A few months back, I was introduced to the concept of weighted walking. Exactly as it sounds, it's the simple act of adding little weights to your body (ankle straps or handheld) to add resistance to your walk.
After being impressed by the results, I started wondering if there were ways I could boost my other workouts to make them harder (without having to run harder or lift heavier).
And music to my ears, the fitness professionals I work with said there are an abundance of ways to supercharge my sweat sessions.
© Getty Images"There are so many fun ways to progress your workout," confirms personal trainer Shakira Akabusi. "It doesn't only have to be adding resistance. Lifting heavier is one way to increase a workout challenge but there are so many other fun factors that can help you to improve your fitness and boost the benefits from each workout.
"Your body loves variety," she enthuses. "That goes for body and mind. Change keeps us on our toes and for physical fitness progression is the only way to make sure you don't see a plateau with your physical results."
© Will IrelandFellow fitness expert Tara Riley agrees. "After nearly two decades of teaching barre, Pilates, strength and dance cardio, and living with rheumatoid arthritis, I've learned that harder doesn't have to mean punishing.
"The workouts that deliver the best results are the ones that ask you to move with intention, challenge your muscles intelligently and build strength you can actually use in everyday life. Sometimes the smallest tweak to how you move can make the biggest difference."
© yogaandphoto.comRead on for the simple ways to make your workouts harder without heavy weights or faster runs.
How to make your workout work harder
1. Go slower
It's second nature to go faster when you want to make a workout harder, but in reality, slowing down can increase the difficulty of your session, as Pilates teacher Noemi Nagy-Bhavsar says of the best way to make her exercise of choice harder: "The best way to make a Pilates workout harder often has less to do with resistance or weights. It's slowing down.
"Most people think they're not working out unless they're sweating, moving fast, or holding the heaviest weights or using heavy spring load. That's the mind talking, not the body. You could do 100 crunches and feel like you've worked, but you still won't have reached the muscles that actually stabilise your spine.
"Slow down first. The slower you move, the more your muscles have to work to control the movement themselves, instead of letting momentum do it for you. With this, you will be able to control the speed and range of movement. You will also start to notice more: when you're breathing, where you're holding tension, how your body is actually organised in space. That awareness alone changes the workout."
2. Look at your range of motion
Most people unconsciously shorten a movement once it starts to burn, i.e., a half squat instead of a full one, a lunge that never quite gets low, says Tara Riley, who wants us to complete our moves.
"Moving through the fullest range your joints comfortably allow means the muscle is working over a longer path, which is a completely free way to make the same exercise noticeably harder.
© yogaandphoto.com"Another technique I use a lot in class is working at the very end range of a movement. Those tiny pulses everyone loves to hate? They’re there for a reason. Rather than bouncing through the middle, where the muscles can briefly switch off, we stay in the point where they're already fully engaged. This increases time under tension, which is fantastic for building strength and muscular endurance. It may not look dramatic, but it’s incredibly effective and often leaves people shaking long before they’d expect."
3. Work on stability rather than load
"When strength training, I encourage people to think about stability before load," says Tara. "Working unilaterally (or one side of the body at a time), such as a single-leg deadlift, is one of the simplest ways to do this. Suddenly, your core and stabilising muscles have to join the conversation too. You’re asking your body to coordinate, balance and produce strength all at once, making lighter weights feel surprisingly challenging."
Shakira speaks about instability, too, noting: "Introducing a small instability can make simple exercises more demanding. For example, simply standing on one leg when working your upper body triggers a deep response in your core and stabilising muscles, or try performing certain exercises on a Bosu ball, such as squats or deadlifts. "
4. Pay attention to your breath
According to running and breathwork coach Ramon Ghosh, one of the most overlooked ways to see improvement from your runs isn't adding extra intensity or distance; it's changing how you breathe.
"Nasal breathing is an incredibly effective but underused training tool, especially during easy or conversational (zone 2) exercise where we are building our aerobic base," he explains, "Breathing this way encourages your breathing to become more efficient over time, which will help with performance."
A quick side note to explain zone 2 training to the uninitiated - it's low-to-moderate-intensity workouts that you can sustain for a long time, rather than going all out.
5. Change the terrain
"Sometimes just changing where you work out is enough to make it harder," says Shakira. "Swap the treadmill for outdoors or change your local streets for a hill run. Hill running demands more recruitment from your glutes and core to power you up the hill and forces your cardiovascular system to work harder to deliver oxygen to your working muscles.
© Getty Images"Running on sand or a pebble beach is also incredibly demanding as the shifting surface means you have to work harder to produce force and stay balanced. Forest trails and wooded areas are also great for challenging proprioception (your body's awareness of itself in its space) and balance. Although you need to be careful to watch your footing to reduce the risk of falling."
6. Manipulate rest periods
"Most people focus on what they do during a set rather than between sets," says personal trainer Sarah Campus, who advises utilising your downtime to supercharge your session. "Shortening rest periods can increase metabolic stress and cardiovascular demand, while deliberately extending rest can improve strength output. Matching rest intervals to the training goal makes workouts significantly more effective."
7. Use temperature wisely
We've all heard of contrast therapy for wellness purposes, but Sarah says this can help in boosting our workouts, too.
"Training in warmer conditions increases cardiovascular strain because the body must regulate temperature as well as exercise. However, this should be approached cautiously with appropriate hydration.
"On the other hand, cold exposure immediately after strength training may reduce some muscle-building adaptations, so recovery strategies should match training goals."
8. Change exercise order
While it's easy to follow a plan with workouts, Sarah recommends switching it up. "Rather than always following the same routine, placing your weakest lift or skill first in a session ensures it’s trained when you’re freshest. This often leads to greater long-term improvements than simply trying to work harder at the end of a workout when fatigue is highest."
