If you are someone who is scrolling down the Instagram profile and wondering how your favorite fitness influencer can lift so heavy and make it look so good, you are not alone! There are many people who wonder whether a perfect physique is only achievable by lifting heavy. Granted resistance training is the bomb when it comes to building lean muscles! But what if you want to build your dream body with bodyweight exercises only, is it possible?

Yes, it is, the best things in the world are still free if you look at them and you can build your body by skipping those heavy dumbbells. However, we would like to know, if there is no harm in doing resistance training with weights, in fact, there can be advantages galore, this is for all those who are not ready for weights or perhaps haven't got access to them, you can still challenge your body, here is how you can do it!

Slow Down The Movements

Although, faster movements can be one of the challenging ways to take your fitness level to the next level, one of the lesser-known ways to make your exercise more effective is to slow down the tempo. Our first instinct is to always speed up a particular movement because it will help us to finish up the move fast, but you can start by trying to lower down a movement like a squat and hold it down for a few seconds and stand back again.

Pause when you drop into a squat and slow down when you stand. When you slow down your movements, you include more of your strength and help you to balance it out well so that you engage your core well. Slow movements work because they work under tension and work better.

Speed Up Your Movements

It sounds contradictory when said like that, but when you add speed to your movements you get your heart rate high. This way you not only improve your cardiovascular conditioning but improve your muscle endurance as well. Of course, the effectiveness depends on how long you do the exercise.

The best way to add more movements is to add more explosive plyometric movements. Add more squat jumps if you are a runner and want to improve upon your endurance levels. but faster movements must always be a progression, so begin slow and then move up the pace. This way your muscles will not be shocked into making faster movements, but rather coerced into progressing towards making faster movements.

Add More Reps

If you are already a pro in doing bodyweight movements and think the movements are not challenging enough, then do more reps and this will make your familiar movements seem more difficult. When you add more reps, it increases overall training volume and you end up putting your muscles under more stress. Adding an extra set can make your body work just a little bit harder to push it a little bit more than your body is used to.

Reduce Rest Intervals

When you shorten the rest intervals you end up making any of your bodyweight workouts far more challenging than before. You keep on putting your muscles under stress without any breaks in between. This will keep pumping your heart rate and improve the cardiovascular fitness of your body. Check on yourself are you finding it hard or gasping for air in the middle of your workouts? Then slow it down and listen to your body. Get some rest and work hard again.

Combine Different Movements

Tweaks such as combining different variations are great options to make your body more resilient and also keep the interest level high. For example, if you start doing squats at a slow tempo for 5 repetitions, then you can alternate it with a jump squat, do a jump squat and then pulse it for the next 5 reps and then do a jump squat again. There are various options to keep your body guessing and keep the workout challenging. The more variations you add the more you will be able to prep your body to go to the next level and even add weights to the next level.

Also, you do not have to buy weights to take your resistance training routine to the next level, fill your bag with books to work as a weight or take your heaviest bottles to add resistance, just be creative and you will soon find a way to get closer to your dream body goal!