20 Lessons from Working Out at Home

For the better part of 14 years, I’ve always lifted at a well-equipped gym. Like so many of you, this lockdown has me training at home with minimal equipment for the first time ever. We’ve all had to make some serious adjustments. And after getting over the initial frustrations and fears that my gains will all disappear, I realized a lot of great things will come of this situation.

In the spirit of controlling what I can control, here are 20 lessons I’ve learned in a month-plus of working out at home.

1. I don’t just love powerlifting. I love training. It looks and feels a little different right now, but turns out pushing myself in any form of strength training is fun and rewarding.
2. The bilateral deficit is real. I’ve only got one loadable dumbbell at home, and many exercises feel way better (I can use more weight with better form, better pumps, getting more reps, etc.) when I do them one side at a time. Things like shoulder presses, triceps extensions, curls, lateral raises, etc.
3. I haven’t foam rolled or warmed up once. In a whole month. And my joints feel great. It’s not that warming up isn’t important. It’s that taking a break from heavy-ass lifting more than once every 10 years or so is probably really important.
4. Resistance training with properly-stacked joints and a full range of motion is still the best form of mobility training.
5. This is a great time to work on what you suck at. I don’t love deadlifts nearly as much as squats or bench presses, but it’s the most loadable exercise I can do right now, so I’m deadlifting 3 times a week.
6. If you’re performing the same exercise multiple times a week, make subtle changes to shift the stimulus. Change your stance, your hand position, the tempo, etc.
   

    

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   I love to squat and bench. Deadlifts I simply tolerate. At home I can’t really replicate competition squats and bench, but deadlifts can at least come close. I’ll be deadlifting 3 days a week for the foreseeable future. Let’s see what happens. Narrow stance trap bar deadlifts, heels elevated on a random brick I found on the patio 🧱sets of 15 at 225. #thestrengthhouse #trainwithapurpose #bonvecstrength

   A post shared by Tony Bonvechio (@bonvecstrength) on Apr 1, 2020 at 12:34pm PDT

    

7. You shouldn’t work out 3, 4, 5 or 6 days a week. You should work out as often as your recovery allows. Workouts have been shorter and less taxing (because they’re not as heavy), so I’m working out 5-6 days a week instead of 4.
8. On that note, smaller muscle groups (biceps, delts, calves, etc.) can probably be trained 4-6 times a week if your recovery is on point. You probably won’t see significant size gains training these 1-2 times a week.
9. Training outside is really awesome. Something about fresh air and direct sunlight.
10. Long brisk walks outdoors are great for the body AND the mind. And the dog.
11. I haven’t used pre-workout caffeine or listened to loud music at all. These mental boosts were a mainstay in my routine, but I don’t need them right now. If you’re still slugging down cans of Monster to do push-ups and lunges, perhaps reconsider. Save it for when you actually need it.
12. Establish a consistent routine. At first, I’d work out at random times. 10 am one day, 4 pm the next, etc. Once I got back into a set routine and chose a specific time every day (now 12 pm), I became more focused and looked forward to my workouts more.
13. Carbs are important for good pumps. And it’s easy to catch a sick pump when you’re finishing all your toddler’s meals (Cheerios and blueberries make for good pre-workout carbs).
14. A good suspension trainer may be the more versatile at-home workout tool. I’m loving my gymnastics rings right now for pull-ups, push-ups, rows, flyes and more.
    

     

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    I’ve said before I don’t personally like dumbbell flyes that much. They just don’t feel right to me. But these ring flyes hit the spot. Good stretch at the bottom, good contraction at the top, good pec pump with minimal stress on my shoulders and biceps. I’d highly recommend trying them if you’ve got a suspension trainer like TRX straps or gymnastics rings at home. I did 4×15 paired with inverted rows and toddler deadlifts. #thestrengthhouse #trainwithapurpose #bonvecstrength

    A post shared by Tony Bonvechio (@bonvecstrength) on Apr 14, 2020 at 9:20am PDT

     

15. Personally, I need a lot of upper body volume to make strength or size gains. In hindsight, I’d really been slacking on upper body accessory work and my bench was stalling because of it.
16. Progressive overload still matters, but if you can’t add weight, you need to add volume if you want to get bigger.
17. When adding a new exercise, start with just 2 sets. Then, add 1 set per exercise per workout (adding weight as you can) until you A) can’t consistently hit the target rep range (think 8-20 reps), B ) your strength levels start to slide significantly or C) you reach 7-8 sets. You can probably ride this out for several weeks or more.
18. Don’t deload as often. If weights aren’t as heavy and exercises aren’t as neurally taxing, you can go longer without a deload.
19. Instead of staring at your phone between sets, go outside and look around. As silly as it sounds, I’ve used rest times between sets to practice mindfulness while looking at the trees, the clouds, the birds, even the damn bugs crawling around my back patio.
20. I miss the people more than anything. Training partners are worth their weight in gold. I hope this time apart increases your appreciation for the people you get to train with.