From there, you progressively decrease the elevation until you can finally perform the classic Pushup with your hands on the floor and your body parallel to the ground. Researchers at the University of Athens found that the standard floor Pushup forces your upper body to lift 66 percent of your body weight, so that gives you a little gauge regarding the relative load with easier inclined versions. Technically, at an incline of 45 degrees, you should be lifting about 33 percent of your body weight. We progress the exercise by elevating your feet to shift more of your weight onto your hands to make the exercise harder. The master step is being able to perform a Handstand Pushup with your body completely inverted so that you are pressing 100 percent of your body weight.
Joint angle describes the position of your primary joints during a given exercise. Using the Pushup again, a classic floor Pushup is performed with your hands directly underneath your shoulders. Here your shoulders are flexed at 90 degrees, and you have the biggest mechanical advantage because you can fully move both your elbow and shoulder joints and use your triceps, pecs, and shoulders to create force. This is an example of a bent-limb exercise. But if you use a high hand placement by moving your arms more in front of your body until they are eventually fully extended overhead, without changing your body angle, you make the Pushup a lot harder to perform. This is because your elbow joints can’t produce as much torque and your triceps can’t assist as much in the movement. Thus, your shoulders have to do most of the work. This same thing happens when you abduct your shoulders 90 degrees to each side, in what I call an Iron Cross Pushup. With the elbows locked in extension, the triceps can’t assist in the movement, and now the chest muscles are working overtime. Both the overhead Pushup and the Iron Cross are examples of straight-limb exercises. Straight-limb movements are significantly harder to perform than bent-limb movements because movement is limited at one or more joints. Plus, the primary muscles involved are either shortened or stretched beyond their natural resting length, making it more difficult for them to produce force to execute the movement.
3 Stability
Stability describes that constant interaction between your center of gravity and your body’s base of support. Using stability progressions instead of loading progressions will make your movements more functional and athletic, recruit more of your core and balancing muscles, and better stabilize your joints. It’s really just a smarter way to exercise.
Outlined following is the full spectrum of stability progressions.
A. BASE OF SUPPORT
The wider your base of support, the more stable you are and the less distance you need to travel to execute a movement. The narrower your base of support, the less stable you are and the greater distance you need to travel to execute the movement. Think of a Pushup with your hands close together, thumbs touching. Narrower bases make exercise more challenging; a wide base of support, with your center of mass positioned within that base, makes exercises easier to perform because you’re most stable and the range of motion of the exercise is automatically decreased.
B. CENTER OF GRAVITY
Though we all have different body dimensions and varied trunk and limb lengths, for our purposes, let’s just say that your belly button is your center of mass when in a normal standing position with your arms at your sides. This basically cuts your body in half.
Now, your center of gravity can be adjusted either vertically or horizontally to make an exercise harder or easier. For example, extending your arms more overhead with a more upright torso makes a bodyweight Squat harder to perform. Horizontal adjustments include moving your center of gravity closer to the axis of rotation (the moving or stabilizing joints) to make the Squat easier or moving your center of gravity farther away to make it harder. Using the Squat again, if you hold a heavy weight on your shoulders at chest level, it’s an easier Squat than holding that same weight with your arms fully extended in front of your body. That’s because the load is positioned farther from the axes of rotation (in this case, your hips, knees, and ankles) and your base of support (feet).
C. POINTS OF CONTACT
The more points of contact, the more stable you are and the easier the exercise is to perform. The fewer the points of contact, the less stable you are and the harder the exercise is to perform. This is why Single-Arm Pushups are harder than two-arm Pushups, why Single-Leg Squats are harder than two-leg Squats, and why planking on one arm, one leg, or one arm and one leg is harder than planking on both hands and feet.
It’s also important to note how much total surface area of your body is in contact with the floor. For example, doing Pushups with your hands flat on the floor is more stable than doing them on your fists because less total surface area is supported by the fists. Doing a Pushup on your fingertips is even harder (even though it’s 10 points of contact versus 2 in the previous examples) because you have the least amount of surface-area contact with a stable surface. It’s the same thing with squatting on your toes versus squatting with your feet flat on the floor—Toe Squats are much harder because you’re less stable.
This concept of surface area also applies to what I call “tweener” exercises in between two-limb and one-limb movements. In the case of Squats, Staggered or Split Squats have you squatting with one foot flat on the floor while on the toes of the other foot. In the case of Pushups, uneven or Archer Pushups have you pushing with one hand flat on the floor while on the fingertips of the other hand. In both cases, the exercises are harder than the two-limb version but easier than the one-limb version, making them key stepping-stone exercises to the advanced movements within their respective categories.
D. STATIC VERSUS DYNAMIC BASE OF SUPPORT CONTACT
An exercise is most stable when your points of contact with the ground remain connected throughout the duration of the movement. However, when you remove this connection at any time during the movement, it increases the stability demands and makes the exercise harder. For example, let’s compare a Split Squat with a Lunge. Technically, it’s a similar movement pattern, as the bottom of each move is identical in both exercises. However, with a Split Squat, both feet remain in contact with the ground from start to finish, whereas with a Lunge, you are either stepping forward (or backward) to get into the bottom of the Split Squat position. A Split Squat provides a static base of support for the full duration of the exercise. A Lunge provides a dynamic base of support, where you move from a position of high stability to a position of lower stability. That’s why a Lunge is harder than a Split Squat. And anytime your feet leave the ground, the exercise becomes more challenging.
E. ASYMMETRICAL LOADING
An asymmetrical or uneven load is created when one side of your body has more weight on it than the other side. This creates tipping and rotation forces that require much greater midline stabilization. That’s right, those delicious abdominal muscles need to step up their game!
For example, with a Single-Leg Hip Hinge, you can perform the exercise in an asymmetrical manner by reaching with one arm at a time or by having one hand closer to your center of mass and one hand farther away from your center of mass. The weight of your reaching arm creates uneven loading that requires your body to fight rotational forces, making the exercise harder to stabilize.
F. UNSTABLE SURFACE
Performing an exercise on a stable, even surface like the flat ground is easier than performing that same movement on an unstable, uneven surface like a pillow, Airex balance pad, or balance board. That’s why running in sand is more difficult than running on pavement. That’s also why performing Planks with your hands on a stability ball or with your feet in a suspension trainer is harder than performing that same Plank on the floor. A dynamic, fluid surface is more unstable and makes an exercise significantly more challenging.
4 Tempo
You can make an exercise harder by speeding up the movement or slowing it down. The tempo of an exercise includes four distinct components.
ECCENTRIC PERIOD (E): the time it takes to perform the negative or “lowering” portion of an exercise, when your muscles lengthen under tension. This is the deceleration phase of a movement, like hitting the brakes on your car. Your muscles are strongest during this portion of an exercise.
ECCENTRIC-CONCENTRIC TRANSITION PERIOD (EC): the time it takes to transition between the eccentric and concentric phase of an exercise, often called the midpoint of an exercise. Pausing at this position for any length of time creates an isometric muscular contraction where no movement at the joint(s) takes place.
CONCENTRIC PERIOD (C): the time it takes to perform the positive or “lifting” portion of an exercise, when your muscles shorten under tension. This is the acceleration phase of a movement, like hitting the gas and going pedal to metal when driving.
TRANSITION PERIOD BETWEEN REPETITIONS (T): the time you take between each repetition of an exercise.
For example, one way to make a traditional Pushup harder is to take 3 seconds to lower your chest to the floor (E), and then pause for 1 second as you reach the bottom of the Pushup without resting on the floor (EC), then explode back up to the starting position (C), and finally pause for 1 second before you perform the next repetition (T).
Before you try tempo progressions, be sure you’ve mastered a movement with perfect technique using 4 seconds to perform it at a controlled tempo of 2 seconds for lowering (E), 1-second pause (EC), explosive positive (C), and 1 second for transition (T). That’s how you’ll perform most of the basic moves in this book. When you are ready for tempo progression, try these.
GO FASTER TO BOOST POWER AND TRAINING DENSITY. Maximum power is trained by performing explosive work for bouts of 10 seconds or fewer or 5 reps or fewer. Power endurance is trained by performing explosive work for 20 seconds or longer or 10 reps or more. Power exercises are often known as plyometrics (or plyos). They take advantage of what’s called the stretch-shortening cycle or stretch reflex, whereby a muscle rapidly lengthens and then quickly reverses its action. Examples include sprinting, jumping, hopping, leaping, bounding, etc. Power exercises also involve performing basic exercises like Pushups, Squats, and Lunges as fast as possible.
For example, if you want to build maximum power, you can perform sets of 3 to 5 Jump Squats with plenty of rest between sets, where you’re trying to get as much height as you can on every rep. Using a harder Squat variation (such as a Split Jump Squat or Single-Leg Jump Squat) will result in slower velocities that develop more strength speed. Using an easier Squat variation (such as a regular Squat or Assisted Squat) will result in faster velocities that develop more speed strength. Both options are great and should be used for a well-rounded power-training program.
On the other side of the spectrum, you can build maximum endurance by performing as many Squats (or Jump Squats) as you can in, say, 30 seconds. It’s obvious that performing 20 reps is a better result than 10 and means you’ve boosted your power output. This increase in reps can only be accomplished by performing the Squat at a faster speed than our 4-second tempo. Performing more work in the same amount of time increases training density (work performed per unit of time) and will help you burn more fat and build more lean muscle. However, increasing speed of movement is only a true progression when performed without sacrificing form or range of motion.
In addition, explosive tempos better target your powerful fast-twitch muscle fibers. These fibers are key to improving athleticism and reducing the risk of injury because they allow you to react quickly. These fibers are also the first to go with the age-related muscle loss that occurs in people over 30 years old, so you need to target fast-twitch muscles in your training. Plus, power training helps build powerful joints and connective tissues. But remember to always master an exercise at a slow speed before progressing to a faster speed or you risk overly stressing your joints.
GO SLOWER TO INCREASE MUSCLE WORK AND BULLETPROOF YOUR JOINTS. Your muscles and tendons are like coiled springs. When you perform the lowering/eccentric portion of any exercise, your muscles and tendons build up stored elastic energy that allows you to quickly uncoil or bounce back to the starting position. So when you sink your hips back quickly into a deep squatting position, the muscles of your lower body are primed to pop you right back up to the starting position just as a stretched rubber band would.
If you want your muscles to work harder, you need to avoid the bounce back of the released rubber band. You do that by using time. Studies show that it takes only 4 seconds to eliminate this stretch reflex and discharge all of the potential elastic energy within your muscles and tendons. The less elastic energy within your muscles, the harder your muscles must work and the less your joints and connective tissues must work to perform any exercise. The result is a greater total muscle fiber recruitment. For this reason, slowing a movement down is a great way to rehab an injury or bulletproof your joints.
One way to incorporate this 4-second time period into an exercise is to perform an isometric hold in the transition period between the eccentric and concentric portion. For example, perform a 4-second hold at the bottom position of a Pushup before returning to the starting position.
Another option is to take at least 4 seconds before performing the concentric portion of the exercise. For example, in a Squat, you can take 3 seconds to lower your body into the bottom of the Squat and then pause for 1 second, which is a total of 4 seconds before you would actually push back up to the starting position.
One more thing to consider: Slow lowerings allow you to get used to more advanced exercise variations to bridge the gap between easier and harder moves. Simply perform the lowering portion only on advanced moves like Single-Leg Squats, Chinups, or Single-Arm Pushups. Once you can do multiple sets of multiple reps of slow eccentrics, you’ll be in a great position to add the concentric phase and nail your first full-range-of-motion rep.
Finally, studies show that if you have the intent of performing the lifting or concentric portion on every rep of any given exercise as fast as humanly possible, you activate the most total muscle fibers. More muscles worked equals more calories burnt and greater gains in lean body mass.
GET STRONGER BY OWNING THE TOPS AND BOTTOMS. If you want to get better at an exercise, simply focus on improving your positioning at key points during an exercise. If you can own the top and the bottom of a given movement (or the start and midpoint, depending on the exercise), you’ll own everything else in between. Apply this concept by focusing on isometric holds at the top and bottom of exercises like Pushups, Squats, and Pullups. This is especially useful for advanced moves that are currently beyond your reach, since your muscles are stronger eccentrically and isometrically than they are concentrically.
When it comes to iso holds, you’re strongest at the starting position and weakest at the midpoint position. Don’t just hold it; try to create as much total-body tension as possible for maximum benefits. At first, you might be able to muster only a couple seconds at a time, but gradually you’ll build up this holding pattern until:
• You can comfortably hold the starting position of a move (the top of a Squat or Pushup and the bottom of a Pullup) for at least 60 seconds.
• You can comfortably hold the midpoint position of a move (the bottom of a Squat or Pushup and the top of a Pullup) for at least 30 seconds.
Once you can accomplish this, you should have no trouble crushing that movement.
5 Range of Motion (ROM)
Full range of motion is when you perform an exercise from the absolute top to the absolute bottom and back. However, ROM can be altered to make an exercise harder or easier.
EXTENDED ROM is when you perform an exercise through a greater total distance. This makes the same move harder without the need for external resistance or additional loading. For example, if you perform a Pushup with your hands supported on dumbbells, medicine balls, or low boxes that are placed on the floor, you allow your chest to lower farther than it normally would if your hands were placed on the floor.
Another example of an extended ROM progression includes performing a greater amount of work in the most difficult portion of a given exercise for every rep. For example, when performing a Pushup or Squat variation, first lower yourself to the bottom of the movement, then come back up only halfway, then go all the way down again before coming all the way up to the original starting position. This is called a 1.5 rep and has you performing twice as many repetitions during the bottom of the movement where it’s most challenging.
BLOCKED ROM is when you perform an exercise with a different starting and/or end point than normal. For example, performing Pushups starting halfway down and only moving between there and the bottom position can be more challenging than a regular full ROM Pushup because you’re keeping your chest muscles under constant tension without resting at the top of the movement as usual after each rep. This “constant tension” technique has been used by bodybuilders for decades to boost new muscle growth, particularly for lagging body parts.
Another way to block ROM is by breaking down a work set into two or three parts. In the case of a Pushup, a two-part block could have you perform a certain number of reps in the bottom half of a Pushup and then a certain number of reps in the top half of a Pushup within the same work set. A three-part block would be similar, except it would break the Pushup into the top third, mid-third, and bottom third. Blocking provides a new stimulus that can strengthen sticking points and spark new muscle growth.
PARTIAL ROM is a modified or shortened range of motion to make an exercise easier. Classic examples include Half Pushups, where you lower your body halfway down and back up, and a Half Pullup, where you pull your body halfway up and back down. This allows you to cheat to get more total reps and build confidence with harder exercise variations. It also can be a way to extend a set and perform more total work after no longer being able to complete full ROM reps. However, the goal is eventually to be able to perform these exercises through a full ROM on a regular basis.
6 Complexity
You can increase the complexity of an exercise and reward yourself with more benefits by:
A. COMBINING MULTIPLE JOINTS OR MUSCLES
Moving one joint–called an isolation or singlejoint movement—is easier for your body to figure out than moving multiple joints at once—called a compound or multijoint movement. There’s just less skill required in the former. For example, performing a Biceps Curl with dumbbells (a single-joint move) is easier to master than performing a Pullup, where your shoulders and core muscles are called into play. Though isolation exercises are often considered useless exercises for meathead bodybuilders, they do have their place in a sound training program, especially early on.
For example, being able to properly perform an isolated movement like a Pullup Shrug should be a prerequisite before anyone ever attempts a full Pullup. To perform a Pullup Shrug, start by holding on to a bar or a pair of rings from a Dead Hang, where your arms are fully extended overhead and your shoulder blades are fully protracted and elevated so that your shoulders rest by your ears. Now, moving only at the shoulder girdle and keeping your arms straight, pull your shoulders down and back and lift your chest up while keeping your ribs down and abs braced. This finishing position is how you should initiate every single Pullup rep you ever do for optimal shoulder health. Finally, reverse the movement and repeat for time or reps.
Even though this move is recommended for beginners, it’s a great corrective exercise for advanced users because it activates the key pulling muscles of your lats and middle to lower traps, muscles that tend to turn off with poor posture and excessive pushing movements. It also requires excellent shoulder and thoracic spine mobility (and core stabilization) to get into a safe overhead position without hyperextending your lower back and shrugging your shoulders. This makes such a single-joint, isolation movement like a Pullup Shrug both a great beginner move and a great warmup drill before a multijoint compound movement like Pullups.
B. COMBINING MULTIPLE PLANES OF MOTION
The body moves in three basic planes of movement: sagittal—movements that occur front to back and up and down; frontal—movements that occur side to side; and transverse-rotational movements.
The vast majority of the exercises that most people perform occur mostly in the sagittal plane, such as Squats and Bench Presses (or Pushups). In other words, the frontal and transverse planes are highly neglected, creating a training imbalance that can lead to a host of unwanted short- and long-term injuries. It’s critical to exercise in all three planes in a sound training program.
One way to accomplish this is to take a uniplanar exercise and make it multiplanar by combining it with one or more planes of movement. The more planes of movement you incorporate, the harder the exercise and the more muscles you work. The Lunge is a good exercise to illustrate this point.
1. Sagittal plane Lunge variation: FORWARD LUNGE
2. Frontal plane Lunge variation: LATERAL LUNGE
3. Transverse plane Lunge variation: ROTATIONAL LUNGE
You can combine two or more of these Lunges to make one multiplane exercise.
Here’s how you would combine all three: Step with your right foot into a Forward Lunge, then return to the starting position. Next, step with your right foot into a Lateral Lunge and return. Finally, step into a Rotational Lunge, then return to the starting position. Repeat for time, then do the same exercise while stepping with the left foot.
It’s much more challenging for your nervous system to incorporate multiple planes of movement at once-in addition to the fact that more muscles are worked and more energy is expended.
C. COMBINING MULTIPLE MOVEMENT PATTERNS
Combination moves, like the triple Lunge we just discussed, are harder than individual exercises and should be treated that way. They require much greater skill and motor control.
Take as an example the Burpee, the ultimate equipment-free total-body exercise. It combines hinging, squatting, planking, pushing, and jumping movements into one seamless sweat maker. No other exercise works more muscles and burns more calories per minute than this big nasty, which is why it sucks! Perfect execution of this move is also a sign of elite athleticism and functional fitness.
The Burpee is probably the most bastardized exercise on the planet. That’s because most people can’t perform a perfect, full ROM Squat or Pushup to start (not to mention hip hinging, planking, and jumping). Dysfunction plus more dysfunction equals disaster and catastrophic bodily harm. If you want to master a complex combination skill like a Burpee, you should first master the easier individual components before progressing to that level of movement proficiency.
7 Metabolic Demand (or Stress)
This progression category makes an exercise harder to perform by increasing the metabolic demand on your body. There are three ways to do this.
A. CUT REST PERIODS
Your body needs at least 2 minutes and upwards of 10 minutes for complete recovery between sets of a given exercise. If you cut your rest periods down to 30 to 60 seconds, your muscles never fully recover, making the same exercise feel a lot harder.
There are pros and cons to any change in programming variables. In this case, the pros are that you make the same move harder without changing it in any way or adding an external load. The cons are that you will feel weaker and be unable to perform as many reps as you normally would under conditions of full recovery. In other words, you’re building more endurance and less strength.
B. CHANGE EXERCISE ORDER
Another way to increase the metabolic stress on your body is to mix up your exercise order with alternating sets, where you perform multiple moves back-to-back. Alternating sets can be broken into two categories: competitive and noncompetitive.
Noncompetitive alternating sets pair two or more moves that work different muscle groups or movement patterns so as not to impair your recovery between exercises. Examples include alternating between upper-body and lower-body exercises like Pushups and Squats. This tactic is great for increasing fat loss, metabolic conditioning, and training density. Grouping exercises that work different areas of your body allows you to rest from one exercise while working another without actually needing to take time to rest.
Competitive alternating sets pair two or more moves that work similar muscle groups and movement patterns to increase the local muscular endurance demand and accumulate more muscle damage. For example, if I had you pair Squats with Lunges, by the time you got to the Lunges, your legs would already be fatigued. The same thing would happen if I paired Handstand Pushups with regular Pushups or Pullups with Rows. Because you’re prefatiguing your working muscles, the subsequent exercise becomes much harder than if you just performed straight sets of single exercises with full rest.
C. INCREASE TRAINING VOLUME
Training volume describes the total number of sets and reps you do. It can be divided into two basic components: daily and weekly training volume.
For example, if you did 3 sets of 10 Squats, that’s 30 total Squat reps in that single training session. Or you could commit to doing 30 reps of Squats per day each week (that’s 210 total reps over the course of a week). Both options describe daily training volume.
Now, weekly training volume describes the total number of sets and reps you do for a given exercise within a single week of training. Using the example above, if you did the 3 sets of 10-rep Squat workout three times per week, that would result in 90 total Squats that week. But if you opted for the 30 reps of Squats per day alternative, that would translate into a larger weekly training volume of 210 reps on the Squat. Clearly, the second option is harder.
So increasing your daily or weekly training volume with a given exercise is a final way to make the same exercise harder without adding weight. Gradually progressing to 40 Squats a day, then to 50 and so forth, is a guaranteed way to build more muscle and improve your fitness. However, the drawbacks with endless increases in volume are excessive muscle soreness and larger time requirements. That’s why I recommend you typically keep your per-workout training volume for a given move to about 25 to 50 reps, which is what many fitness experts agree to be the sweet spot for building muscle, improving strength, and boosting metabolism. Instead of adding more volume, intensify the exercise by using one of the endless progression options above.
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