3 ways to build strength fast with minimal equipment
Flexibility improves with stretching, endurance comes with repetition, and cardio is developed by going further, and for longer. Strength, on the other hand, is built by overcoming resistance. But don’t you need heavy weights? Not necessarily.
Mat Forzaglia from Forzag Fitness and the creator of ‘Get Strong’ on NEOU, explains his 3 go-to strategies for building muscular strength with minimal equipment.
1. Slow down your reps
When you can’t add more weight (or don’t have access to more weight), the next best thing is eccentric training, says Mat. “We’re slowing down our movement, and loading our opposing muscle groups and stabilizers,” he explains. According to him, this technique focuses on “slow-twitch muscle fibers” and can help build strength faster.
2. Keep the tension
Mat’s next hack is called “isometrics.” “Isometrics are essentially just adding pauses or holds to a movement to increase the load on a muscle,” he says. Examples of this are performing a pause for five seconds at the bottom of a squat or at the top of a shoulder press.
3. Burn everything out
Mat says to truly finish off muscle to come back stronger you’ve got to use the burnout method. “At the beginning of a workout it’s all about slow and controlled movements, but at the end, it’s all about pushing to the next level,” he says. An example of this could be doing as many repetitions as possible in the last exercise of your workout.
Get started with Mat’s ‘Get Strong’ program on NEOU, available now!
