7 Ways to Increase The Difficulty of Bodyweight Training

For a ton of us during this COVID-19 lockdown, bodyweight is the only tool available for workouts in our homes. And while some of you may be past the point of bodyweight in terms of using it during your workouts, that doesn’t mean you can’t manipulate some variables to make workouts with bodyweight plenty challenging.

Here are seven ways you can up the ante using just your body weight.

Decrease rest periods

If you shorten the recovery window, you’re gonna make your muscles and heart work harder as the cardio output from shorter rest periods is going to put a little but of stress on the ‘ol ticker.

Increase time under tension

Time under tension simply refers to the time your muscles spend in a contracted state. The longer this is, the harder they’re going to work. So take your time on the *eccentric portion (down portion for most lifts), and then take your time on the *concentric (up portion for most lifts) as well.

*eccentric: muscle fibers are lengthening while under load