Home fitness and muscle building plan

「Prioritize compound movements with progressive load", "Control the daily caloric surplus at around 300 calories", "Practice 4 times a week for 45-60 minutes each time", "Sleep 7 hours a day".

During the two months of lockdown last year, I didn’t have any professional equipment. I just used two 5L barrels of mineral water as dumbbells and a backpack full of professional books as weights. I actually gained 2.2kg of pure muscle in three months, and my body fat didn’t increase much. I can’t say that. Yes, it was measured by a body fat scale and a soft tape - the chest circumference has increased by 4cm, and the arm circumference has increased by 2cm. I wore a baggy oversize T-shirt before, and my shoulder line was directly stretched out. When my friends saw it, they asked me if I had secretly applied for a fitness card.

Nowadays, there are actually two schools of thought when it comes to building muscle at home. No one is right or wrong, it all depends on your own conditions. One group is purely self-respecting. They don’t use any equipment and rely on movement variations to adjust the difficulty. This group is basically promoted by players with a background in street fitness. The advantage is that it is zero cost and can be done by renters and students living in dormitories. For example, push-ups go from kneeling to standard, then to wide stance, high fives, and waist push-ups. The difficulty increases all the way, which is enough for you to be able to do push-ups. The disadvantage is that it progresses slowly in the later stages. If you want to develop thick back muscles, it is really difficult without a pull-up bar. The other group is the light equipment party. They spend three to four hundred yuan and buy a pair of adjustable weight dumbbells, an elastic band, and a pull-up bar that requires no drilling. It can basically cover 90% of muscle-building exercises, and is at least 30% more efficient than body weight. I am this group now. I usually stuff the dumbbells under the sofa, and remove the pull-up bar when not in use and put it behind the door, which takes up no space at all.

Many people struggle with whether to train divided or whole-body exercises at home. I have also stepped into this pit before. I followed the divided table of the gym, Monday, Tuesday, back, Wednesday, shoulders, four arms, and Friday. Legs. After a month of training, there was no change. Later, I asked my friends who do bodybuilding and I found out that novice muscles recover quickly and the same part is stimulated 2-3 times a week for the best effect. You only train chest once a week. After stimulation and recovery, there is no progress. It is strange that you can grow muscles. Therefore, if you want to practice at home, novices can just do full-body training. Every time you practice, you should do the chest, back, legs, shoulders, and arms. Do 2-3 groups of each part, and each group of 8-12 times is just right to failure. There is no need to do those fancy divisions.

Let me give you a reference to my regular training schedule. Warm up for 5 minutes each time (just jump jacks and joint activities, don’t skip it, as it will easily lead to strain), then first do weight-bearing push-ups 12 times * 3 groups, then do bent-over dumbbell rows 12 times * 3 groups, and then Do 15 weight-bearing squats * 3 groups, then do dumbbell presses 12 times * 3 groups, and finally add bicep curls and triceps extensions 12 times * 2 groups. It only takes more than 40 minutes in total. After the training, I just took a shower and lay down to check my phone, so there was no delay at all.

There is really no need to eat chicken breasts and broccoli every day. How can ordinary people have the time to cook fitness meals every day? I usually eat home-cooked meals normally, add half a bowl more rice to each meal than before, drink an extra carton of whole milk every day, and add a boiled egg or a stick of corn in the afternoon, which works out to about 300 more calories. It won’t gain too much fat, but it’s also enough raw material for muscle growth. Oh, by the way, don’t eat too much. I once had a friend who showed off three bowls of rice in order to gain muscle. He gained 10 pounds in two months, of which 8 pounds were fat. In the end, he had to work hard to remove fat, which was not worth the loss.

To be honest, many people practice at home but have no effect. It’s not because the method is wrong, but because the details are not done properly. For example, when it comes to progressive load, many people do push-ups, 10 in the first month, and 10 in the third month. Of course, the muscles will not grow after they have adapted. If you do 10 this week, you have to try to do 12 next week, or do 10 with a backpack containing books. Only by constantly giving new stimulation to the muscles will they grow. Also, movement standards are more important than quantity. I used to do push-ups, but my waist hurt after half a month of doing them. Later, I changed my posture in front of the mirror. I lowered my shoulders and pinched my core. When I went down, I went slower (which is often called eccentric contraction). When I pushed myself up, I could feel the obvious force in my chest. Even doing 8 push-ups was more effective than doing 20 before. And don’t stay up late. I tried to stay up until 1 o’clock for a week in a row. I had no energy at all during training that week and my weight didn’t increase at all. Then I changed to going to bed before 11 o’clock. In the second week, I gained 0.8kg directly. If you don’t sleep enough, no matter how much you practice or eat, it will be in vain.

In fact, I don’t like to go to the gym anymore. It’s so free to practice at home. You can just change your clothes when you get off work. You don’t have to fight for dumbbells or wait for the squat rack. No one will tell you if you lie flat when you don’t want to practice. Don’t believe the nonsense that “it’s not easy to practice at home.” You should insist on it for 3 months first. Even if it’s just 3 times a week for 40 minutes each time, you’ll know if it’s working by pinching your arms and chest.