Pleasure or pain?

Nathan DeMetz has a funny definition of love. He uses the word to describe the CrossFit workout “Murph,” which includes 100 pullups, 200 pushups and 300 air squats. Oh, and it starts and ends with running a mile. “It’s a beautiful workout,” says DeMetz, an online personal trainer based in Goshen, Indiana, who plans to complete the routine once a week for the next six months on top of his regular workouts. The commitment is proof that you don’t need equipment to step up your exercise game. “There are many ways to increase difficulty” of bodyweight workouts, DeMetz says. Here are his and other trainers’ main methods:

1. Pause.

For a runner, faster might be better. For a weightlifter, slower equals strength. Try, for example, pausing at the bottom of a squat or when lowered in a pushup, DeMetz recommends. By adding extra time — technically called an isometric hold — “you are forcing the muscle to work harder and eliminating any momentum that may have normally been used,” explains Christina LaGrega, a personal trainer and group fitness instructor at two Life Time locations in New York state. Not impressed? Try pausing at the top of a pullup bar or even when lowered in a handstand pushup (a wall-supported handstand plus a pushup). “You’re in for a real burner,” DeMetz says.

2. Clap.

Think of this variation as practice for what you’ll want to do when the workout is over: cheer. At the bottom of a pushup, push up forcefully so that you gain enough momentum to lift your hands off the floor and clap before lowering back down. You can also apply the idea — clap or no clap — to squats by jumping up instead of just standing up, or even to pullups by hoisting yourself up quickly enough to take your hands off the bar at the top. This type of training — plyometrics — builds muscular power. “If you are not accustomed to the exercise,” DeMetz says, “you’re in for a tough workout.”

3. Adjust the angle.

If you could do your normal pushups in a narrow space just wide enough for your body, try doing them in a way that requires the type of wide, uneven space a starfish might need. For instance: Put your left hand way out to the side, but keep your right hand directly under you. Or, shift where you place one of your feet. Or both. “By changing angles,” LaGrega says, “different muscle fibers are worked within the same muscle group.” Try adjusting the angles on other exercises like lunges and squats, too.

4. Get off balance.

You don’t need a weight to trick your body into thinking you’ve added some to your plank. All you need is to hold an arm, leg or both off the ground. “By creating imbalance in a plank, you are producing greater muscle activation,” LaGrega says. You can also create imbalance by planking with your legs elevated on a chair or box, or by lunging onto a step instead of flat ground. Only your brain will know that your body didn’t go to the gym.

5. Do it all.

Doing 20 squats is one thing; doing 20 squats, then 20 pushups, followed by 20 triceps dips is, of course, a more challenging thing. “Adding multiple exercises together creates constant guessing in the body as to ‘what is next,’ as they create multiple movements,” LaGrega says. As a result, you’ll train your muscles to work together and move more efficiently. Want a more choreographed string of movements? LaGrega suggests starting in a plank and walking your feet up a wall behind you until you’re in a supported handstand. Then, walk both your feet down and your hands out until you’re in a plank again. Finish with a pushup and, because you asked for a challenge, repeat.

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5 Ways to Make Any Bodyweight Exercise Crazy Challenging originally appeared on usnews.com