However much you love hammering it in the gym – there are times when you don’t have the time or inclination to train there. Here are 10 effective ways to stimulate your physique on the days when you’re skipping your usual gym workout – including methods that will challenge your strength, endurance and conditioning levels.
1. HILL SPRINT INTERVALS
Have a long, steep road or track nearby-by that you can safely navigate? Then you have your non-gym conditioning and fat burning sorted!
Warm-up:
Begin with a 5-10 minute light warm-up jog to prepare your muscles and joints for the sprints. This can be done on flat terrain.
Training:
Choose a hill with a moderate to steep incline. The length of the hill and the number of sprints will depend on your fitness level. Here's a basic plan:
Sprint: Sprint up the hill at maximum effort for 20-30 seconds. Focus on maintaining good form and driving your knees. The goal is to reach the top as quickly as possible.
Recovery: Walk or lightly jog back down the hill to recover. This is your active recovery period. The time it takes to walk or jog back down is your recovery time.
Repeat: Repeat the sprint and recovery cycle for a total of 4-8 sprints, depending on your fitness level. As you progress, you can increase the number of sprints.
Cool-down:
After completing the sprints, finish with a 5-10 minute cool-down jog on flat terrain to gradually lower your heart rate and prevent muscle stiffness.
2. 10 X 10 GVT PUSH-UPS & SQUATS
10 X 10 German Volume Training is a well-respected way to stimulate muscles with progressive fatigue – a technique that can be used at home where you’ll need to be creative for weights, or body weight is perfectly fine.
Push-Ups:
Warm-up: Start with a dynamic warm-up to prepare your upper body and core for the workout. Include arm circles, shoulder rolls, and some light push-ups.
Workout:
- Perform 10 sets of 10 repetitions (10x10) of push-ups.
- Keep rest periods short, ideally around 60-90 seconds between sets. This keeps the workout intense.
Progression: Initially, focus on performing the press-ups with proper form. As you progress, you can make it more challenging by adding weight (e.g., a weighted vest or a partner placing weight on your back) or by doing more difficult variations of the press-up (e.g., diamond push-ups, decline push-ups).
Squats:
Warm-up: Begin with a dynamic warm-up to prepare your lower body, including leg swings, bodyweight squats, and hip mobility exercises.
Workout:
- Perform 10 sets of 10 repetitions (10x10) of squats. You can use a barbell, dumbbells, or your body weight.
- Keep rest periods relatively short, about 90-120 seconds, to maintain intensity.
Progression: Initially, focus on squatting with proper form. As you advance, you can increase the weight if you're using weights. You can also explore different squat variations like front squats or Bulgarian split squats for added variety.
3. SHADOW BOXING / HOME BAG HITS
If you’re not used to throwing punches, then a session of intense shadow boxing (or bag work) is guaranteed to STIMULATE YOUR DELTS and make your muscle fibres sore the next day – cue the reason why boxers tend to have excellent shoulder development.
4. SKIPPING DENSITY WORKOUT
While we’re on the boxing theme – skipping is becoming a fashionable training methodology for everyone. The best part about it, you only need a skipping rope and an open space!
5. SPRINT DRILL WORKOUT
Often the simple things can be most effective – and that’s the case with classic sprint drills! Sprinting can potentially build muscle, boost anabolic hormone output, increase metabolic rate and decrease body fat; what’s not to like?
6. STRONGMAN SANDBAG CARRIES
Loaded carries are a classic conditioning and metabolism increasing training methodology for strong, physique trainers, fighters and athletes – and they’re easily adaptable outside the gym.
7. SPIN BIKE QUAD BUILDER
Although you’ll need to have a spin bike at home – performing high intensity cycle sprints is a proven way to boost quad growth while spiking anabolic hormones (did you see the legs on some of those Olympic cyclists!). You can approach the workout with weight training style philosophy – focusing on sets, time under tension and muscle failure.
8. LISS + AB CRUNCHES
Liss cardio can be a very effective non-gym workout for many physique trainers – and it’s dead simple…. just train at around 60-70% max heart rate for 40-60 minutes. However, throwing in a set of crunches every 2 minutes means you can also train your abs while burning fat; add a weights plate for more resistance, aiming for 10-15 reps.
9. ISOMETRIC MUSCLE CONTRACTIONS
Your muscles don’t know the exercise you’re doing – and that means static muscle contractions can be used to stimulate muscle growth; simply contract a muscle as hard as you can and hold the tension for 30-60 seconds. The muscle fibre intensity achievable can be insane! Some of our fave burners are; wall sits, planks, side planks and bridges. Simple yet effective!
10. 1 MILE MAX INTENSITY RUN
The mile run is a classic athletic training tool – and it’s ideal for a fast workout that has a big impact on conditioning and has a carry-over effect when back in the gym. If you enhance your mile run time, then you’re going to have better performance when it comes to multiple weighted sets.