Making exercise harder seems like a silly idea. Isn’t it already hard? You need to make time for it, endure the discomfort, and sometimes wake up the next morning and find it difficult to get out of bed.
Yes, Shane, it’s a fantastic idea —go for it.
Here’s the thing: as difficult as exercise is, progressive overload and increasing the difficulty are key. More weight, more reps, more sets, more time under tension, or running a faster time. That’s, of course, if you want to improve. Then there are times you want to improve, and your body says no.
The movement feels funky, or your shoulder flips you the bird. Well, there is no use fighting with your body, as there will be a loser, and it will be you. That’s when you need to make exercise easier. Less complex, running a slower time, less load, and fewer sets and reps.
Well, duh, you could pick up a heavier or lighter dumbbell, or not do it at all. That will make it easier or harder. That’s true, but I’m going a little deeper than that, beginning with what exercise progressions and regressions are.
What Are Exercise Progressions And Regressions?
An exercise progression is making a movement more difficult without adding weight. Instead of increasing the load, you modify the movement to demand more strength, control, coordination, or range of motion.
Example: A push-up
Standard push-up → Feet-elevated push-up
Elevating your feet shifts more of your body weight onto your upper body, making your chest, shoulders, and core work harder. An exercise regression makes a movement easier for someone who isn’t ready for the progression or doesn’t want to fight with their body. You modify the movement to reduce stress, improve stability and form, or build confidence with the movement.
Example: A squat
Standard squat → Box squat
Adding a box reduces the range of motion and helps someone learn depth and control. The pattern remains the same, but it becomes easier.
How To Make Exercise Harder
When improvement is the goal, these methods increase intensity without increasing weight. Please note that neither is an exhaustive list, because if I listed every technique, your eyes would get exhausted.
Increasing The Range of Motion
Going deeper or extending farther recruits more muscle, making your muscles work harder without doing anything different—for example, a Bulgarian split squat instead of a standard split squat.
Exercises It’s best for: Squats, step-ups, push-ups, rows, hip thrusts, and calf raises.
Tempo Lifting
Each repetition you perform has four parts: the eccentric, bottom position, concentric contraction, and lockout. Each part of the rep takes a certain number of seconds. For instance, let’s use a 3322 barbell squat as an example—it takes three seconds to lower into the bottom of your squat (eccentric), a 3-second pause at the bottom, 2 seconds to push back up (concentric), and 2 seconds to pause at the top. Increasing the duration of the exercise makes your muscles work harder with the same weight.
Exercises It’s best for: Squats, lunges, split squats, hip thrusts, push-ups, bench press, rows, and shoulder presses.
Mastery
Mastery is a highly underrated form of progression. Instead, ensure you do the exercise to the best of your ability and with good technique. Take mental notes on how you’re doing and whether the weight is causing any form issues. Work on those form issues by being laser-focused on your technique.
Exercises It’s best for: All of them.
Pause Reps
Adding a 3–5-second pause removes momentum and requires the muscle to work harder to complete the concentric contraction. Pausing involves holding a particular joint angle that’s difficult to maintain—for example, pausing at the bottom of a squat or a bench press. When performing the pause method, use 60-80 1RM, 5-8 reps with a 3-second pause. You will hate life, but your body will thank you.
Exercises It’s best for: Rows, all types of squats, deadlifts, bench press, push-ups, hip thrust, and hip extensions.
Using Unilateral Variations
Switching from using two limbs to one makes an exercise harder because you’re no longer sharing the workload. One limb has to produce all the force, and your core has to stabilize to keep you balanced due to the offset load. These exercises increase strength, control, and muscle recruitment, all without adding weight.
Exercises It’s best for: All of them.
Change Leverage
When the weight is close to your working muscle, it’s easy. When it’s further away, it’s more difficult. That’s the essence of leverage. You’ll adjust body position or move the load to make the lever arm longer. By lengthening the lever arm or shifting your center of gravity, you reduce mechanical advantage, requiring the working muscles to produce more force.
Exercises It’s best for: Push-ups → Feet elevated, Planks → Long-lever plank, Squats → overhead squats, and Hip extensions → Feet farther from hips to increase hamstring lever.
Change the Angle
Your muscle fibers run in all different directions, and by changing the angle, you’ll shift tension, expose weaker points, and enhance muscle development. By changing the exercise angle—or adjusting body position relative to gravity—muscle loading changes. A simple change in incline, decline, or torso angle can make an exercise harder by increasing resistance, working different fibers, or requiring the muscle stabilizers to work overtime.
Exercises It’s best for: Push-ups → Incline, decline, Bench press → Flat, incline, or decline, Squats → Box squat (vertical torso) vs heels-elevated squat (more knee bend), Lunges → Curtsy, Side and Rows → Cable reach and Rotational row.
How To Make Exercise Easier
Granted, the easiest way to make any exercise easier is by not doing it. But if you are here to get better, these are methods to make it easier while doing good for your body.
Reduce the Range of Motion
When a full-range movement isn’t happening, reducing the distance traveled is a simple regression. Reducing the range of motion lowers joint stress, improves control, and helps you groove the correct mechanics while still training the same movement.
Exercises it’s best for: Bilateral and unilateral squats, deadlifts, push-ups, pull-ups, or chin-ups.
Increase Stability
If balance is the limiting factor, give your body some support. Using a bench, a wall, or straps helps you avoid wobbling like a baby giraffe and lets your muscles go to work. More stability leads to better technique, greater activation of the targeted muscle, increased confidence, and fewer failed reps.
Exercises it’s best for: Split squats and lunge variations, and single-leg RDLs.
Move from Unilateral to Bilateral
Unilateral exercises are incredible for building strength and reducing imbalances, but they can feel like a circus act if you’re not up for it. Switching to bilateral—two legs or two arms working together—boosts stability and lowers coordination demands.
Exercises it’s best for: All of them.
Change Body Angle or Lever Length
Sometimes, making a lift easier is as simple as adjusting how much of your body you’re moving. Shortening the lever—like bending the legs in a side plank—reduces the load on your core and upper body. It’s a small change that makes a big difference in exercise performance.
Exercises it’s best for: Push-ups, shoulder raises, planks, side planks, and pike or dip variations.
Reduce Impact or Speed
High-impact and fast-paced movements are great—when your body is ready for them. Slow the rhythm, skip the jumping, or replace explosive work with controlled strength reps. You get a similar training effect with half the joint stress and none of the “why do my knees hate me?” aftermath.
Exercises it’s best for: Box jumps → step-ups, Jump squats → regular squats, and Running → marching, brisk walking, or jogging.
Elevate the Starting Position
If you’re struggling at the bottom of a lift, where strength and mobility demands spike—start higher. Raising the position of your hands, hips, or bar shortens the ROM and makes it easier to do.
Exercises it’s best for: Deadlifts → blocks or rack pulls, and floor press variations.
Wrapping Up
The beauty of good exercises is that you can make them harder or easier in a heartbeat. Progressions challenge you when you need it, and regressions pull back when you need to.
Now, if I could only make split squats easier……..
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