7 Ways To Build Your Strength Without Lifting Weights
Strength, in today’s fitness world, is considered directly proportional to lifting weights. The more you lift heavy, the more muscle strength you will gain.
POV: Without traveling to the gym, purchasing pricey home workout equipment, or even lifting weights, you can build strength and lean muscle. Let that sink in!
There are many different tips and tricks to gain muscle strength without lifting heavyweights. All you need to look towards is being consistent with your efforts and hard work.
The primary way to build muscles is still the first line of practice among famous athletes and sportspersons. The weight of your own body provides ample resistance to help you improve your fitness and muscle mass.
Dive into the following 7 ways to build your strength without lifting weights. Remember, when you are working for gaining strength and muscle mass, your body would utmostly require a proper pre, during, and post nutrition plan alongside.
Along with that, you will also need to focus on your hydration, especially in context to your workout drinks.
[lwptoc title=”Table of Contents”]
7 ways to build strength without lifting heavy
Indulging in air squats
Air squats, also called body-weight squats are meant for strengthening your quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, calves, and core muscles.
Some lifters add a hefty barbell to their squats to improve the intensity, but this isn’t the only approach. You can slow down your motions, add a pause at the bottom, or try standing on one leg for a more challenging workout.
Here are the correct steps to do an air squat:
- Standing with your feet hip-width apart is a good idea.
- Raise your arms in front of you and squat down as far as you’re comfortable by bending your knees and pushing your hips back.
- After a little pause, press through your heels to re-establish your balance. Lower your arms to your sides as you stand.
Boosting efficiency
Efficiency matters a lot while strength training. You can use the exact same amount of loads performing with the same amount of reps, but this time with more efficiency.
This ensures you are lifting with more control, a better form, and also helping your target muscles to get activated in a better way.
Here, in addition, how you maintain your pre-workout hydration is quite important. Not gonna lie, your training is no good if you have no efficient diet and hydration pattern to run alongside.
To improve your efficiency before you hit it to the ground, you can read on BCAAs Pre Workout Drink: Benefits, Risks, Alternatives
Increasing reps
Lifting lighter weights with a larger rep range produces similar muscle growth as lifting heavier weights with a smaller rep range when you’re pushing to or near failure.
In such a situation, you can maximize your muscle growth by simply increasing the number of reps you perform per set.
30 reps around seem like a good threshold for you to reach to.
Reduce your rest time
If we can go from doing a dumbbell shoulder press for 10 reps at a given weight with 3 minutes of rest between sets to doing the same reps and weight with only 2 minutes of rest, we’ll promote more growth.
To guarantee that you accomplish the same number of reps in the future sets, the loads lifted will necessitate lengthier rest periods. The longer rest will also benefit your mental strength and ability to focus on the heavier set.
Look into contrast training
Contrast training is basically heavy strength training along with plyometric training in a single workout session.
The aim of this kind of training develops more power and force and thus the action mechanism can be termed as post-activation potentiation (PAP).
In general, the heavy strength training exercise (5RM) is done first, followed by a substantial break of 3-10 minutes. Then a plyometric workout with a similar movement pattern is performed (5-10 reps).
You will suffer tiredness and a decline in jump performance if the interval between the strength and plyometric exercises is too short. Because this isn’t a superset, don’t do these exercises in a circuit.
The mind-body connection
The mind and body connection is one of the most underrated or we can say, least looked upon aspects while working out, be it any kind of training.
Connecting the breath with the movement pattern to strengthen the mind-body connection is something every sportsperson must practice.
When we think about the muscle we’re working out, we can activate it more effectively. This is reasonable.
When you have the mind and body connection, the resonation fits in perfectly for you to realize what to do and what not to do to reach your fitness goals.
Bonus: Top 10 fitness Do’s and Don’ts: Before and After a workout
Changing sets
Switching up your sets can help a lot. If you’re into a 3-4 set range for a long period of time, try switching it up.
Supersets are also a great way to incorporate more movements into your workout while reducing training time and improving metabolic conditioning. Drop sets or rest/pause sets are other options to consider.
Bottom Line
For anyone looking to improve their muscle strength and endurance, it is highly advised to have an open-ended approach to your fitness journey.
It’s not always gymming or lifting heavy that works. If your body is suited to other ways, go for them. It might take time but constant practice will give you long-term health benefits for sure.
Related Articles
