If you’re used to training in a gym with barbells, plates, dumbbells and a bunch of machines at your disposal, it can feel like one hell of a struggle thinking of ways to make meaningful strength and weightlifting progress without any of that.
Here are 5 exercises you can do at home that will ACTUALLY get you strong…
1) Feet Elevated Pike Push Ups. These are a fantastic way to develop insanely strong and stable shoulders, which will carry over to your snatch, jerk, overhead press and bench press. I reckon you’re killing it if you can do 3 sets of 15.
2) Single Leg Feet Elevated Heel Bridge. This is one of my favourite exercises for hamstring development, and so few people know about it. I’ve even had guys who deadlift 200+kg struggle to complete 3 sets of 12 on each side. Give it a try.
3) Aleknas. This lesser lesser-known exercise trains anti-extension, much in the same way that a plank does. The main difference is that it’s harder because it requires constant bracing against the movement of your arms and legs. 3 sets of 12 to 15 reps with good control should do the trick, and will carry over to almost every other strength exercise.
4) Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat. Also known as Bulgarian split squats, this exercise is great at development unilateral (1 side) strength, stability and balance in the muscles of the hips and legs, plus in weightlifting it has good carryover to your split jerk. Personally, I like to grab a backpack, load it with 10-15kg worth of books and hold it in front of me whilst aiming for 3 sets of 20 each side.
5) Low Squat Jumps to Explosion. I love this drill. It develops your ability to absorb and produce force in your squat pattern, and trains your nervous system to produce force quickly. As with all plyometric type exercises keep the reps and sets low and focus on quality over quantity.
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Give these 5 exercises a try, and feel free to email me (alex@characterstrength.co.uk) to let me know how you get on.
And as always, if you want to chat about what working with me for coaching and programming would look like, you can book a quick call here.
‘Til Next Time
Alex
MSc Strength & Conditioning
British Weightlifting Tutor/Educator
