Health Fitness

Exercising at Home – How to Maximize the Muscle Building Results of Your Workouts at Home!

One of the most frequently asked questions in the world of bodybuilding is how to achieve better results faster when it comes to building muscle. The most common answer is that it takes time and patience, but there are some ways to build more muscle quickly, or at least faster.

Naturally, shortening the time between sets, adding more reps per set, and even adding more sets to your workout can contribute to your hypertrophy, but only up to a point. Overdoing it can be just as bad as skipping training, as the body needs to be able to recover sufficiently between workouts. Overtraining can lead to injury, exhaustion, demotivation, and even loss of muscle mass.

That’s where these techniques come in handy, as you only add them once or twice a week, and only in one or two of the exercises you are doing that day. So let’s take a look at drop sets, super slow reps, and forced negatives, each of which can help you build muscle faster when added to your workouts wisely.

Drop sets are a complement to your final set of an exercise. You have completed your 4 or 5 sets and at the end of the last set, with as little pause as possible, you reduce the weight by 10-20% and do as many reps as you can. When done, immediately remove another 20% of the weight and repeat again. Again, do this only in one or two exercises per workout.

Another tip to build more muscle faster is to slow down your reps, a lot. Aim for 2-3 seconds when you are contracting the muscle and 4-6 seconds when you return to the starting point, with no pause at the top or bottom of the exercise. Super slow sets prevent you from using momentum to keep your target muscles working harder and allow you to fully focus on feeling each rep and the muscle you are targeting. This increased mind-muscle connection and increased time under tension will go a long way toward building muscle, even if you have to use slightly lighter weights to maintain proper form of exercise.

The third technique for today is forced negatives. The downside to any exercise is halfway from the fully contracted muscle to the original starting point. In a curl, for example, it is lowering the weight back to full extension, while in a lat pull it is letting the bar or handle come back to the top. Since it takes more weight to fatigue the negative than the positive, finish your last set and then increase the weight beyond your ability to lift it and focus strictly on the negative.

This is a more advanced method and you must take great care to avoid injury. You will need a spotter or training partner to help you with lifting in exercises such as the bench press or barbell curl, as the weight is 20% higher than your maximum, and then they can allow you to lower the weight slowly and under control by your account. They still need to see you on the bench press though.

This last method is also a great help if you are training with weights at home and only have dumbbells to use. In the gym there is no problem as you get stronger on the dumbbell curls, you just move on to the next weight. But training at home generally means that you only have a limited number of dumbbells and soon there is no way to put on the weight. So after you’ve used super slow sets, you can move to forced negatives using one hand at a time for the negative, while using both hands to lift the weight.

Do your dumbbell push-ups to failure and when you can’t do another rep, use both hands to lift the weight and lower it as slowly as possible using just one arm. This technique can also be used with bent rows, tricep extensions, etc., but don’t try it with squats, as there is too much chance of injury, even with a helper.

So, use these techniques to build your muscle mass faster with your workouts at home, or even at the gym. Stay the course and make sure your sleep and nutrition are on point as well for the best results. And be sure to post your results on social media, both to show you your progress over time and to inspire your followers!

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