Strength Without Weights

 

You may think that building strength means lifting weights – either at a gym or at home. But there are many ways to build strength without ever touching a dumbbell. In this blog post we’ll cover some of the easier and more common ways to increase your strength without lifting weights.

 

Before You Begin: If you have any concerns, such as knee or back pain, you should talk with your doctor before you start. A doctor will be able to recommend activities for you that won’t aggravate your existing medical conditions.

 

Resistance Training: Giving your muscles opportunities to work against a form of resistance or external force is called resistance training. For example, if you push on a pull door, that’s a form of resistance training. The door is your resistance and you’re building strength in your muscles in attempting to overcome it. 

Doing resistance training several times a week, and increasing the resistance over time, will build strength for the muscles involved. A set of exercises that works a complete range of muscle groups will give you a full-body workout.

 

Types of Resistance Training

Some different types of resistance training include: 

• Swimming – Use water as your resistance! As you propel yourself, you build strength. Swimming has multiple benefits, being low impact and it’s great for your heart as well.
• Kayaking - Like swimming, you are building strength against the water’s resistance. Enjoy feeling those back muscles work!
• Hills – Take advantage of these, during cycling, walking, running or hiking!  As you go up a hill, you are overcoming the resistance supplied by gravity. This builds strength in your legs. Stationary indoor bikes have settings that increase the amount of resistance the machine provides and treadmills have incline settings to achieve this as well.
• Bodyweight – When you lift your body by doing exercises like pushups, sit-ups or squats, you are working different muscles to overcome gravity’s resistance. To increase resistance, you can’t increase gravity but you can alter the duration, repetition, tempo or exercise selection.  Take advantage of these other variables to progressively increase the challenge that your body weight exercises provide.
• Resistance Bands – Elastic bands with different amounts of resistance.  They can be used to supplement bodyweight exercises or by themselves. The bands don’t take up much space and are easy to take with you when traveling.

How to Get Started

The first thing you’ll need to do is set some realistic goals for yourself. Once you’ve got some goals in mind, decide what exercises you are going to do to reach your goals. Take advantage of the free ACE exercise library to learn how to exercise from a reputable source.  You can also filter by body part.

 

Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Remember to warm up a little before doing your exercise routine.
• Stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water before, during and after your workout.
• Start slow, and do a small amount of a new exercise at first to see how it feels. If it goes well, you can gradually make it harder.
• Allow one or two days of rest between workouts, to give your muscles time to recover.
• It’s normal to be a little sore at first, but if soreness is extreme, persists or becomes more painful, you should discontinue your routine and see your doctor. 
• Make a great playlist and have friends or family member join you.  This will make it fun and will also help keep you stay motivated.