While trips to the gym or other fitness facilities offer access to the latest exercise machines, personal trainers and the company of others training there, many people prefer to exercise in their homes. This means fewer options for muscle-building workouts, unless you have several pieces of gym equipment in your basement or exercise room. No need to worry, however--- there are plenty of ways to build muscle in your home using bodyweight exercises, resistance bands and free weights.
Resistance Bands
Resistance bands or cords are made from rubber and become more difficult to stretch as they are pulled, providing increasing resistance against your muscles. You can work your legs with resistance bands from standing, sitting and lying positions. Resistance bands let you perform many familiar body building exercise, such as biceps curls, triceps extensions, flies and more.
To perform biceps curls, for example, you would secure one of the cords to your foot, then, holding the band in your hand, slowly raise your arm to perform the curl. Wrapping the cord a few more times around your hand or foot before you start the exercise increases the tension, adding resistance, which simulates adding weight to a biceps curl.
Bodyweight Exercises
The simplest way to build muscle in your home is to use bodyweight exercises, which use your body's weight to provide the resistance. Examples of bodyweight exercises include push-ups, chin-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, squats and lunges.
When performing a bodyweight workout, alternate muscle groups each time you do a routine. For example, after you do 10 to 15 pushups, go to lunges or squats, which work the legs, rather than chin-ups or pull-ups, which use arm muscles.
Make sure to use muscle to lower you during bodyweight exercises, not gravity, in order to maximize your benefit. For example, after you make it to the top of your chin-up or pull-up, don't fall back down; lower yourself slowly, using your arm, chest, back and shoulder muscles.
Bodyweight exercises can be key to firming up your abs, with sit-ups and crunches targeting all major core muscles. To work your obliques, for example, lay on your back with knees up, heels on the floor and drawn toward your buttocks. Cross one leg by placing your right ankle on your left knee. Perform your crunches by aiming your right shoulder at your left knee and raising your head toward the left knee. Switch legs after 10 to 15 repetitions. This slight twist in your core works the obliques.
Weights
Dumbbells are a great way to build muscle size and strength. They can be purchased in sets of increasing weights to use as your grow stronger, or to share among household members. They are inexpensive, especially if purchased used at garage sales, sporting goods resale shops, or online via websites like Craigslist. Dumbbells are great for targeting arm, chest, shoulder and back muscles. Exercises like biceps curls work the front of your upper arms, while triceps extensions work the backs of your upper arms. To add more resistance to your lower-body bodyweight exercises, hold dumbbells as you do squats and lunges.
Free Weights allow you to lift heavier weights while doing many of the exercises above, and let you add exercises like bench presses, the clean and jerk and deadlifts.
Member Comments