Doing home workouts can seem like a bad idea to those who fear losing all of their muscle gains by training away from the gym. In this video, I’m going to show you that this is not something to be fearful of as long as you avoid these 10 most common home workout mistakes. In fact, it is possible to build muscle at home with little to no equipment if you get all of these right. So that said, let’s dive in and start making sure you are.
MISTAKE #1: THINKING YOU HAVE NO EQUIPMENT
First, you must not focus so much on the equipment that you don’t have and instead look around at the opportunities you do have. I covered in a recent home workout video how you have countertops, stairs, doorways, hardwood floors and even tables that you can use to get a complete total body workout with nothing but your own bodyweight. Watch that if you feel like you are out of ideas for what to do now that your gym is closed.
MISTAKE #2: ATTEMPTING TO PERFORM ABOVE YOUR ABILITIES
Next, in a rush to overcompensate for the lack of a gym people will attempt to do home workouts and exercises that are simply too difficult for them. What happens here is that they either get hurt or just become discouraged when the results aren’t satisfactory. This is because they would have gotten much more out of doing the exercises that were appropriate for them and that they had done with proper form and intensity.
MISTAKE #3: EXERCISE VARIETY
Third, exercise variety is key when it comes to training at home. This is not because you are trying to create muscle confusion or “shock the muscles”. Instead, this is because the variety of home exercises is what provides the easiest path for overload. Slight changes to the same exercise can provide a totally unique stimulus to the muscles you are trying to train and lead to new muscle gains.
MISTAKE #4: REP COUNTS
Speaking of overload, the fourth mistake relates to how many will program for it in the form of specific rep counts with home and bodyweight workouts. This is a mistake. One size does not fit all when it comes to calisthenics. Instead, train to failure or just shy to ensure that you are neither underserving or over serving your abilities in your workouts.
MISTAKE #5: OVERRELIANCE ON CARDIO / HIIT MOVEMENTS
The fifth biggest home workout mistake is relying too much on cardio or hiit movements instead of strength building exercises. Look, I love burpees, mountain climbers and jumping jacks but they are not going to build muscle. Doing too many of them in your home workout routines will cause you to lose muscle instead of build it. You need to focus the majority of your efforts on exercises that build muscle like pullups, handstand pushups and more.
MISTAKES #6 & 7: FORGETTING TO TRAIN YOUR BACK & RUINING POSTURE
The sixth biggest mistake is forgetting to train your back at home. Not only will this lead to an underwhelming physique but it will create muscle imbalances that lead directly to the seventh mistake and that is bad posture.
MISTAKES #8-10: YOUR ROUTINE SUCKS
Finally, the last three relate to the implementation of your workout routine into a new routine. If you don’t plan to get your workout in at home it is too easy to find yourself being too random and skipping your workout all together. Schedule it into your day and FaceTime a friend if needed to hold yourself accountable. Don’t do it in your living room either if you can avoid it. Too tempting to hit the couch during a rest period and never get off of it.
CONCLUSION
To build muscle at home you have to be willing to avoid the biggest workout mistakes. These are just a few of the things that people tend to do at home when they are doing total body workouts that hinder the muscle gains that they see. If you want to build muscle at home and do it without equipment you have to use a workout that doesn’t make mistakes like these.
If you are looking for a complete home workout program that doesn’t require any equipment at all, be sure to head to athleanx.com and check out the ATHLEAN XERO program. Build solid muscle at home without any equipment in just 6 weeks and see how powerful the right bodyweight training can be.
For more videos on how to build muscle at home and the best home workouts you can do to build bigger muscles, be sure to subscribe to our channel here via the link below and turn on your notifications so you never miss a new video when it’s published.
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Jeff Cavaliere M.S.P.T, CSCS
Jeff Cavaliere is a Physical Therapist, Strength Coach and creator of the ATHLEAN-X Training Programs and ATHLEAN-Rx Supplements. He has a Masters in Physical Therapy (MSPT) and has worked as Head Physical Therapist for the New York Mets, as well as training many elite professional athletes in Major League Baseball, NFL, MMA and professional wrestling. His programs produce “next level” achievements in muscle size, strength and performance for professional athletes and anyone looking to build a muscular athletic physique.
