Exercising at home is convenient and can save you a lot of time. The biggest problem most people run into when exercising at home is that they feel limited in their selection of exercises because they have limited or no equipment.

By changing the speed with which you perform your exercises, you can create an unlimited number of progressions and variations without having to learn a single new exercise. There are three types of muscle action that must be defined to clearly describe the tempo. First, there’s the eccentric action, which describes lowering your body weight (imagine lowering yourself to the bottom of a push-up). Isometric action describes muscle contraction without any movement (imagine holding a push-up at the bottom). Concentric action refers to overcoming resistance (now imagine lifting yourself to the top of a push-up). The collective process of adding time to exercises is known as tempo.

These three phases of movement can be modified to burn more fat and build muscle, and there is real evidence that changing the pace can produce great results. The kings (and queens) of bodyweight exercise are the gymnasts. Gymnastics involves frequent use of slow eccentric movements (demonstrating body control on rings and bars), isometric pauses (iron crosses and other grips), and explosive eccentric and concentric actions (tumbling).

While the average person isn’t a gymnast, we can still apply these principles to home workout routines to increase the challenge without the need for more equipment. For example, instead of doing a simple pushup, you could lower yourself for 3 seconds, pause for 2 seconds at the bottom, and then explosively lift to the top, trying to launch your body into the air. This pushup is much more advanced (and challenging) than a normal pushup.

These principles can be applied to any type of exercise to enhance your workouts at home. Squats, lunges, push-ups, and abdominal exercises are great to start with. Start slow and experiment with a variety of tempos and pauses to find what works best for you.