My answer is emphatic…no!

There are two parts to that answer:

Firstly, in the grand scheme of things if you lose some size and strength it really isn’t that big of a deal compared to the reality that many people have lost their lives (and many more will lose their lives) as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Those that keep their health, face the possibility of losing loved ones, enduring extreme financial hardship, closing businesses, and watching years of hard work go up in smoke. When you view things through this lens, losing 50lbs off your squat or an inch off your arms doesn’t seem that big of a deal, right?

Secondly, even if we are without access to our gyms for several months, the fact is that it is much easier to maintain muscle than it is to gain it. So, with minimal training, you can fairly easily retain the muscle and strength you’ve built. You don’t need expensive gym equipment to keep hold of your gains. And even if you lose some size and strength, the muscle memory phenomenon is real and you can regain it extremely quickly. Panic over!

Now, while I don’t think training to hit all-time PRs on your lifts or add a quarter of an inch to your calves should be on your radar right now, I do think exercise is important. It’s important for your well-being. In times of unprecedented stress, worry, and disruption, we need to do everything we can to maintain our mental and physical health.

Training is almost certainly an important part of your lifestyle if you read Breaking Muscle. It probably serves multiple purposes in your life. It will have taught you valuable lessons and given you so much more than bigger stronger muscles. It will have developed discipline, taught you the value of hard work, relieved stress, made you more resilient, and provided an outlet for anger, anxiety, and frustration.

Your passion for training should mean that you are at a healthy body weight, body fat, blood pressure, and have a robust immune system that has been strengthened by both exercise and a nutrient-rich diet.

Your training probably helps to provide structure to your daily routine. When everything else around you is in turmoil, falling back on healthy habits and routines can keep you calm and allow you to be productive. This is vital for your mind-set. For the snowflake generation, this time is likely to be a huge challenge.

Many of them will struggle and fall into bad habits. You are different. You have a back catalog of overcoming challenges in the gym. These will stand you in good stead to take on other challenges. For most of us, this will help us to cope.

Exercising will keep both your body and mind healthy by providing you with a physical outlet for your stress. Your daily workout is something you can look forward to and provide you with a sense of achievement. These are two things hard to come by at the moment.

Training at Home

With the bigger picture issues out of the way, let me explain the facts about taking time off training, training from home, muscle loss, muscle regain, and some example workouts you can do with minimal equipment.

Muscle Loss Does Not Happen Overnight

Taking a few weeks off the gym will not cause you to lose all your gains! In fact, according to multiple studies, you won’t lose any. A couple of excellent studies in 2013 and one in 2017 discovered that well-trained gym rats didn’t lose any muscle mass when taking up to 3 weeks of training.

Retaining Muscle and Strength Is Much Easier Than Building It

Even if your training is very limited over the coming weeks and months you can retain your gains with very little training. A 2011 study concluded that muscle mass could be maintained with only 1/9^th of the usual training volume for 32 weeks! Another study from 2013, established that just 1-2 workouts a week were enough to maintain strength.

You Don’t Need Heavy Weights

One of the biggest concerns people have when it comes to home workouts is that they don’t have sufficient resistance to make their training effective. Assuming you don’t have your own personal iron paradise at home you’ve probably had the same worry.

I’ve got good news for you…

You can build muscle using lighter weights than normal. Studies have shown that similar muscle growth occurs when training to failure with 5 to 30 reps. A 2016 study found that there was no difference in muscle gains when using 30% or 80% of your 1-rep max and training to failure.

Another study in 2018 found that loads of 40, 60, and 80% produced equal amounts of growth. They found that 20% was sub-optimal though. As a result, we can confidently say that you’ll be just fine so long as you are using loads around your 30-rep max (or heavier) and you train to failure.

Muscle Memory

While no muscle loss occurs with three weeks off training it can begin to occur past that point. With three to 8 weeks completely off training, you will lose some muscle. The good news it only takes 2-3 weeks to retain it.

Regaining muscle is a much quicker process than it was to develop it in the first place. Countless lifters can attest to this after having to take time off training through injury.

A Valuable Lesson from Time Off Training

A final point to consider is that some time off the gym might be just what you need. Deloads are a well-known and widely accepted strategy for enhanced long-term results. All top coaches and athletes recognize their value and take advantage of them. Yet the typical trainee ignores them. The emotional attachment of being in the gym means you probably don’t deload often enough (or at all!). Here’s a quick hard to swallow home truth for you…

…if you think deloads are for wimps you probably train like one!

Taking the concept of time away from training being beneficial a little further it is wise to consider periods of active recovery and strategic deconditioning.

Strategic deconditioning is a fundamental principle of Hypertrophy Specific Training (HST). HST is a training methodology developed by Bryan Haycock (an upcoming guest on the Breaking Muscle podcast) designed to build muscle in the most efficient way possible.

Strategic deconditioning can facilitate your building more muscle long-term. Taking some time away from training reduces your level of fatigue, allows for a full recovery, and “re-sensitizes” your body to the muscle-building stimulus of traditional high-volume bodybuilding style training.

Upon returning to training you get a magnified muscle-building response. Undulating your training volume and intensity and taking time off is far more efficient in the long-haul than constantly grinding away gym 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year!

Almost everyone misses out on the powerful effects of this strategy. The next few weeks represent an opportunity for you to discover the benefits. With trips to the gym taken off the table, you might finally learn the benefits of strategic deconditioning. Hopefully, you’re smart enough to utilize it in the future once the current situation has settled.

Long story short, if you’ve been training hard this year then, having some time (2-3 weeks) completely off from training is no bad thing. In fact, it is probably exactly what you need.

You Can’t Expect to Get Big and Jacked Avoiding Training Forever

As I mentioned earlier, past the 3-week mark the risk of muscle loss increases. If you want to avoid it then, doing some training is smart. Without a gym, this will rely on bodyweight work and whatever equipment you have lying around the house. I have been putting together lots of home workouts for my online and in-person clients.

Some of them have zero equipment at home and some of them have quite a lot. I’ve had to get a bit creative to provide them with effective workouts, but I’m very confident they will all see great results from these workouts.

You will too if you follow the ones listed at the bottom of this article.

The Principles of Training Still Apply!

This is not a time to start doing wacky workouts, full of random exercises popularised by a reality TV star turned Instagram Fit-fluencer!

While cannot train exactly as you would in the gym, you can still do logical and productive training.

As such, you should program workouts with the 6 key movement patterns at their core.

These are:

1. Squat Pattern (single leg versions –count!)
2. Hip Hinge
3. Horizontal Push
4. Horizontal Pull
5. Vertical Push
6. Vertical Pull

If you do workouts based on these movement patterns and work hard you can make plenty of progress training from home.

Here are some examples:

1. Squat Pattern – like lunges, split squats, pistols, step-ups, and skater squats
2. Hip Hinge – single leg RDL, band RDLs or Good Mornings, heel-elevated hip thrust, back extensions, glute bridge, and Nordics (*Nordics are not technically a hip hinge but they train the posterior chain extremely well!)
3. Horizontal push – push-ups, backpack push-ups, band push-ups, heel-elevated push-ups, one-arm push-ups, dips
4. Horizontal pull – inverted rows, towel rows, single-arm backpack rows, seated band rows
5. Vertical Push – handstand push-ups, pike push-ups, band shoulder press
6. Vertical Pull – chins & pull-ups variations, band lat pulldowns

Now might also be a time to train your core. Most of us neglect that and we will probably be humbled by the many bodyweight options here.

Still Worried About Losing Your Gains?

Let’s recap:

1. No muscle loss is likely to occur in the first three weeks off training
2. Maintaining muscle is much easier than building it
3. You do NOT need heavy weights
4. Even if you do lose muscle, it is regained very quickly when you return to normal training
5. 1-3 weeks of no training might actually be just what you need
6. Given the wide rep range that is effective, your workouts don’t need expensive gym equipment
7. When training (in the gym or at home) we are trying to create an internal response in the muscle to an external load. This external load can come in various forms. Bodyweight, bands, heavy backpacks, and a TRX can do the job just as well as bars and dumbbells (at least in the short-term)
8. This is an opportunity to take advantage of one of the key mechanisms of hypertrophy which is often neglected – this could actually unlock some gains that remain untapped by your normal training

Hopefully, that puts your mind at rest!

There are three mechanisms of hypertrophy:

1. Mechanical Tension
2. Metabolic Stress
3. Muscle Damage

Home workouts are the perfect opportunity to take advantage of number two on that list. Although I have created a bodyweight workout that provides a significant mechanical tension stimulus. You can find this at the end of the article.

Metabolic stress is an extremely powerful training stimulus. I often program phases aimed at targeting this muscle-building pathway as the final block of a mass gain phase. After traditional bodybuilding work has become stale and a plateau has been hit, a metabolite style training phase can be just what is needed. In my experience, this type of training is an extremely effective growth stimulus in the short-term.

Metabolic stress workouts are incredibly effective for about a month. I have found the body responds incredibly well to this type of training. Then diminishing returns kick in and the novelty factor subsides and the gains slow down again. Hopefully, you are a bit more upbeat about the prospect of training from home and can see that the next month might actually represent a muscle-building opportunity for you.

Luckily, the training techniques best used to create metabolic stress require less weight than usual gym training. They also generally require, higher reps, shorter rest periods, and intensity boosting techniques like partial reps, circuits, super-sets, tri-sets, giant sets, and drop sets.

Do What You Can, With What You Have, Where You Are

Now is the time to focus on metabolic stress style workouts.

Metabolic stress is commonly known as the “pump” and it refers to the cell swelling and increased acidity (the “burn”) in a muscle during training. This happens when performing higher reps with shorter rest periods and there is a lot of scientific research showing that it contributes towards muscle growth.

When designing programs to target metabolic stress I often use sets of 15-30 reps or combine exercises in sequence to maximize the time under tension and metabolite accumulation in a given muscle. Sometimes this means you might do as many as 100 reps in a very short period of time.

Given this style of training is different it provides a novel stimulus. A novel stimulus is a powerful tool when it comes to muscle gain. Consequently, it can ignite an accelerated muscle-building response for a month or so while the body is adapting to it.

Here are some quick tips to optimize your approach to metabolite style training:

1. Use shorter rest periods than you would in the gym (e.g. 30-60 seconds)
2. Combine exercises (e.g. super-sets, tri-sets, mechanical drop sets, etc. for an example see my Shoulder Shocker – DB Only Giant Set at the end of this article)
3. Train with a higher frequency – with these types of workouts you can train more often. Six days a week is doable for most people. You can also hit each muscle group more often. Training a muscle every 48hours is fine
4. Consider using blood flow restriction (BFR) as it means you can get results with very light loads
5. Program single limb work. For example, split squats require much less external load than regular squats
6. Slow your tempo down – especially on the lowering phase
7. Paused reps – stop at the hardest point in the movement and contract the muscle hard for a few seconds

Metabolite Training Done Right

When training to create metabolic stress, and build muscle in higher rep ranges, it is crucial that you push your sets close to failure. Research indicates that training to (or very close) to failure is more important when performing high rep sets. You can build just as much muscle performing up to 30 reps as you can from 5 reps, but you need to be approaching failure on the higher rep sets for them to be effective.

In light of this information, it is important that all of your sets should be taken close to failure. I generally recommend never leaving more than 2 reps in reserve on any of your sets when using metabolite style training. I also suggest the last set you do of an exercise is taken to failure.

Below I have listed some example workouts that require minimal equipment:

The Body Weight Only Mechanical Tension & Metabolic Stress Workout

The Band Only Workout

Session 1 – Push:

Session 2 – Pull:

Session 3 – Legs:

The “I Only Have a Light Set of Dumbbells” Workout

Session 1 – Push:

Session 2 – Pull:

Super-Set:

Shoulder Shocker – DB Only Giant Set (Keep the DBs in your hands the whole time, only out them down once A6 is done)

Notes:

So, 4211 on split squats means, lower in 4 seconds, pause for 2 seconds at the bottom, lift in 1 second, hold at the top for 1 second…repeat for the next rep.

On chin-ups, 2010, means lower in 2 seconds, no pause at the bottom, lift in second, no pause at the top.

With these workouts, you can be confident that you can…

…Stay home, stay fit, and stay healthy!

If you want more example home workouts then, I’m posting some up on my Instagram page and story highlights. You can check those out @tommaccormick. If you want something more custom or individualized when it comes to workouts and programs, you can find me at Tom’s Online Personal Training.

A lot will depend on your personal circumstances and that’ll require some in-depth reviews of everything from your workout opportunities to your physiology.

The post Training at Home During the COVID-19 Pandemic appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

1. I have young kids and can’t get away to make it to the gym.
2. I worked late and the gym was closed.
3. My car is getting fixed and it’s a pain in the ass to bus across the city to the gym.

And on and on go the excuses for not being able to get to the gym.

Ditch the I can’t get to the gym excuses because there’s no place like home.

1. I have young kids and can’t get away to make it to the gym.
2. I worked late and the gym was closed.
3. My car is getting fixed and it’s a pain in the ass to bus across the city to the gym.

And on and on go the excuses for not being able to get to the gym.

As much as people think working out requires a certain amount of space and equipment only a gym can accommodate, this simply isn’t the case. Just you and your body have the ability to deliver a badass workout in just 8-by-8-feet of space and little to no equipment.

Here are five basic exercises you can do at home. Believe me, even though I’m only giving you five exercises, the options are limitless to turn these into interesting strength and/or conditioning pieces.

But first, don’t forget to warm-up. Check out this video where I go through a basic full-body warm-up. All you need is a skipping rope, a band, and your body:

1. 2 minutes of skipping: to get your heart rate up and the blood pumping.
2. 25 Band Pull Aparts: keep your arms straight and focus on pulling with your lats.
3. 20 Good Mornings: a simple hip hinge, but with a band to add some resistance. If you don’t have a band, just do a regular hip hinge. Focus on sending your bum and hips back, keeping your shoulder blades together, your spine neutral, and your shins perpendicular to the ground (don’t let your knees come in front of your toes).
4. 10 Cat Camels: focus on moving through your spine one vertebrae at a time, controlling your movement slowly and fighting to get as much range of motion as you extend and flex your spine.
5. 20 Bird Dogs: on all fours, lift one arm at the same time as the opposite leg and focus on getting as long as possible.
6. 20 Shoulder Taps: in a plank position, focus on keeping those hips quiet and steady (avoid swaying back and forth) as you raise an arm and tap the opposite shoulder.
7. 30 Glute Bridges: laying on your back, lift your hips and squeeze your butt cheeks together, hard.

1. At-Home Workout: Squat Variations

Though we tend to think about squats as needing to be loaded, bodyweight squats, or “air squats” are also incredibly valuable, especially for increasing muscular endurance.

Another option is to add a tempo, where you take, for example, five seconds to lower into your squat. Or you can work on isometric holds, where you hold the bottom of the squat for 30 seconds, for example.

If you’re a rockstar, you can always turn these air squats into single-leg pistol squats or explosive jumping squats, which give your legs a pump like no other. Finally, split squats are another valuable squatting variation.

Check out the video, where I demonstrate an:

• Air Squat
• Tempo Squat
• Isometric Hold
• Single-Leg Squat (or pistol)
• Jumping Squat
• Split Squat

2. At-Home Workout: Lunges

Whether forward lunges or reverse lunges, lunges are another great tool for your quads, hamstrings, and glutes.

3. At-Home Workout: Push-Ups

If full push-ups are too challenging for you, try an incline push-up first with your hands on a chair or a low table if you’re at home.

Adding a tempo to your push-up is useful for building strength. For example, take three seconds to descend and three seconds to hold at the bottom of the push-up.

4. At-Home Workout: Burpees

No matter how fit you are, the simple motion of getting down on the floor and standing up tall à la burpees can get your heart rate up like no other—a phenomenal conditioning tool.

5. At-Home Workout: Sit-Ups

We have all done sit-ups before. If these get monotonous, check out the video for a demo of sit-ups, tuck-ups, v-ups, and hollow rocks. All are great movements for building abdominal strength and control.

At-Home Training Sessions

Now that you have some useful tools, it’s time to take these movements and put them into training sessions.

If you’re looking for more of a strength workout, consider adding lots of rest between your sets and play around with tempo.

Try five rounds of the following three movements. Rest 30 seconds between movements and alternate the movements:

1. 10 split squats per side with a tempo of @3311 (meaning three seconds to lower and three seconds to hold at the bottom of the split squat).
2. 10 perfect push-up with a @2222 tempo (2 seconds to lower, to seconds to hold at the bottom, two seconds to press up, and two seconds to hold at the top).
3. 20 tuck ups or v-ups.

Or, if you want to huff and puff, select two or three movements and turn it into a high intensity interval workout such as:

30 seconds on, 30 seconds off x 10 rounds:

• Jumping squats
• Burpees
• Sit-ups

Or, if you’d rather do a slow and steady 30 minutes of aerobic conditioning, select four or five movements, for example, and try something like this:

For 30 minutes, go through the following as many times as possible:

• 5 Push-Ups
• 10 Lunges
• 15 Air Squats
• 20 Skips

Please Don’t Make Home Workouts Complicated

The point is, fitness doesn’t have to be that complicated. You can legitimately come up with thousands of different workouts with just five basic movements. Learn the right technique first, build the strength, and then you can start adding speed and intensity—yes, even in the comfort of your own home.

Check out this list of fun workouts and simple exercises to do when stuck at home.

The post Effective Workouts You Can Do at Home appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Assess Your Fears

Part of assessing your fears is to acknowledge and recognize them. A wonderful tool to use when you are assessing your fears is to analyze them by writing them down. Do this on a daily basis until you are able to unravel what is behind your fears.

You may have fears that are deeply rooted. If you are attracted to yoga inversion maneuvers, where your heart is higher than your brain, perhaps you can have a teacher assist you in your progress. The benefits that you will enjoy from practicing yoga far exceed the hardships that you may encounter. It is important that you get the right pose and form. You should work to become totally comfortable with your more difficult positions from start to finish.

Track Your Progress

Along with putting pen to paper and writing down your fears, you should also track your progress. I suggest you keep a journal so you can look back on your obstacles and triumphs. This will help you deal with your fears. One of the things you need to do is to ask for feedback from a trusted instructor in regard to your progress. This feedback will allow you to hasten your development in your yoga practice.

Once you start taking to the mat, your learning progress will double. The poses that you failed to do before will become achievements in the future. That means that you are progressing. You need to keep track of these advances so you know what to improve on during your next session.

Practice Yoga More

Some of the maneuvers and poses are very hard to do, especially the ones where inversions are required, but these are not impossible to fully achieve. You can do this by practicing yoga more. As the days go by, you will notice that you become more confident in your practice. In the long run, you will find yourself doing all the movements and poses with relative ease. Some poses may remain a bit more difficult, but with your increased confidence you will have the mental strength to work to complete them.

Trusting yourself to have confidence is very important when practicing yoga. More often than not, you will surprise yourself with the strength that you have.

The post The Best Ways to Overcome Your Fears in Yoga appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

They are designed to be used with or without weights and are complimentary for dynamic workouts. They work great for pull ups, calistenics, weightlifting, powerlifting, CrossFit, speed and agility, pole work, aerial routines, pilates, yoga, and much more. The bands intensify strengthening and stretching while creating stamina, flexibility, and toning.

Product Description

These exercise bands are 41″ (104 cm) in length and come in three sizes with varying resistances and colors. The bands are made out of natural rubber latex that is over 99.998% free of soluble proteins (latex allergens). This product not recommended to be used by people with latex sensitivity.

Rubberbanditz latex bands are made through a layering process to help prevent breakage.

The bands create wide ranges of varying tension levels and can be stretched up to 2½ times their original length.

Rubberbanditz fitness resistance bands are extremely durable and travel well. There was only a slight coloration change noticed if the bands were left for a prolonged period in outside elements of sunlight and rain.

Rubberbanditz Sizes

Products Reviewed

Robust Resistance Band

Weight: 8 oz (.23 kg)

Resistance: 40-80 lbs

Width: 1 ⅛ inch

Length: 41 inches

Package includes one Robust Band

Medium Resistance Band

Weight: 4.2 oz

Resistance: 20-35 lbs

Width: ½ inch

Length: 41 inches

Package includes one Medium Band

[Left: Robust Band, Right: Medium Band]

Athlete Evaluation

Rubberbanditz fitness resistance bands where used over a period of six weeks, and were used when doing various bodyweight and yoga exercises. My personal favorite exercises with the band are the bicycle core work and assisted quad-lity stretching.

The bicycle core work helped me to activate my core and place my hips in proper position to gain the most out of this exercise.

Assisted quad-lity stretching worked well on my psoas. Sitting at a computer shortens them, and I am always fighting to find gain length. Each evening, I did 30 second and 60 second holds, alternating legs while practicing muscle activation then release methods of stretching.

Rubberbandiz Are Worth It

Rubberbanditz fitness resistance bands are durable, easy to use, and are an excellent tool to have in your gym tool box. The bands are tough on muscles and, as a result, create new pathways for strength, yet are safe on joints so that you can continue your fitness for many years to come. I would highly recommend this product.

The post Banded Fitness: Work Out Anywhere appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

This training plan is specifically designed for the adult rower. With a reduced volume of work, an increase in the amount of intensity workouts, a slight increase in the amount of rest within a workout, and an option for an extra recovery day, this training plan will fit into your busy adult life while keeping you fit, strong, and powerful.

Let’s cover some definitions. Try these rowing warm up (WU) and cool down (CD) routines as part of your routine. In the context of the programming, WU and CD refer to your build up and down in your stroke rate (SR). The SR is the number of times you pull in a minute, and is displayed on the erg. Your steady state (SS) performance means maintaining the same pace over a period of time or distance.

Ready to get started?

Click Here to Download the Training Plan

The post A Training Plan for Masters 40+ Rowers appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

You may not have at your disposal the latest state-of-the-art exercise equipment, but that shouldn’t be something that stops you. The key is to be imaginative with what you have and exude maximal intensity.

What would you do if you only had these?

If you don’t have access to a gym with a plethora of modern-day equipment and exercise gadgets, you can still accomplish your goals – if you are creative and work hard.

You may not have at your disposal the latest state-of-the-art exercise equipment, but that shouldn’t be something that stops you. The key is to be imaginative with what you have and exude maximal intensity.

What would you do if you only had these?

• 2 chairs
• 2 full 1-gallon paint cans or other full containers
• An overhead bar or other device from which to hang from

Here are my suggestions. Give them a try or do your own versions and post your experiences to the comments below.

Workout 1

1. 2-can squat
2. Dips between the chairs
3. Wide grip pull up on an overhead bar

1. 2-can static hold squat
2. 2-can overhead press
3. 2-can bent-over row

1. Pick up one chair and squat
2. Push up between chairs
3. Close grip pull up on an overhead bar

1. Pick up two chairs and squat
2. 2-can standing chest press
3. 2-can upright row

Set, repetition, and rest time options:

• Three to five rounds of the four segments
• Maximum repetitions each or a set number (i.e. 15 or 20)
• No rest, :15, or :30 between exercises, exercise segments, or rounds depending on the number of rounds

Workout 2

1. Burpees x 30
2. 2-can lunges x 10 each leg
3. Bear crawl at 50ft/15.24m x 3 lengths
4. 2-can squat-to-overhead press x 25
5. Overhead bar hang for maximum time
6. Push ups with feet anchored on chairs x maximum reps
7. 2-can goblet squat x 35
8. 2-can crunch ups x 20
9. Plank hold between chairs for maximum time

Set and rest time options:

• Two to three rounds of the nine exercises
• No rest, :20, or :40 between exercises and segments, depending on the number of rounds

Workout 3

1. 2-can bent-over row with a :10 pause in the fully contracted position for maximum reps
2. 2-can walking lunge x 20 on each leg
3. Pick up two chairs and overhead press x maximum reps
4. 1-chair bicep curls (hold it any way you want) x maximum reps
5. 1-chair continual step ups x 2:00
6. 1-chair curl-to-press x maximum reps
7. Close grip push up x maximum reps
8. 2-can wall sit x maximum time
9. Close grip pull up on an overhead bar for maximum reps
10. 2-can crunch ups x 25
11. Right leg jumping jacks x 40
12. Crab walk at 50ft/15.24m x 3 lengths
13. Left leg jumping jacks x 40

Two times through should leave you tired. If you’re in great shape, challenge yourself. Do three, four, or even more rounds if you possess exceptional fitness.

Never Be Limited By Equipment

If you’re limited in the amount of conventional equipment found in most gyms, don’t fret. Having a lack of training devices should not preclude you from obtaining a productive workout. Whatever unconventional devices you have at home or work, be creative and use them to work hard. Doing something is better than doing nothing. Possessing minimal equipment should not be an excuse.

Remember: to cause your body to change morphologically, your muscular and cardiovascular systems must be challenged. That is, challenge your muscles and elevate your heart rate for an extended period of time to create a visible fat-to-muscle ratio change.

Though the results you achieve are highly dependent on inherent genetics (your height, weight, skeletal system leverage, muscle tendon origin/insertion points, muscle belly size, and muscle fiber type), the simple truth is no matter what you have to work with, as long as you exude a high level of physical effort, you can make gains even when conventional equipment is lacking.

Check out these related articles:

• List of simple workouts and fun exercises to do when stuck at home.
• Awesome At-Home Workouts – the Cinder Block Training Plan
• Your Mind is Your Gym – Your Brain is All the Equipment That You Need
• Improvised Fitness for When You Have No Equipment

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post How to Use Household Items as Exercise Equipment appeared first on Breaking Muscle.