Ideas for fun, varied strength training??

Linnaea27

Hi All,

I'm trying to work out a new exercise routine for myself. I've been maintaining for about a month and have gotten somewhat erratic with exercise, partially because of my job being extremely busy and more active (once or twice a week I hike around in the woods for work) at this time of year, and partially because I started spending a lot of my free time working in the garden, as I do every spring and summer.

I really enjoy cardio exercise, and am slowly working on improving my trail running abilities, so that takes care of that sort of exercise. But I have a lot of trouble sticking to strength training with weights, and I want to do a slow recomp and have better muscle definition. I get really bored doing the same routine 3 times a week; I was doing the AllPro Beginner strength training plan for a while in spring, with the dumbbells I have (as suggested by a thread on here about doing barbell exercises when you only have dumbbells), but I got tired of doing the same thing over and over! Plus I have not as yet been able to purchase heavier weights to use at home. Going to a gym is unfortunately not realistic for me as I live in a rural area without convenient access, and I would not be enticed to work out inside on a pleasant day anyway.

So. . . explanation of my somewhat finicky situation aside. . . I would love it if anyone can suggest strength and muscle-building exercise routines that vary somewhat each week and could be done outdoors. I have a deck I can work out on, I just need some fresh ideas for strength workouts that are varied and at least somewhat fun!

Thanks!

Cruxthemystic

Try kettlebells. They are challenging and give you a heck of a workout.

jimmmer

The problem you are going to face is not being able to use progressively heavy weights. No strength routine will work beyond a certain point if you fail to increase the resistance.

There are loads of other options out there, however. Convict Conditioning, You Are Your Own Gym and Never Gymless are all books dedicated to bodyweight/minimal equipment strength training and can get you started. There are also loads of bodyweight strength training sites that can provide further/deeper reading.

In fact, with bodyweight strength variations you actually need to progress to different-but-related exercises in order to continue to increase the resistance. Hence variety is actually built into the DNA of these kinds of routines. Might be worth considering?

Linnaea27

Thank you both! All great suggestions. I think part of the reason I haven't been terribly motivated to work on strength training is because I know with the weights I have, I won't really be able to progress much in the program I was using.

I will look into the bodyweight training stuff, and also an adjustable kettlebell! I remember seeing a couple doing their morning kettlebell workout on the lawn at an inn I once worked at, and they were in amazing shape and it did look fun. I'd forgotten about kettlebell stuff (which is kind of silly, but I had :ohwell: ).

contingencyplan

Repetition is how you train the body's muscles. Programs such as AllPro's or Starting Strength or Stronglifts are ideal for beginners because of how they program the body's nervous system to adapt best to the lifts.

If you're serious about kettlebell training get one that goes up to 40+ lbs. Trust me, you'll need it.