Muscle & Fitness logo Muscle & Fitness

  • Workouts

    Workouts

    • Workout Routines
    • Workout Tips
    • Fitness
    • Athlete/Celebrity Workouts
    • Exercise Videos
    Find Exercises Targeting…
    • Abs and Core Exercises
    • Arm Exercises
    • Back Exercises
    • Chest Exercises
    • Leg Exercises
    • Shoulder Exercises
  • Nutrition

    Nutrition

    • Healthy Eating
    • Lose Fat
    • Gain Mass
    • Supplements
    • Performance Nutrition
    Family grilling healthy meats and vegetables on a barbecue grill
    Healthy Eating

    5 Best Meats to Throw on the Grill

    Man using tongs grilling high protein foods on the barbecue
    Healthy Eating

    4 Under-the Radar, High-Protein Foods Great for Grilling

    Carbs like pasta and macaroni on a scale
    Healthy Eating

    Here’s Why Carb Quality Counts As We Age

    Female scientist testing for food additives in various types of foods in a lab
    Healthy Eating

    3 Food Additives You Should Be Worried About

  • Athletes & Celebrities

    Athletes & Celebrities

    • News
    • Interviews
    • Women
    • Pro Tips
    • Behind-the-Scenes
    • Videos
    MLB baseball player for the San Diego Padres Manny Machado with his athletic trainer Nick Soto
    Interviews

    Miami Super Trainer Keeps Manny Machado in All-Star Form

    John Cena reunited after 20 years with a veteran fan at an event
    News

    John Cena Did This to Bring One Fan to Tears

    Stephen Coe grilling seafood on the grill
    Pro Tips

    Grilling Tips for a Fun and Festive 4th of July

    Chris Coffland in uniform Catch a Lift
    Pro Tips

    Catch A Lift Helps Veterans Heal and Stay Fit to Serve

  • Features

    Features

    • From our Partners
    • Active Lifestyle
    • M&F: Fit to Serve
    • Gear
    • News
    • Opinion
    F3 Welcome Guide From Lost To Finding Your Path Towards Healthier Nutrition
    From our Partners

    Inside the F3 Signature Nutrition Program: Practical Tools To Build Heal...

    image8
    From our Partners

    Sun, Sweat & Standouts: Top 10 Power Players of Summer 2025

    Cover Chair Exercises A Guide to Staying Active
    From our Partners

    Chair Exercises: A Guide to Staying Active

    1_Protein Boost_Lukas_1109x614px v2
    From our Partners

    Train Smarter with Ivybears Protein Boost

  • Anti-Aging

    Anti-Aging

    • Functional Medicine
    • Hormone Optimization
    • Recovery
    • Wellness
    Over 40s couple performing mobility workouts and stretches outdoors
    Wellness

    2 Simple 15-Minute Mobility Workouts to Help Reduce Pain

    A group of young adventurers using travel and outdoor adventures to keep health and fit
    Wellness

    Traveling and Adventuring: Your Path to Staying Young, Fit, and Healthy

    Medical professional examining a xray of the knee due to popping joints
    Wellness

    Are Your Joints 'Popping'? This Is What It could Be

    Female Massaging Her Feet And Doing Shin Splint Stretches for good foot health
    Recovery

    Here's Why Your Feet May Be Halting Your Training Gains

  • Flex

    Flex

    • Olympia Coverage
    • Athletes
    • Nutrition
    • Training
    • Videos
    United States Air Force Staff Sergeant Joshua Alvord performing a behind the neck squat
    Pro Tips

    This Air Force Honor Guard Member Takes Being Fit To Serve Seriously

    Bodybuilder Dorian Yates posing and performing his shoulder workout using a shoulder press exercise
    Training

    The Reason Dorian Yates Would Swap Dumbbells for the Smith Machine

    TMP 239
    News

    Flex Wheeler Says Competitions Without Routines Are a 'Major Step Back'

    Ronnie Coleman
    News

    Ronnie Coleman Is Suffering from A Blood Infection Confirms Family

  • Hers

    Hers

    • Workouts
    • Nutrition
    • Supplements
    • Athletes & Celebrities
    • Features
    Jess Evans
    Hers Athletes & Celebrities

    Jess Evans Has Created Her Own 'Cinderella Man' Story

    Nicole Young posing with light weights
    Hers Athletes & Celebrities

    This 'Selling Sunset' Star Is ‘Sold’ on Making Fitness Gains

    Lamborghini female race car driver Lindsay Brewer's full body workout and showing her muscular arms
    Hers Workouts

    Lindsay Brewer’s Full Throttle, Full-Body Workout

    Healthy vegetables and fruits incorporated in the PCOS diet for women
    Hers Nutrition

    The PCOS Diet For Beginners: Is It Right for You?

  • Olympia

    Olympia

    • Olympia Coverage
    • Buy Tickets
    Caesar Bacarella performing a dumbbell workout with biceps curls
    Pro Tips

    Caesar Bacarella Is Building a Fitness Empire at Full Speed

    Olympia-2019-Whiteny-Jones-Press-Conference
    Interviews

    Whitney Jones Can Break, But Can Never Be Broken

    IFBB Wellness Pro Yarishna Ayala
    Interviews

    Yarishna Ayala Shares Advice for Future Wellness Division Competitors

    2021 Mr. Olympia Top 3 winners Brandon Curry, Big Ramy, Hadi Choopin
    News

    BIG RAMY WINS THE 2021 OLYMPIA!

Subscribe to YouTube Subscribe to the Newsletter Terms of Use Privacy Policy Cookie Policy Accessibility Statement Do Not Sell
  • Workouts
    • Workout Routines
    • Workout Tips
    • Fitness
    • Athlete/Celebrity Workouts
    • Exercise Videos
  • Nutrition
    • Healthy Eating
    • Lose Fat
    • Gain Mass
    • Supplements
    • Performance Nutrition
  • Athletes & Celebrities
    • News
    • Interviews
    • Women
    • Pro Tips
    • Behind-the-Scenes
    • Videos
  • Features
    • From our Partners
    • Active Lifestyle
    • M&F: Fit to Serve
    • Gear
    • News
    • Opinion
  • Anti-Aging
    • Functional Medicine
    • Hormone Optimization
    • Recovery
    • Wellness
  • Flex
    • Olympia Coverage
    • Athletes
    • Nutrition
    • Training
    • Videos
  • Hers
    • Workouts
    • Nutrition
    • Supplements
    • Athletes & Celebrities
    • Features
  • Olympia
    • Olympia Coverage
    • Buy Tickets
  • Resources & Highlights
    • Topics
    • Videos
    • Podcasts
    • Contact
    • Terms of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Accessibility Statement
    • Do Not Sell

Stay Connected

Newsletter Signup

Stay up to date

Sign up below to receive our newest workout routines, recipes, news stories, and offers from our partners

Facebook Twitter Youtube Pinterest
Open menu button
Open search bar button
×

Search M&F

Featured Articles
Lean Muscle
Healthy Eating

28-Days-to-Lean Meal Plan

With the right plan and the right discipline, you can get seriously shredded in just 28 days.

Read article
Kate Upton Attends the 2016 Vanity Fair Oscar Party
Women

The 20 Hottest Female Celebrities

Talented stars, killer physiques.

Read article
Bench press record holder Bill Gillespie breaking the world record at age 62
Pro Tips

The 'Dos' and 'Don’ts' of Bill Gillespie’s Record-Breaking Bench Press

At age 62, "Big Bill" shares his wisdom to dominate one of the ultimate strength marks.

Read article
The 50 Best Female Fitness Influencers on Instagram
Girls

The 50 Best Fitness Influencers on Instagram

Follow these fit women we're crushing on for inspiration, workout ideas, and motivation.

Read article
Workout Tips

Build More Home-Grown Muscle

You don't need tons of equipment to get ripped at home. Use these four intensity boosters to milk every workout for all it's worth.

by Jim Stoppani, PhD
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
Strongmuscles
View Gallery

Build More Home-Grown Muscle

Close gallery popup button
1 OF 5

1 of 5

Strongmuscles

One popular misconception (read: excuse) for people who train at home is that you really can’t add any serious mass without the benefit of the fancy equipment and unlimited poundages of your local gym. Because of that, they resign themselves to a life of lesser workouts. “I’ll just do what I can,” they rationalize. “But I don’t expect to really gain any muscle.” Well, we have good news – and a bit of a wake-up call – for these gloomy trainers: You can drastically impact your overall body composition training at home. All you need is a barbell, a few dumbbells and the will to push yourself a little harder. These four techniques can be employed at home and will pay big dividends in the long run.

2 of 5

Home workout 2

Single-Limb Forced Reps

Forced reps are one of the all-time best intensity techniques you can use. They have been shown to help athletes drop more body fat. This is likely due to the higher GH levels, which not only enhances muscle recovery and growth, but increases fat-burning. GH is particularly important for strength gains for females, as testosterone isn’t helping much. Forced reps require a spotter to assist you in completing one, two, or three extra reps after you have reached muscle failure. At first it would appear that the girl who trains at home by herself is out of luck with this technique. After all, who is going to provide the extra hand? The answer is: yourself.

A good way for those who train alone to take their muscles past failure and perform forced reps is by doing single-arm or-leg exercises. When that limb fails, the non-working limb provides the spot and helps the other get an extra two or three reps. This technique is great to use on one-arm curls for biceps, one-arm triceps extensions, front raises and lateral raises for delts.

3 of 5

Home workout 3

Drop Sets

Drop sets are a great way to continue a set after reaching failure. When you can no longer perform any more reps, reduce the weight by 20-30% and continue the set. The key to drop sets is time. After the weight is dropped you continue the set. That is, it is still considered one set. Given that, the time it takes to reduce the weight should be minimal — about 5-10 seconds max. If you are working out by yourself and using standard dumbbells, the drop set can become two separate sets if you take too long to change weights. Purchasing a good set of quick-change dumbbells, or staying close to the rest of your dumbbells, can be the key to decreasing the time it takes on drop sets, which will up your intensity.

4 of 5

Home workout 4

Partial Reps

Another great way to take a set beyond muscle failure when training home alone is to do partial reps. Partial reps simply mean that you do the exercise over only part of the range of motion (ROM). Muscle failure is the inability to complete the rep with good form. That means your muscle fails to complete the rep over the full ROM on its own. It does not mean that the muscle has reached absolute failure and cannot perform any movement at all. This means that the muscle can move the weight over some of the ROM of the exercise.

For example, when doing dumbbell shoulder presses you reach failure when you are unable push the weight all the way over head. However, your delts can still pull press the weight up a little bit of the way. So, after reaching failure on presses, you continue doing reps through as much of the ROM as possible until even the slightest ROM becomes impossible. At that point you have taken the muscle to absolute failure.

Partials are great to use on bench presses (barbell and dumbbell) and flyes for chest, overhead presses and upright rows for delts, pull-ups, pulldowns and rows (barbell, dumbbell and cable) for back, curls (barbell and dumbbell) for biceps, pressdowns and overhead extensions for triceps and squats for legs.

5 of 5

Home workout 5

Giant Sets

This is simply taking four or more exercises for one muscle group and doing them consecutively, without taking any rest in between exercises. After doing all exercises for a muscle group you rest two to three minutes and repeat. Do 3-4 giant sets and you’re done – not just with the workout, but as in fried. Because of the lack of rest with giant sets you completely fatigue the muscle, which further helps to ramp up your GH levels.

Back to intro

One popular misconception (read: excuse) for people who train at home is that you really can’t add any serious mass without the benefit of the fancy equipment and unlimited poundages of your local gym. Because of that, they resign themselves to a life of lesser workouts. “I’ll just do what I can,” they rationalize. “But I don’t expect to really gain any muscle.” Well, we have good news – and a bit of a wake-up call – for these gloomy trainers: You can drastically impact your overall body composition training at home. All you need is a barbell, a few dumbbells and the will to push yourself a little harder. These four techniques can be employed at home and will pay big dividends in the long run.

Single-Limb Forced Reps

Forced reps are one of the all-time best intensity techniques you can use. They have been shown to help athletes drop more body fat. This is likely due to the higher GH levels, which not only enhances muscle recovery and growth, but increases fat-burning. GH is particularly important for strength gains for females, as testosterone isn’t helping much. Forced reps require a spotter to assist you in completing one, two, or three extra reps after you have reached muscle failure. At first it would appear that the girl who trains at home by herself is out of luck with this technique. After all, who is going to provide the extra hand? The answer is: yourself.

A good way for those who train alone to take their muscles past failure and perform forced reps is by doing single-arm or-leg exercises. When that limb fails, the non-working limb provides the spot and helps the other get an extra two or three reps. This technique is great to use on one-arm curls for biceps, one-arm triceps extensions, front raises and lateral raises for delts.

Drop Sets

Drop sets are a great way to continue a set after reaching failure. When you can no longer perform any more reps, reduce the weight by 20-30% and continue the set. The key to drop sets is time. After the weight is dropped you continue the set. That is, it is still considered one set. Given that, the time it takes to reduce the weight should be minimal — about 5-10 seconds max. If you are working out by yourself and using standard dumbbells, the drop set can become two separate sets if you take too long to change weights. Purchasing a good set of quick-change dumbbells, or staying close to the rest of your dumbbells, can be the key to decreasing the time it takes on drop sets, which will up your intensity.

Partial Reps

Another great way to take a set beyond muscle failure when training home alone is to do partial reps. Partial reps simply mean that you do the exercise over only part of the range of motion (ROM). Muscle failure is the inability to complete the rep with good form. That means your muscle fails to complete the rep over the full ROM on its own. It does not mean that the muscle has reached absolute failure and cannot perform any movement at all. This means that the muscle can move the weight over some of the ROM of the exercise.

For example, when doing dumbbell shoulder presses you reach failure when you are unable push the weight all the way over head. However, your delts can still pull press the weight up a little bit of the way. So, after reaching failure on presses, you continue doing reps through as much of the ROM as possible until even the slightest ROM becomes impossible. At that point you have taken the muscle to absolute failure.

Partials are great to use on bench presses (barbell and dumbbell) and flyes for chest, overhead presses and upright rows for delts, pull-ups, pulldowns and rows (barbell, dumbbell and cable) for back, curls (barbell and dumbbell) for biceps, pressdowns and overhead extensions for triceps and squats for legs.

Giant Sets

This is simply taking four or more exercises for one muscle group and doing them consecutively, without taking any rest in between exercises. After doing all exercises for a muscle group you rest two to three minutes and repeat. Do 3-4 giant sets and you’re done – not just with the workout, but as in fried. Because of the lack of rest with giant sets you completely fatigue the muscle, which further helps to ramp up your GH levels.

Author picture
Written by Jim Stoppani, PhD
Related Articles
Male and female trail runners running outdoors on a forest trail
Workout Routines

Summer Trail Hiking Tips for Maximum Performance

Bodybuilder Dorian Yates posing and performing his shoulder workout using a shoulder press exercise
Training

The Reason Dorian Yates Would Swap Dumbbells for the Smith Machine

Newsletter Signup

Stay up to date

Sign up below to receive our newest workout routines, recipes, news stories, and offers from our partners

Muscle & Fitness logo

Follow us

Facebook Twitter Youtube Pinterest

More news

Fit adult male coming out of the pool after performing a few swimming workouts
Workout Tips

The Swimming Workout Guide For a Shredded Summer Body

Summer is here, so stay cool and challenged with this full-body water workout.

Read article
Muscular bodybuilder practicing fitness and wellness by doing yoga after a workout in the gym
Workout Tips

Closing the Gap Between Wellness and Fitness

Although some may think the terms are interchangeable, there are significant differences.

Read article
Muscular fit man who utlized the No pain No Gain mentality suffering from DOMS after an intense workout
Workout Tips

Is 'No Pain No Gain' Really a Sign of Muscle Growth? The Truth About DOMS and Building Muscle

Constant soreness from one workout to the next may not be a sign of progress you’d hoped.

Read article
All Workout Tips
  1. Home
  2. /
  3. Workouts
  4. /
  5. Workout Tips
  6. /
  7. Build More Home-Grown Muscle
Muscle & Fitness logo
  • Workouts
  • Nutrition
  • Athletes & Celebrities
  • Features
  • Recipes
  • Topics
  • Videos
  • Exercise Videos
  • Podcasts
  • RSS Feed
  • Buy Olympia Tickets
  • Archives
  • Sitemap
Facebook Twitter Youtube Pinterest

Newsletter Signup

Stay up to date

Sign up below to receive our newest workout routines, recipes, news stories, and offers from our partners

JW Media, LLC

Copyright 2025 JW Media, LLC, parent company of Muscle & Fitness. All rights reserved.

Contact Us Terms of Use Privacy Policy Cookie Policy Do Not Sell Accessibility Statement