5 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Bodyweight Workouts
The more variety, the bigger your burn.
Pushups and lunges may be the meat of bodyweight training, but why not add some spices to that mix? Gideon Akande, the personal trainer who took home the Men's Health Next Top Trainer title last year, shares his favorite ways to kick more booty in each sesh.
1. PLAY WITH TEMPO
Slow down squats, pushups, and leg lifts to make them harder—your muscles will spend extra time under tension. Speed up dynamic movements, like mountain climbers, plank jacks, and high knees, which will train your anaerobic system to build more power and torch additional cals.
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2. THROW IN A PROP
"Body weight" doesn't have to mean no equipment—just not the loaded kind. Try elevating your feet with a bench in glute bridges and lunges. The height ups the challenge by increasing the distance your body has to travel against gravity. (Torch fat, get fit, and feel great with Women's Health's All in 18 DVD!)
3. MOVE AROUND
Adding lateral, forward, or backward movement to any exercise (think walking hands up or stepping feet to one side after a plank) recruits muscles that may have been just chillin'. More muscle activation = better burn.
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4. REFRESH THE RATIO
The shorter your "on" interval, the harder you should be working. To ramp up your intensity, cut down that interval to 20 or 30 seconds and give yourself the extra time to better recover. Or keep your work interval the same and trim your rest time, so your body stays in the high-intensity, fat-blasting zone.
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5. CREATE A COMBO
Take a move you've done a thousand times (looking at you, squats) and attach a second one (a star jump, a kick, anything that flows) to it. "When an exercise looks different, it feels different, which stimulates your mind and body," says Akande.
This article was originally published in the November 2016 issue of Women's Health, on newsstands now.
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