Establishing a regular routine of working out is important for overall health and wellness. However, sometimes making it to the gym is not practical, especially for households with families. In many cases, when people are unable to make it to the gym to work out, they often will just skip that day, which leads to inconsistent workout routines, and not reaching wellness goals.
Home Gym Guidelines
Current exercise guidelines suggest working out 5 days a week which includes cardiovascular and resistance training. While these guidelines are aimed at the general overall wellness of most adults, resistance training has been shown to be beneficial in various aspects of health, including weight loss.
If you happen to be someone who is unable to go to the gym on a regular routine, but still wants to work out, consider the information ahead so that you can work out at home for muscle building.
Common Types of Training for Building Muscle
In order to get a better grasp of how to optimally work out at home, it is important to understand what type of workouts you can do. Take a look at these workout formats to better guide you throughout your journey.
- High Intensity Interval Training. This type of workout is very popular among athletes and people who want to lose weight. High intensity interval training, or HIIT, is very efficient and burning calories, building muscle mass, and time efficiency. Common HIIT workouts blend periods of near maximal effort exercise with rest intervals.
- Weight Training. Weight training is a standard way to build muscle strength, endurance, and mass. In this type of training, you can use various equipment including resistance bands, dumbbells, free weights, barbells, or exercise machines. Depending on your home setup, any of these pieces of equipment will suffice for building muscle.
- Circuit Training. This type of workout is very popular for people who get bored when working out. Circuit training involves various lifts, movements, and exercises that are designed to work the full body with limited to no rest. There are many types of circuit training workouts that you can do with some of the more popular ones popping up in the gyms as boot camps.
Top 5 Ways to Workout at Home for Muscle Building
1. Design your workout effectively. In order to build muscle mass, it is important to work your muscles effectively so that you can get the most from your workouts. This means scheduling how you will set up your workout throughout the week.
Consider a schedule of every other day where you perform resistance training, aiming at your major muscle groups to start. Studies have shown that a consistent, ten-week resistance training program can increase lean body mass by close to three pounds, while also reducing fat mass by equal amounts.
2. Perform super sets. Super sets are a perfect way to minimize rest in between sets and it is a great way to build muscle mass. No matter what type of equipment you have for your workouts, super sets are something that you can do.
In order to do a super set, you have to be able to pair workouts that go together. For example, exercises that emphasize pairing the biceps and the triceps, shoulders, and chest, quads and hamstrings, and abs with the lower back can really boost your muscle-building efficiency.
3. Lift through a Complete Range of Motion. If you’re looking to work out at home for muscle building, it is important to perform your exercise through a full range of motion. This means not cheating when you’re doing an exercise and moving the weight through the full range.
One common flaw when using heavy weight is that range of motion and form goes out the window. If this is something that has been an issue for you, consider trying lighter weights so that you can hit that full range of motion and progress to heavier as you progress.
4. Go Heavy to Build Hypertrophy. Building muscle mass generally should involve lifting weights that are pretty heavy for you. In order to establish how much weight you should lift, you should establish a one rep maximum.
It is recommended to do this with a lifting partner, personal trainer, or someone who can give you assistance if you need it. Once the one rep maximum is established for the areas you want to build muscle, consider performing three sets of 8-12 reps (80% of your maximum) where you are unable to do anymore.
If you are looking to increase muscle size further, perform 1-5 reps (90-95% of your maximum) until you are unable to perform anymore.
5. Timing of Nutrients. Perhaps the second most important element of building muscle mass is to consume recovery nutrients, including amino acids. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that adults should aim for about 0.5-08 grams of protein per pound of body weight.
So, if you weigh 150 pounds, this means you will want to consume roughly 75-120 grams of protein daily, with a portion (20-30 grams) of that needed to come within 30 minutes after your workout.
Getting Started
Now that you have the information on how to work out at home for muscle building, it is time to get started with a routine that will fit. The first part of getting your workout journey started is to figure out what time of day works best for you, where you can have 30 minutes minimum to dedicate to resistance training.
After establishing what time of day you will do this, consider scheduling in your phone or planner/calendar what days you will do what. Maybe Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are resistance days and the other days are cardio.
Regardless of how you plan it, give your muscles at least 24-48 hours to thoroughly rest and try not to go more than two consecutive days without working out.
Wrap-Up
Your workout routine is something that should be manageable on a regularity, with routine. With that said, your journey is well within reach, and working out at home can deliver serious results while saving time and money from hitting the gym.
Photo by Bhavesh Mahida
Photo by Anush Gorak