Strength Training You Can Do At Home

Lives are getting busier and it’s hard to fit in work, kids, couple-time, AND exercise.  So my husband and I decided to combine a few things and try getting stronger at home together. All we needed was some basic equipment, a systematic approach, and a positive attitude. 

You can check out our article about couples working out at home together and our workout plan here. After following this plan together for a month, we thought we’d share a little more about how we started and the progress we’re making.

Make a Plan

First of all, we made a plan. It includes exercising a major body part, such as your chest, and a smaller one, such as triceps, together on one day. For each body part, we choose three exercises and complete three sets of repetitions which increase, or decrease, in quantity each day. This allows us to systematically increase weight over time, while differentiating the quantity of repetitions. In doing this, we keep our muscles guessing as to how hard they will have to work every day and don’t let them get comfortable with a set routine.

Small steps is the key to this workout. The book that helped inspire this workout plan is ‘Atomic Habits’, by James Clear. If you are looking for something to help set you up for success, this is it! In his book, Clear mentions the 1% rule. Basically, by looking for very tiny improvements and repeating them consistently, over time they add up to huge results. Therefore, John designed our program to start with very light weight. 

Now John has worked out with weights for a long time, however, he had never used this approach before. What he noticed was that the workout was very easy at first. He got through his first one quite quickly. By not taking up too much time, he felt as though he was able to schedule it into his daily routine. When it came time to exercise, he did not have that, “Oh, I don’t think I have time for this.” Instead, he knew he could get it done with minimal effort. 

Now you might be thinking, “Isn’t the point of working out to put in a lot of effort? Well, we would argue that starting with easy, quick workouts, and then consistently increasing effort in very small amounts is more effective over time. This also helps to prevent injuries as it allows your muscles to slowly adapt to these exercises, especially if you haven’t done them before.

Next, we needed to create habits to be consistent with our workouts. This is another huge key to seeing results. We told ourselves that we would work out every day, no matter what, and never miss it twice! 

We recently moved houses, (within the same city) and because we were working out from home, we had to move our equipment to the new house. However, we left our home gym set up until the very last day and worked out the night before the move. 

The day of the move was absolute chaos with boxes piled up everywhere so our focus was to get beds set up for our two boys and ourselves. After a very long day, we were so exhausted that we did not get to work out. The very next day though, John headed out to the garage, cleared a spot, and set up the gym enough for us to complete a workout. Here is what it looks like now:

Set up a system, NOT a goal. Goals don’t get you to where you want to be. Clear also mentions this in his book. Goals are the end results achieved after all the work is done. Systems move you toward goals. Everyone can have the same goal, to win a championship, for example, but only a very few achieve that reality. Why is this? It is because when you set up a system it helps you create actionable routines which add up over time. When this is progressive and consistent, positive results are unavoidable.

Our system is simple. We have a set plan as mentioned above. We make it attainable by starting off with very light weights and slowly increasing them over time. And we make it a priority to work out every single day, no matter what. (Never miss twice!) 

With this system in place, we don’t really have to worry about setting goals such as, “I will lose 20 lbs”, or “I will be on the cover of a magazine”. Instead, it has become our lifestyle, and we can enjoy watching the progress our bodies make over time. 

Finally, make sure to keep track of your progress. Using spreadsheets helped us keep track of our plan as well as progress. Having a digital copy allows us to access it from either of our laptops or iPhones, but you could use whatever method works best for you. 

It gives us the information we need to know how much to lift each day so that we are not just going to the gym and guessing what we should be doing. This minimizes the time spent exercising, gives us clear guidance as to what to do, and allows us to get on with our day. 

Collecting data over time also allows us to see the progress we have made from the start. I wasn’t able to lift a 45 lb bar for my bench press when we started, and now I’m able to complete three sets of 12 with 50 lbs!!

There is also psychology behind creating streaks. When you have worked out for 14 days in a row, it makes it that much more important to do the next workout. And when those days come around where you absolutely are not able to get a lift in, then starting a new streak is fun too!

Bibliography

CLEAR, JAMES. ATOMIC HABITS: an Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones. RANDOM House BUSINESS, 2019.