Defined from a physiological point of view, strength is a phenomenon that happens in our muscle fibers and that can interact with an external object or not, since It is defined as the muscle tension generated.
Thus, when we talk about strength training, we are not only referring to the training carried out with bars, discs or dumbbells, but also to the training carried out any implement that supposes an external resistance that our neuromuscular system must save. We talk about kettlebells, rubber, pulleys, chains and even our own body weight.
In the latter we are going to stop today so in this article we will explain a routine you can do in your own room to improve your strength without the need for weights.
Training and progressive overload principle
All adaptations, gains and improvements that come from training must be closely related to the principle of progressive overload.
The principle of progressive overload tells us that to produce adaptations to a particular stimulus, each stimulus must be of greater magnitude than the previous one. In addition, these stimuli must exceed a certain threshold, as the Threshold Law or Arnodt-Schultz Law. If the stimulus does not exceed the minimum threshold, the stimulus is too poor to generate adaptations, however if we exceed it, the body is unable to tolerate that stimulus and its priority will be to recover from fatigue, but not improve performance.
In this way it is important that let’s try to overcome the magnitude of the stimulus that we impose on our body in the short, medium and long term. If the load (our body weight) remains constant, we can apply this principle by performing more repetitions, or more sets, or both.
Training design
Although we don’t have all the possibilities that a gym offers, box or training room in general, we can train at home perfectly if we know how to correctly select the exercises to perform.
Do not think about the muscles you want to work but in basic human movement patterns:
There are movement patterns that we have left out because of the simple fact that they are difficult to reproduce at home. This is the case of vertical thrusts such as presses above the head or vertical pulls such as pulls or dominated. However we will give other alternatives that we can perform.
For our training we will choose an exercise from each movement pattern.
- Squat with body weight
- Deadweight with elastic band
- Pushups or push-ups
- Rowing with elastic band
- Isometric iron
- Press Pallof with elastic band
We will perform three sets of 15 repetitions per exercise, except in the plate and the Pallof press where we will perform eight series of 10 seconds of duration and five seconds of rest.
The rest time between sets will be one minute or a minute and a half. Remember to continue progressing you must add a series here or a repetition there progressively and throughout the weeks.
Squat with body weight
The squat is the dominant knee exercise par excellence. To perform it correctly we start from a standing position. The first move is made slightly flexing the hip facing backwards. This hip movement is accompanied by progressive knee flexion until sufficient depth is reached.
It is important to distribute the weight of our body over the entire surface of the soles of our feet.
Deadweight with elastic band
Just as the squat is a dominant knee exercise, the dead weight is from the hip. In this way the muscles most involved during this movement are those that cause hip flexion and extension. We refer to the entire posterior chain that includes the entire set of ischiosurals and gluteus.
Try to correctly disassociate the movement of your hip from that of your lumbar spine, that is, during hip flexion, the lumbar spine should remain neutral, without flexing.
Pushups or push-ups
With the push-ups we have a horizontal thrust. During the execution of this exercise we must keep the elbows close to the body, at an angle of 45 degrees. In this way if we were seen from the air we should look like the position of our arms and head the tip of an arrow.
Rowing with elastic band
The paddle with elastic band is similar in mechanics to the paddle in low pulley that we can perform in the gym. This exercise has as its main muscle the wide dorsal which is activated during shoulder extension and adduction.
A detail regarding the vertical pulls or pulls is that the oars activate to a greater extent the most medial fibers of the dorsal, that is, those closest to the column.
Isometric iron
The isometric plate is one of the best known anti-movement exercises. It is a core for the core.
Specifically, the iron is an anti-spine extension exercise, so during its execution we must ensure that our lumbar spine does not extend, that is, that the hip does not collapse to the ground.
Press Pallof
The Pallof press is an anti-movement exercise, specifically anti-rotation. This means that during the exercise we must prevent our torso from rotating towards the side on which the resistance acts of the elastic band.
It is important to keep the torso upright and the shoulders parallel to each other.
What happens to the movement patterns that have been left out?
Vertical thrusts and vertical pulls usually require additional material to perform properly. If you consider it appropriate you can get a pull-up bar that you can install in your own home and invest in a dumbbell to perform a shoulder press.
If buying material is not an option, you can replace shoulder presses with pike push-ups and those dominated by a high paddle with elastic band placing it on the ceiling or simply at a height higher than that of your head.
On how to include these exercises in your routine, just alternate the days you do horizontal pulls and thrusts (oars and pushups) with other days where you do vertical pulls and thrusts (high rowing with band and pike push-ups).
Pike push-ups
The pike push-ups they are a variant of the pushups that are performed keeping a hip flexion raising this skyward. This position places us with our backs oriented obliquely towards the ground, so when pushing the ground with our arms, the work is transferred to our anterior deltoid, which is shoulder flexor.
Try to keep your elbows facing back. You should look like the tip of an arrow, not a capital T.
High rowing with band or banded high row
This high band oar is an exercise located between the horizontal oar of a lifetime and the pulls to the chest. As well as the oars cause greater activation in the fibers of the wide dorsal closest to the spine and the pulls in the furthest, this exercise can bring us the best of both, in addition to greater activation in the lower fibers of the trapezium.
In Vitónica | Five different ways to progress in our strength training
How to progress in your strength training when you’ve stalled
Images | iStock
Videos | Ninolift, Healthy Fitness – Home Training, DavidCR Personal Trainer, Marc Rivero Vila, Ariel Couceiro González, Calisthenics in Spanish, Testosterone Nation
Discussion about this post