Cori (00:00):
Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. This is the show where I share all my free work on and nutrition tips. I’m not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a review or leave a five star rating or even better share it with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone you know. So let’s jump right in Training at home and worried you won’t see as good a result as if you were at the gym. Well never fear. We’re going to discuss all the different training techniques, tools, ways you can get the most out of those body weight movements training at home. And here to join me is Michelle who told me selfishly she wanted do this one because she wanted to even find more ways to use her personal home gym to her advantage. So Michelle, thank you so much for joining me today.

Michelle (00:52):
Thank you for having me. I’m excited. I know I’m going to learn probably just as much as anyone else, so thank you.

Cori (00:58):
Well, and Michelle is a fabulous trainer herself, which she isn’t giving or telling you guys, but talking about the home gym. So Michelle, I want to go over a little bit first starting out, just like if someone doesn’t have any equipment, I know we can jump to what tools can I add to my arsenal, but I think that’s not valuing what we already have on hand enough because there are times where we might be traveling even or something comes up and we don’t have any tools and I think it’s really important that we still see the opportunity in this. So your go-to is when training without anything, what do you like to try and use that might be around the house?

Michelle (01:34):
Well, first and foremost, it’s going to be my body weight, right? That’s going to be your biggest tool. And a lot of people, I don’t think you can get a lot of results from just using your body, but that’s going to be a big one. And then for me, it’s really about having those everyday items because as you said, sometimes you are traveling, sometimes things come up, sometimes you’re not where you can get to a gym. And the more you can keep those excuses of like, oh, well I just wasn’t able to find some dumbbells or do anything like that and it’s not worth it, the better you’re going to be just not just with consistency, but actually seeing those gains. So things as simple as towels, chairs, cushions, all those can really make a good body workout even better.

Cori (02:19):
I love that you started with, you use your own body weight because I think we still undervalue just our own body weight in terms of a way to progress moves even. And we turn to fancy tools, we turn to loads because they are easy ways to create progression. And I 100% value lifting heavier. I love lifting heavier personally. However, I always return to body weight movements. Even when I’m at the gym, I’ll use them because there’s so many different ways that you can really learn to activate, establish that my body connection progress those moves through tempos, through ranges of motion, even through instability, going for a unilateral versus bilateral move. And if we don’t value those things, a lot of times we won’t even get more out of the tools that we do add. So not only do you want to think about the different training techniques you can use with just your own body weights and those other methods of progression, but then yes, there’s so many household items and I actually thought this was a really fun challenge personally when I would start out with clients of, they’d be like, well, I’ll get any tools.

(03:15):
You tell me. I’m like, nah, let’s use what you have around the house because as you mentioned, there are so many things from cushions of couches or chairs or whatever else, pillows that you can use for instability towels so that you can reduce the resistance. Even your kitchen is full of different weighted items and awkwardly weighted items that you can use. I mean if you think about farmer’s carries this activity, we do, and I know I always used them in Boston because I wanted to carry as many groceries back from the grocery store as possible. You could pretend that you’re doing, your farmer’s carries with your grocery bags and walk around a little extra. Your neighbors might laugh at you when you’re walking back and forth from your car extra times, but there’s so many different things that we can really use. What’s one of your favorite household items to use for different movements and what movements do you even like to do with it?

Michelle (04:00):
So I really do like the cushion because everyone has something, whether it’s, like you said, a couch cushion, a pillow because it creates that instability kind of like a basu ball would. So you’re standing on it and your muscles are having to contract, they’re having to help you balance, and because of that you’re actually activating more muscles than what you used to. So not only are we working on balance, but now all of a sudden we’re activating more muscles as we are just simply standing on a different surface. And I think that one is probably my most favorite because one, truthfully I suck at it. My balance is not always the best. So I find it really challenging, but it also just helps me stay engaged and in the moment in that move, I will be the first one to, I think MINDBODY connection can be so hard, and this is one, if I notice I’m kind of getting lazy or not quite paying attention to my form as well, I’ll actually stew the move on that pillow or that cushion because now all of a sudden I’m paying more attention.

Cori (05:05):
It helps you to focus in on what you feel working. And what we don’t recognize is that so much of strength, so much of power, so much of our reaction time in everyday life is about that neuromuscular control. And so when you add that instability in, all of a sudden you’re having to make your brain work harder to really recruit muscles to stabilize. And this is where that ability to recruit the correct muscles to the correct extent in the correct orders really pays off for functionality in everyday life. And then even when you do add in weights or other types of progression, you are able to recruit muscles more efficiently to be stronger, to be more powerful, to react more quickly. So I can’t say enough about that either. And it makes you take ego out of things sometimes where you’ve tried to progress moves too fast, and then even using the unilateral moves, you’re using another form of progression with that off of this, one of my favorite is using the towels or even paper plates on carpet because they act as sliders because you can buy sliders, you can buy furniture movers, but these things are great tools to have on hand that you can easily also I guess clean your floors potentially if you really want to during it.

(06:05):
But they can be used in so many different ways to reduce resistance from side lunges to doing fly pushups so that you can work your chest a little bit more to doing even side lying, side lying slides where you actually end up working your lot unilaterally. But there’s so much diversity you can do with towels in terms of progressing lower body, upper body, and even core movements that we don’t often recognize off of this. What other tools do you use? And I can think of a whole bunch with, as I mentioned, the grocery bags, the wall, the doorway. What other tool do you really like to use?

Michelle (06:40):
So I know I shared this in my post, but I have a long board. I’ve honestly had it since I was 16 and I probably have used that more for my ab roller and for lunges and things like that than I probably have actually written it in that amount of time. And it does, it stays in my gym because I use it so much for various moves and I know not everyone’s going to have that, but as you said, paper plates, even furniture movers, anything that’s going to help you kind of have that slide back and forth is going to be something that you can utilize in a lot of different ways. And so that’s probably a big one that I actually utilize a lot just in my own day-to-day activity. And a lot of times people have said, well, why aren’t you just going to go get one?

(07:25):
I was like, because this does the job. Like you said, if you can find items that are doing a good job at what your end goal is, it’s not necessary to go out and just get every single tool. And there’s a lot of tools for gyms and they can be exciting and make things fun, but you don’t have to have a lot. So that’s going to be a big one. And then one that I know everyone has is just a chair. Just being able to have a chair that’s sturdy that you can either step up on or do dips on or something along those lines. You all of a sudden have a lot of different moves that you can add to your workouts.

Cori (08:04):
It’s not only progressing moves, but also modifying moves, especially when we’re starting back where we might usually sit to a bench for our squat, you can use a chair for that. Even stairs if you don’t have a chair or a chair is too high, you can use stairs to create that deficit split squat. So increasing the range of motion or as a lower step up if the chair is too high. But all these different tools can be used to not only progress moves, but also modify moves to fit our needs. And I love the longboard because you can do extensions on there, you can do glute bridge and curl on there. It’s a fabulous tool. And the chair is something where you can do bent over rows on, you can do planks off of it or pushups off of it, or if you have a bench or table, all those things.

(08:40):
Again, it’s not only progressing moves, but sometimes modifying them or if you want to progress the pushup, right, instead of doing the incline, you maybe do the decline with your feet up on it. But it’s all these household items that can be used in so many different ways if we really see the opportunity in them and we even get creative with them like caustic squats where you’re trying to sink down deep into that side squat and it’s a very hard move, having that little hand assist on the chair might be what you need to do that movement versus you wrote it off as too hard for a little bit. There’s ways to even, as I said, modify moves. Then going off of this, I mentioned I like the wall and I like the doorway, or you can even use a banister, but this way you can work your back.

(09:20):
And I think that’s an often underworked area of our body when we’re thinking about home workouts. We do pushups for our chests and triceps. We can think about lunges and squats easily for our legs or single leg squats to the couch, the chair. So we have some of those things, but we’ll be like, well, how do I work my back? I don’t have a pull bar, I don’t have any of these things. A doorway row is a great option and I will even link out to that video in the comments. But the doorway row is a great option. Scapular wall holds are a great option. You can roll off a banister. There are so many different ways to even get in that back engagement. I even like doing lying moves where you’re doing some of those backies and really focusing on what you feel working.

(09:58):
You can add in soup cans if you want to add weights, right? There’s little ways that you can really modify and progress moves, but it’s also thinking about all the different muscle groups and how you can work them. And then even going back to your like, why would I get more tools if I have the longboard? It’s even using the tools that you have in ways that they’re not necessarily meant to be used. So going into some of the equipment we might want to get for our gym, I want to open it up to you and what you might use, but it made me think of the rower. Okay, so if you don’t have a suspension trainer, you don’t have the ability to use towels or paper plates for whatever reason. If you happen to have a rower in your workout space that can be used for AB extensions, putting your hand on it, that can be used for the side lunges that you might do on the slider because you’ve put your foot up on the seat and slide in and out. It could be used for the GL bridge and curl. So it’s also even getting really creative with some of the equipment you might have that you only use for one purpose. So in terms of what you have in your home gym that you bought that you found very valuable, what tools have you included?

Michelle (10:54):
So for me, some of the big things that I’ve used have been, I mean, I wish I would’ve bought one sooner, and I actually saw even someone put post in Facebook as well. They’re like, if I was to do one thing, this is what I wish I would’ve bought sooner. And it was probably the rack. And I’ll be honest, it does take, I mean it’s a bigger piece of equipment, but I use it. I do my pull-ups there, I do my dips there, my bench is there, so I can do all these certain different moves off of that. And then like you said, if I need a suspension thing, which I’ll be honest, I do have a suspension thing, but before, because it’s actually even broken at one point and I had to fix it, I did just use the rack with some Taos and that’s what I was using for kind of that TRX to be able to do those moves off of that. So just having, and it sounds so silly, but having a good solid rack that makes a big difference in your gym.

Cori (11:53):
And I love having the rigging, but I even go the other way of when someone asks me, what do you want in the space? As much as that, if you have that space that is everything can be contained. You can do back, you can do chest, you can do all the different moves. So it’s a great thing if you have the space. I even like clients to start with a mini band and resistance bands, and I’m not talking about even dumbbells or any of those other things. And I like those two things because the mini band we think of as glued activation type stuff, but there are single arm rows. You can do backies, you can do tricep, push downs, bicep curls, all these different things with even just the mini band. But on top of that, resistance bands, and I like resistance bands because you can use them in the doorway anchored.

(12:30):
You can use them not anchored around anything. You can anchor them around a railing or banister that you have, but you can anchor them in so many different ways to create tension from different angles to work your back in different ways, to work your legs in different ways. But those two tools to me are so easy to just throw in a corner, throw underneath something, and they add that resistance and apply resistance in a unique way that you can use whether you do have something sturdy, whether you do have any space, whether you are traveling and even want something that goes with you. So those are actually my go-tos. And I love the rigging and can’t say enough about it, especially if you do want to add some weight to your home gym. But I think that those other two things are often undervalued too.

(13:08):
As we see resistance bands is somehow less than weights, but they’re great. And then if you do get any weights, you can even do the two different types of resistances together. So if you’re limited on the dumbbells that you have, you can use resistance bands and dumbbells together to even create tension in two different ways, but progress moves without having to add more dumbbells to your space. And then I love that you use the towels off the rig when you didn’t have the option because I think that just shows how much we can get creative with what we really do have.

Michelle (13:37):
And I love what you were saying too because I think the most important thing is progression is you’re wanting see continual gains is that you do need to progress. And yes, mini bands, you are always going to add that extra level of difficulty to a move and even using them differently. So like you said, you may have one around your legs and you may be using some to even add resistance because you don’t want to be just purchasing more weights constantly. And I think that’s a big thing too. And it is so huge that people, like you said, people underestimate them and they think dumbbells are the key, but you can do a lot of work with just the bands.

Cori (14:20):
And it’s even remembering that the more advanced you are, the more ways you have to find to create progression because you aren’t just going to be able to add five pounds every single week, week after week. There is a point where you’re going to hit that max load where ego is going to start to take over and you’re going to start trying to add weight where you really can’t recruit muscles correctly. And at these points, it is time that we really find other forms of progression and there are three drivers of muscle growth. And when we’re only thinking about loads, we’re only really utilizing one of them, maybe two. But by using these other forms of progression, we’re establishing that my body connection, we’re using not only muscle tissue damage, but mechanical tension and metabolic stress to our advantage. So it is thinking creatively not only in the household items that we have, thinking creatively in the ways we use the tools that we might have, again, going back to even the rower and using that more than just a rower, but it’s also using different forms of progression with whatever we do have on hand.

(15:12):
And I brought this up a little bit when you were talking about the pillow, the cushion, but it’s thinking unilaterally, can I take a bilateral squat? So if the basic body weight squat is easy, can I take that and make it unilateral? Maybe I don’t have a chair I can sink down to on one leg or I can’t do the full pistol squat, but can I do an 80 20 variation where I’m putting 80% of my weight on one leg and sort of staggering just on the toe of the other foot to make it a little bit harder? Can I slow down the tempo? Can I change the tempo to be slowed down and quick up? Can I add in that jump? Well, we don’t necessarily want to make everything cardio, but that plyometric could be valuable at some point. Can I even twist and turn and move in different directions?

(15:49):
Can I add instability? Again, going back to the cushion, but how can I create progression in different ways? And I thought of this when you brought up the mini band because you might be using a mini band around your legs as you’re doing that goblet squat to help you activate your glutes better as you’re using two different forms of resistances to make sure that glute medias is working as you’re really working your legs, but you can combine different things in different ways to really see that full benefit. In terms of this, when you’re using, let’s just say you’re using your rig, what would be one of your favorite moves to do that might combine different training techniques that you’ve learned or implemented with clients?

Michelle (16:28):
I mean, I’ll go back. I do love using it kind of as the TRX system because I am one. We are adding that resistance, but they’re doing their body weight and sometimes just being able to see have them do moves that they’re like, oh, I didn’t realize I could move my body weight like that. It just gives a bigger win versus actually using it as, I mean, my favorites are going to be things like squats, which I say they’re my favorite, but I actually really don’t love squats, but I know they’re so good for you and I love seeing the gains that come off of that. But as you said, just having even those squats where they are using a band as they go down makes such a big difference. And I see that even in myself as well. So those are probably my two favorite ones to go to. But I mean, it’s kind of hard because I really do feel like the options are just so endless of what you can do.

Cori (17:25):
And that’s a great part, seeing the opportunity in it versus letting your brain come up against the heart of like, oh, well, I don’t have the traditional things I use. And I love that you brought up the suspension trainer system because I think so often we think about it as just adding instability or even sometimes in modifying moves, but it can help us work through even a bigger range of motion. And that range of motion being increased can be incredibly useful. Going back to when I mentioned the stair, if you put that front foot up, when you do that traditional split squat, so just sinking down and up in the lunge and you put your front foot up, all of a sudden you’re increasing the range of motion, which is going to make it harder. It’s going to improve your mobility. And I bring this up too, because even if you’re usually training the gym or you like training with loads and you’re not able to, some of these other things can help you get back to lifting more when you get back to the gym.

(18:08):
It can keep you moving forward instead of saying, eh, well what’s the point of doing anything? I can’t do my ideal progression. If you have that day where you’re short on time, you can do 15 minutes at home. And going off of this in terms of how you create the workouts, I know there’s lots of different training techniques we use because when you don’t have loads, you do have to think of progression in different ways. And so this is where using maybe a compound move followed by an isolation move or an isometric followed by a move with reps or even using intervals instead of just counting reps or using a little bit more training volume or those time circuits tweaking the way that you’re using workouts can be really key. Michelle, are there any training techniques specifically that you find more enjoyable when you are training at home?

Michelle (18:52):
I mean, it goes back to utilizing the stabilizers. And I’m going to kind of use this as a little bit of a tangent, so bear with me. But I find when people, like you mentioned are kind of like, oh, well I can’t get to the gym. I was only able to do this at home, and I was like, you were able to can get a good workout in 15 minutes at home. But one thing I do think people fail to recognize is oftentimes I find that there can be a lot of injury prevention that these move to allowed because when, like you said, for me it’s the stabilizing and I know I’m the hiker, the runner background, that was kind of what first introduced me into kind of the workout world. But because of that, I know how important those joints, those ankle, the ankle stability, and how many times have people just walked off the curb wrong and rolled that ankle or had something happen where their balance was just a little bit off.

(19:47):
But if you’re able to actually train with some of these stabilizing muscles because you’re using the cushion, because you’re using those bands, that’s going to force you to have to use your stabilizers more in your ankle and of course your core, you’re actually going to be able to prevent future injuries better. And that’s probably my favorite kind of, I guess, training technique for what I’m doing is actually utilizing that. But I don’t think we give it the recognition it deserves because we just think, oh, this is what I have, so this is all I’m able to do. When sometimes there’s some moves that you can actually get a little bit more out of by using some of these techniques at home.

Cori (20:27):
I couldn’t agree more. We do get ego in the loads in progressing in using fancy equipment over going back to those basics. And the basics are really what build results. And we have to remember the fundamental principle of if it challenges you, it will change you. And so often we only see challenge in one way, and we see it only in the way we’re honestly comfortable being uncomfortable, and that really limits us and seeing the full progress as fast and efficiently as we possibly could. I can tell you more and more as I’ve gone through even at the gym where I have gobs of tools, I will take things back to basics with body weight and constantly include them. I will drop heavier loads and go back to different forms of tools. So I’ll use cables over just dumbbells. I’ll use resistance bands over dumbbells.

(21:12):
I switch it up in that way because I’ve realized the value in progression in these different forms in different tempos and different stability. So I’ll do a single leg deadlift, one progression, and the next progression, I’ll do a bench single leg deadlift, and then I’ll do a cable single leg deadlift. Even though in some ways I have to sometimes go back in loads or I’ll add more instability to something, I’ll have to go back in load. So check my ego with that. And you can feel like, oh, well, I’m not lifting as heavy. How is that going to be beneficial? But it is because it’s not just about those weights that challenge our muscles to create progression. Again, we have all those different drivers of muscle growth and sometimes what is not a clear progression forward ultimately allows us to become stronger, to have that better mind body connection, to lift more and do more and do harder variations down the road, which is what then keeps us moving forward faster versus as you even brought up, if we’re out with injury, we can’t train hard.

(22:02):
If we don’t have those stabilizers strong, we aren’t going to be able to lift more. We aren’t going to be able to keep progressing. We’re going to end up putting ourselves out so that we can’t keep moving forward in the way that we’d like, and we’re going to hold ourselves back a lot longer than if we had taken that time to rebuild. Now, one thing we haven’t talked about and probably something that I think is the most important thing to have in a home gym. We talked about what tools we get, the rigging or the resistance bands, the mini band, what do you think I’m going to tell you everybody needs in their home gym no matter what, and I’m putting you on the spot here, but I realize we hadn’t covered it yet. I mean,

Michelle (22:35):
I would say the Cory response would be some foam rolling,

Cori (22:40):
Ding. Yes. Bingo. That is correct. I would say the one thing that I really do think is essential is that I think you get a great workout, which is your body weight. Anything you have around the house, you can make use of it. I make use of it all the time with clients. You can just do that, have a great result. But I do think if you do not have a lacrosse ball, a tennis ball, a dog toy to use an edge of a counter that you can foam roll out on a corner of a wall that you can foam roll out on and see, I’m even getting creative with that. I think having those foam rolling tools can be really beneficial because I do think it is an often overlooked part of that pre-app process that helps us even get more out of the body movements to then move through a full ranger motion. And Michelle, I know that you have a love hate relationship with foam rolling. What benefits have you seen with including some of the prehab work?

Michelle (23:23):
Yeah, so I’ll be honest, I was always the guilty party of like, oh no, I’m a mom. I’m busy. I have stuff to do. I’m going to skip that and I’m going to go straight to the workout. I need to get that workout in. And that was my mentality for a really long time. And honestly, it was you who kind of shifted my perspective on that because I was like, I’m going to do it all. I’m going to let me see what this program is about, let me actually do it how it’s attended. And I’m the type of person that when I jump into things, I am always like, oh yeah, I’m in good shape. I can just jump in. Which I would always tell people to take it slow. But what I found was the amount of, because I would always judge if I got a good workout in based on my level of soreness.

(24:09):
What I found was my soreness went way down, which meant I was more likely to get in more gym sessions. I was more likely to push and progress faster, and I could have those deeper ranges of movement like we’ve already talked about. But the biggest thing was I just felt a lot more energized for my workouts, which sounds weird, but I think it just prepped my body. So I was ready, but also warm up, cool down, definitely a step. Don’t be like me, learn from my mistakes and actually put it forth because you’re going to get so much more out of your workouts. And we always talk, and I talk to people about this on the nutrition side, part of being able to build muscle and break down fat is actually increasing. Even blood flow and foam rolling helps with that, which sounds silly, but it does. So you’re able to get those nutrients, Ashley, even better to the areas that you’re getting ready to activate.

Cori (25:08):
It’s all the little components, not just what we do in our workout that really yield the results. And we could go on and on about that forever. But I love that you’ve seen the benefit of foam rolling and that you brought all of that up. Because I think too, when we’re training at home, when we think about heavy loads, we think a little bit more about prepping our body, whether or not it’s using lighter loads to build up body weight moves to then build up. But when we’re doing more body weight based training, we often take for granted that we still need to warm up because we think, oh, well, I’m not really challenging myself, but you are. And you can challenge yourself more if you’re warm from that very first rep of the moves that you’re going to do. Versus so often when we skip our warmup, we’re wasting time in our workouts warming up, increasing that range of motion, not getting as much out of it, and not necessarily utilizing muscles to the fullest. So even if you’re training at home, do not skip your warmup, get in that foam rolling, make sure you’re doing that stretching and activation. You’ll be surprised by how much more you truly get out of these moves, and you can even progress ’em in ways using tools around your house. So Michelle, any closing thoughts for someone training at home looking to get in their best workout?

Michelle (26:07):
So I think the biggest thing is, as you’ve already mentioned it, is get creative, look around and share what you’re doing because there’s been so many times where I was like, oh, I never even thought to use it like that. I’ve been known to even use my treadmill just before I had my rigging to even use that as dips and things like that. I use the arm rails. So actually utilize and look around and be like, Hey, this is something that I can use as you put it in even multiple ways and share, because I guarantee you if you share something, someone else is going to be like, oh, I never thought of that. Or you’ll even get more of that from someone else as well. So that’s something I really want to say just even in Facebook. Please comment, what are you doing now and read other people’s comments. You probably are going to pick up a few tips in there as well.

Cori (26:55):
I love that challenge. What tools around your house are you using as equipment that aren’t really technically equipment? And what equipment do you even have in your house that you’re using in creative ways that it wasn’t truly meant for? Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free work, workout in nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating review or share it with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and it would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone I.