Bring More INTENTION into your workouts!

This has been on my mind recently while housebound for my workouts during the Coronavirus pandemic. I had the mindset going into this that my workouts would simply be good enough to get by but I wouldn’t really be able to make any progress. I thought the greatest challenge was going to be my limited equipment and having to do more bodyweight movements. Are they really enough to increase muscle size and strength? I have found the opposite to be true as I in these past three weeks I feel like I have made greater progress than I have in a long time! Here are a few things I’ve been doing to increase my intention behind the exercises I have been doing to achieve my best workouts at home.

1. Go into each workout with a plan! I have a regular schedule that I currently follow which breaks down which body parts I train on which days. During my warm-up, sometimes with pen and paper close by, I think about what muscles I want to feel the most that day. I make a plan that will allow for me to work the muscle in each direction the joint allows that body part to move. I start with the area or muscle I want to see the most change in and go from there!

2. Activate the mind-muscle connection! Typically at the gym there are mirrors all around to see the muscle contract while the motion is performed. I’m sure I’m not the only one who doesn’t have walls in my house fully lined with mirrors! Since it’s challenging to see the muscle, we have to switch to thinking and feeling. What I mean by that is to think about which muscle is working. I picture it in my mind, sometimes closing my eyes, and visualize what it looks like when the muscle contracts. Then I feel it. Can I feel the whole muscle contracting? Does it feel more challenging with each repetition? Is the muscle feeling warm and tight? Try it for yourself!

3. Change up your pace! We are often guilty of going through the motions and busting out the same reps at the same weight, for the same number of sets and then moving on to the next exercise. Try changing things up by increasing your speed during the contraction phase and then going very slowly on the down phase. You can also reverse that by contracting slow and then lower the weight at a regular pace. Lastly, one of my favorite ways to work with my pace to really burn my muscles is to use a slow pace for the first 10 reps and then a regular or faster speed until I can’t keep going. After the slow ones, it doesn’t take many to completely toast the muscle!

4. If you can’t increase the weight, you have to increase the reps! I’ve been utilizing those tube style bands with the handles that you can change out a lot during this quarantine. One of the challenges I face is that they just aren’t hard enough when working back, for example. I step far enough back to have a good contraction on the band but in order to make it hard enough to work the muscle, I end up doing more reps than I usually would until I start to feel it. Subsequent sets are usually easier to feel now that the muscle group is activated. You may also find that you need to do a few extra sets as well to push the muscle to the point where it is challenging to keep going!

I hope these tips are helpful! Try changing things up and be sure that you always get in your best workout!

#fitlife #fitfam #homeworkouts #stayhealthystaystrong