Can You Build Muscle with Just a Barbell? the Only Equipment You’ll Need for the Gym

Following the announcement from N^o 10 giving the green light for gyms to re-open, it will be obvious that there have been some significant changes that could impact your preferred training style.

Many gyms are limiting their capacity, access to equipment and providing designated zones for individuals — to encourage social distancing. Limited access to equipment means getting your hands on a barbell could be your one-way ticket to making those post-lockdown gains. Here’s some advice on how you can build muscle using only a barbell.

Select the right weight. How heavy should your barbell be?

For now, it’s probably best to avoid attempting your old one-rep-max since gyms have re-opened – not only because social distancing rules may mean you can’t have a spotter, but because it’s unlikely you’ll be able to move the same weights that you were safely using pre-lockdown.

There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that your strength will have stuck around over the past 4-months, and if lost, it will return quickly with re-training, but it’s best to take it slow to stimulate your nervous system to return your muscular coordination and confidence with heavier weights.

Whether you’re new to the gym or returning, now may be the time to concentrate on training for hypertrophy (increase muscle size), as this type of training presents a low risk of injury (when proper technique is accounted for!) whilst also developing muscular size with considerable strength gains. Hypertrophy training involves using a rep range of between 8-12 repetitions whilst using loads around 60-80% of your one-rep-max. If you’re not familiar with your one-rep-max, then the weight should feel moderately heavy and you should feel fatigued (the burn!) once you reach your targeted number of repetitions, while feeling that you have around 3 more reps in the tank before failing.

Since hypertrophy is driven primarily by pushing yourself to (or close to) failure and the accumulation of overall training volume, it is appropriate to push yourself close to failure frequently – however, you should still regularly take rest days or de-load weeks to avoid overtraining syndrome.