Resistance bands, which keep your muscles under constant tension, can promote muscle growth.erdikocak/Getty Images
As someone who spends four days a week lifting weights, I feel a looming sense of dread every time I travel somewhere without a nearby gym. How will I strength train? Will I lose all my hard-earned muscle gains in just a few days? If I get desperate, could I deadlift that couch?
In the past, I have managed this anxiety by monopolizing trunk space for a set of dumbbells or detouring to a hardware store for sandbags and buckets. But I recently learned I can save myself the trouble and reap many of the same benefits of lifting heavy weights with more portable tools and even my own body weight.
“Just because these kinds of tools feel more basic than all the toys at the gym, doesn’t mean they’re easy,” says Jamie Snow, a Toronto-based strength and movement coach. “You just have to get more creative.”
Using your own body weight
Practising movements using just your own body weight can also help you ensure you move with good form before adding external loads. But you don’t have to rush to the weight room to start building muscle.
“There are so many different ways that you can approach a single movement to make it harder or easier,” Snow says. That can include changing the tempo of an exercise, spending more time in the lowering or rising phase of the movement (such as sinking into and standing up from a squat), holding the end position for a pause of one second or more, adding more repetitions to your set, and even performing the movement using a single limb rather than both (such as a single-leg squat).
What’s more, contracting a muscle without external weights (in other words, using your own body weight) has also been shown to “produce sufficient muscle activation to induce muscle growth,” according to a 2016 study in the journal Physiology & Behavior.
When it comes to building muscle mass and strength through these basic movements, “it’s not a question of ‘can you,’ ” says Snow. “It’s just a matter of how focused you are to try to do that.”
Minimal equipment, major gains
Jamie Snow, a Toronto-based strength and movement coach.Brad Strickhert/Supplied
A suspension trainer such as the TRX, uses your body weight as the resistance but allows you to go to ranges of motion that might otherwise be inaccessible. A deceptively simple movement such as a body weight lunge, for example, requires core stability. If you can’t yet lower into a lunge without losing your balance, you can try holding the handles of a suspension trainer such as a TRX, or a resistance band attached to an anchor point.
The TRX can also be used to intensify body weight movements such as the push-up, which can be performed holding the handles for an additional core challenge. Training with a TRX has been shown to produce similar improvements in muscular fitness to weight-based resistance training.
Resistance bands, which keep your muscles under constant tension, can promote muscle growth as well. “You’re adding load which is adding stress to your muscular system,” says Snow. “The recovery process of healing from that stress is what causes your muscles to grow.”
These elastic bands function similarly to weights (the thicker the band, the heavier the load) and have been shown to produce similar strength gains when compared to using traditional weights. For older adults, using resistance bands seems to improve both functional strength and markers of frailty.
Try this no-weights workout
Next time you’re looking to do a strength session without heading to the gym, try this workout from Snow, which uses just two kinds of resistance bands and some household furniture. Make sure to do a warm-up before jumping into these two workout couplets.
Movement pair (superset):
Single-leg squat to a bench, couch or chair
Stand a few inches in front of a seat. Lift your right leg a few inches off the floor and then extend it in front of you as you hinge at your hips sending your butt back. Maintain an upright torso and flat back, and take three seconds to slowly lower to the seat. Allow your butt to briefly tap the seat (don’t sit) before rising to stand. Do 8-10 reps on this leg before switching legs.
Stand with your feet touching and place a light resistance band under your feet. Grasp the loops of either end of the band and hinge forward at your hips until your torso is nearly parallel with the floor. Draw your shoulder blades back and up. Bend at the elbows and pull the band up as you squeeze your shoulder blades. Pause for one second at the top of the movement. Repeat for 10-12 reps.
Perform these exercises back-to-back, rest for 30-60 seconds, and then begin this set again with the single-leg squat. Do 3 sets of this pair of exercises.
Movement pair (superset):
Step into the centre of a mini band and position it just above your knees. Take a wide stance and bend your left leg into a lunge, sending your hips back, maintaining a flat back, and keeping both feet in full contact with the floor. Do 10-12 reps per side, then rest up to 30 seconds if needed before moving on to the next exercise.
Place your hands on a bench/chair/couch and step your feet back until your body is in a plank position. Bend your elbows out to the sides and slowly lower your torso toward your hands, keeping your body in one straight line, not allowing your hips to rise or your back to arch. Push back to the starting position. Try to do 6-12 repetitions.
When this movement becomes too easy, you can progress to a standard push-up, or make it more challenging with a palm-release push-up. To do this, begin in a plank position with hands and feet on the floor. Slowly lower your body to the ground, pause and briefly lift your hands off the floor, then place them back down and rise up from the bottom, keeping your body in a straight line.
Perform these exercises back-to-back, rest for 60 seconds, and then begin this set again with the lateral lunge. Do three sets of this pair of exercises.
Alyssa Ages is a journalist and the author of Secrets of Giants: A Journey to Uncover the True Meaning of Strength. She is also a strongman competitor and endurance athlete, as well as a former personal trainer and group fitness instructor.