Are you feeling stuck in a rut with your at home fitness routine? It’s easy to fall into a monotonous routine of knocking out the same workouts week after week. Here are 5 Simple ways to increase the intensity of your strength training workouts at home.
5 Simple Ways to increase the intensity of your strengths training workouts
Doing the same workout week after week can get tiresome and you may stop seeing results. Perhaps you are feeling ready to challenge your muscles and get more from your strength training efforts? With these 5 simple tweaks, you can easily change your whole workout. This post contains affiliate links.
Add more reps
If you are following a class that has you doing 6 reps in 30 seconds, for example, challenge yourself to do 8 or 10 reps in the same amount of time.
Add heavier weights
Safely increasing your weight load is the easiest way to increase the intensity of an exercise. As long as you can maintain proper form, increasing your weight can yield significant results. You may surprise yourself! No harm in trying and you can always drop your weights back if needed.
Not sure if you are ready to make the leap of a 5 or 10 lbs increase? Check out these 1.25 lb add ons for a more subtle increase.
Add another set
If you usually do 2 sets of each exercise, try adding another set. This is often where the magic happens. It’s okay if you can’t finish all the reps in your last set. That’s actually a good thing! If you are following a virtual class, simply pause or rewind to get that extra set in.
Take less rest between sets
Many class formats have you doing a certain number of reps EMOM (every minute on the minute). Instead of taking the rest time at the end of each minute, add in another exercise to decrease your rest. This will also keep your heart rate up
Add in a cardio burst between sets
Adding in a short 30 second cardio burst between sets is a simple and very effective way to up the intensity of your workouts. Cardio can be anything you like (burpees, jumping rope, jumping jacks, jogging in place) or if you have fitness equipment hop onto a bike or treadmill for 30 seconds.
Bonus move:
Isometric Holds
Holding a weight in one position (for example: a bicep curl at a 90 degree angle) for 10-15 seconds creates much more of a challenge than you might expect. These are great finisher exercises to add onto your strength routine.
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Which one of these 5 hacks will you try first to up the intensity of your strength training workouts?
Thanks for helping to make the Runners’ Roundup a huge success by visiting all of the hosts: Me, Debbie, Jen, Lisa
Great ideas! One tip I learned from my strength coach was to make dumbbells feel heavier for bench presses to add a resistance band. I have 25 pound and 35 pounds weights and I’m kind of in between and don’t want to buy 30 pound ones, so adding the band keeps it challenging.
Yes that’s a great idea adding weight and resistance makes a nice adjustment
These are all great tips, Deborah! Typically I follow a workout, and I don’t do the same all the time, so I don’t have to think about it, LOL!
That’s great! Sometimes when I am doing a Peloton workout, I just add in the extra set for fun
When I was doing home strength during the quarantine, SJ really spiced up my workouts by having me do tempo lifts and negatives; I was limited with how heavy I could lift so these made what I had more challenging. It’s all about maximizing what you have! The best part was when I got back to the gym, I didn’t lose much strength at all. We were both surprised and very pleased!
That is fantastic!
Great tips, Deborah!
Just this week I was thinking how I could get more out of my strength training. So I started to do fitness videos a day (30 minutes instead of just 15 minutes). There’s room for more!
I like the idea of a cardio burst. I will try coach Debbie’s suggestion on Friday with a run between sets. Let’s see how that goes.
Oh, and I started the Sytera yoga. It’s very good!
oh great to hear that you like the yoga! I am doing again too feels good on these hips. Hope some of these tips help you too
Don’t have to increase intensity. I just have to start doing something lol
Always appreciate your tips!
I could see you really liking strength training!
These are great suggestions! I have been adding more reps (and sets, on occasion). A thing that I’ve started doing is incorporating static holds on one side while lifting on the other. I’ve also been doing some lifts in slow-mo (holy burn!!!). I’m still in search of some heavier dumbbells, so I’ve had to get creative with the ones I have.
Some of the Peloton classes use the static holds they are a nice challenge
Today I had cardio bursts in my workout and they seem simple but they add up during your sets!
yes exactly!
Good tips! I always like to change the tempo and make a movement eccentric or isometric, especially if I can’t add heavier weight.
Yes that does help to mix it up
I love adding heavier weights to measure my progress.
It feels so good!
I am still needing to get on a good workout routine, but I’m in such a busy season of life that it’s just not a possibility at this time. Someday!
Hope your schedule is less hectic soon! Thanks for stopping in
My husband swears by cardio bursts in between sessions! Says it just makes things more exciting for him.
I do enjoy them as well
I’m always amazed at how quickly I need to increase my weights. It really makes a difference, and quickly too!
I agree!
Great tips, Deborah! Keeping good form so you’re less likely to get injured is so important – glad you made a point about form.
Yes it sure is!
These are great tips! Cardio burst and adding more weights are my go-to!
They really do work well thanks for stopping by
Thanks so much for these tips! It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut.
It definitely can be!
Great ideas! Sometimes it’s hard to really push yourself at home but these are some great ideas.
It can be hard to motivate yourself at home hope these tips helps you
I hate going to the gym and especially now, I feel so fortunate to have enough equipment at home to get pretty much any type of a workout in.
yes me too it’s a huge relief and a help
i love the idea of adding cardio bursts in between the set.
It works really well!
I love how easy it increase your insensitivity of your workout. I need to push myself harder!
It is easy to intensify your workouts hope this gave you a few ideas
Heavier weights!
It’s the one thing I hate doing – increasing the weights, but it would probably be the most helpful thing to me!
I never used to like heavy weights and now I cannot get enough. Give it a try!
These are great tips, Deborah! If we want to make progress, we need to keep challenging ourselves.
I think I will start by adding heavier weights. I follow videos with a set timer, so that will probably be the easiest hack. Just a kilogram more can make such a difference!
yes it really can make a huge difference to add just a small amount more of weight
I love having a strength coach because she makes all the adjustments for me! Its interesting to see how each week the reps, rest, sets, etc are adjusted. As I have lifted heavier I’ve needed more rest time to recover.
I had a trainer for a long time and yes it does help to have someone else mix up your workouts for you. Switching things up is the key to making gains
Yes to everything you highlighted 😉 An at-home setting, with minimal “equipment,” can still garner a decent workout if we just get creative with what we have. Often times, I do my upper-body workout while watching TV (hello, Olympics? LOL), so I did static holds, in various positions) in between sets. The heart rate definitely stayed elevated and the burn felt great!
You can definitely get a good workout at home. You are good at being creative with yours
Yes, it’s easy to fall into a rut of two sets of ten, etc. etc. These are all great ways of making it more effective. And timely, since so many of us are working out at home now!
It is easy to get stuck in a rut with home workouts. Glad I gave you a few easy ideas
These are great. As a trainer, one of the things I see the most is people just doing the same thing, day after day, never increasing intensity. These are all things a trainer would do to help a client progress.
Thanks and Yes, people do get stuck in the same routine over and over.
I don’t really try that much to up my ST, but I follow someone who has lots of workouts with lots of variety — it definitely keeps things interesting!
All great tips, Deborah!
yes it does help to mix it up a bit
Oooh, a cardio burst in between definitely adds intensity! That’s a phenomenal way to get it done! Fantastic ideas to add to the challenge.
thanks Jenn glad I gave you some ideas too
I like to change tempo: slow down the eccentric portion, or add an isometric such as a hold at the bottom of a squat. So many options!
So many!
Great tips, Deborah! Keeping good form so you’re less likely to get injured is so important – glad you made a point about form.
yes, form is so important!
I’m going to a Crossfit class tonight because I definitely need to add heavier weights. At home, I only have 2 x 20 pounds, and I think it’s time to increase the load. Let’s see how the trial goes tonight!
that sounds like a great idea for you! Looking forward to seeing how it goes. How is the achilles?
Great tips! I’ve learned that even when Im working out at home its important to push myself to increase my weights every so often. It can be easy to grab the same weight each time even when it gets comfortable.
Yes, exactly! And it feels good to challenge yourself
All great tips. They can be used when going to the gym too. Doing the same machines can get boring.
yes, it sure can get boring. It can be easy to fall into a routine and get stuck in a rut
These are all great options! It’s easy to slip into an exercise rut and keep doing the same thing. I like to add in Eccentric workouts now and then. They’re awesome!
Yes, that is a great option too. Some of the newer Peloton classes have been doing isometric holds which can also be a nice way to mix it up
These are great hacks to UP the strength game 😉 Something I do (in the dead of winter, when I’m “stuck” inside) is to add in some strength reps in between treadmill segments. We all know how much I detest the ‘mill, so filtering-in some strength reps is an easy way to break the monotony of the treadmill, but also sneak in some strength work that normally wouldn’t have happened.
yes that works too. I bet you would like the tread bootcamps they are that format
These are really great tips! I think the reason I love Jess Sims for strength workouts is because she really takes intentional, smaller breaks between sets.
yes, the smaller breaks are key and of course we have the option not to take them if we don’t need them. Then sometimes, I have to pause the class to run to the bathroom 🙂
I love all of these. Great tips for safely increasing! I’m going to apply this to my Planksgiving challenge.
great to hear!
There are so many great ways to make strength workouts more challenging! I really like to push myself by increasing the weight. If it’s too heavy, it’s ok to drop to a lower weight for the next set!
yes exactly You may surprise yourself
Great tips. Although I don’t work out at home.. when I go to the gym and use the machines, sometimes I add more reps, other ties I add more weight
So many ways to mix it up
All great tips- isometric holds are REALLY hard! And I like Wendy’s comment about doing negatives- they will definitely burn. It’s good to mix things up a little, otherwise doing strength at home (or in the gym!) can get kind of boring.
Isometric holds are so hard!
Ditto on Jenny’s comment on isometric holds! I also sometimes do the “easier” moves in slow-mo. It’s pretty easy to increase the intensity of strength workouts, even with limited resources (like at home).
slowing down reps is also a great way to make them more challenging
Great ideas! They’d work for just about any gym workout too.
yes they will!
These are perfect and sustainable ways to increase and improve strength workouts. I love that just a little add can yield big results.
It sure can!