How To Increase Intensity

Lets say you are traveling and the hotel’s website claims to have a “fitness center on campus”. When you get there, you check in and on your way to your room, you check out the fitness center. You walk in only to see one of those machines with a bunch of attachments and just a handful of dumbbells that are either too light or too heavy. What on earth are you going to do? TRUST me with the right programing a five pound dumbbell can give you as much of a workout as a 35 pound dumbbell. Lets talk about a little thing called “intensity”…aka how can I get #gainz from five pound dumbbells? While “increasing weight” is one way to increase intensity lets look at a few others incase that option isn’t available:

  1. Increase Weight. This seems the most logical way to increase intensity. If you want more from your workout increase the weight of the object you are using to perform the movements. Instead of using the ten pound dumbbells you are using the fifteen pound dumbbells.
  2. Increase Reps & Sets. Lift the object more times. Instead of doing three sets of ten reps, maybe you do three sets of twelve reps or even fifteen. If your form gets bad around rep number ten, then I would stop there (good, safe form should always be number one consideration) and look at increasing the number of sets, meaning you do four sets of ten reps all with perfect form.
  3. Static Holds. Versus dynamic/moving. Instead of doing reps of lunges, hold at the bottom of the lunge. Instead of doing overhead presses, hold the object over your head. Promise you will feel a difference.
  4. Time. Lets say the gym does have only five pound dumbbells and you really need ten pound dumbbells. Instead of doing 3 sets of fifteen reps, try doing the reps for a certain amount of time….say 30 seconds. Still keep your number of sets but change the way you do the “reps”. Play around with different time domains and see what it can offer.
  5. Pause. Adding a pause in a rep. For example, DB Tricep Kickbacks. Once you have extended your arm hold for a brief (1 second, or more) pause before bring the weight back to starting position. Like the time element above, play around with different lengths of pauses and see how long you can hold a pause before you have to break form. Something to think about is, in order to maintain form, you  might have to decrease your number of reps. So instead of doing three sets of 12 reps, you might do three sets of eight reps with a three second pause for each rep.

Last week I posted two different workouts, one with a bands and one with dumbbells. I encourage you to take those workout and apply these methods to them. Just remember FORM FIRST. Don’t give up bad form and risk injury for an extra second on your pause…not worth it. Please tag me in your #HomeGymSelfies!