Hmm, good thing I had the foresight to copy the text…
Thanks to some good suggestions here a while ago, I have made some progress; I’m not where I want to be yet, but I can do enough pushups and situps for them to be worthwhile now, instead of doing five and going “this is hard and sucky, I quit.” Some more questions have come up, though.
Anyone own a DURABLE resistance tube? Brand? The one I bought was nicely priced, but even following the recommended use I broke it in about a day! And if I were strong I wouldn’t have been using it…
If I get muscle pain- for instance, I was doing a lot of situps and ended up doing something to my stomach muscles that affected my ability to do both situps AND pushups- should I accept this as “good for me,” or lay of for a day until they recover?
At what point do you hit your limit with what you can do without equipment? Do pushups and situps become sort of redundant at some point? I checked out the campus gym now that I’m in good enough shape to not embarrass myself too bad, but it just reinforced the impression that gyms are not for me, but for sorority girls, jocks, and, later, yuppies. I don’t feel comfortable there. I also don’t want to look stupid trying to figure out the equipment, I’m pretty bad at figuring out how mechanical devices work just by looking.
What can I do for my torso besides situps? Purely for the sake of vanity (since I’m working out for a reason anyway, I figure I might as well look good) I’d like to get a flat, solid stomach and harder man-boobs- I mean, pectorals. There was some stuff I could do with a resistance tube for my upper body, but I can’t afford to shell out for a new one every couple days…
Keep these guidelines in mind: I don’t want to leave my apartment or buy anything that’s bulky or costs more than about $10.
If you get pain in a musclegroup you should lay of that group until it recovers. Othervise your just asking for real damage.
3/4. Look, I am not a expert or anything. I am just saying what I have heard and learned. Simply doing situps and pushups after a while doesn’t really increase your strength but your constitution.(Is that the right word?) Meaning your body can do more and more of them but doesn’t really increase muscle size. This is not a bad thing though, it just a matter of what your after.
There are cheap easy ways to increase the difficulty in doing situps and other similar movements though. Buy a elastic rope and use that to increase the resistance when doing your situps/backlifts etc.
If you have the cash for going to the gym I would do it. I go to a gym regularly and in my experience no one cares what weights you are lifting. Everyone must start somewhere and everyone in the gym has started some time. I don’t know how your gym do things but my gym have guides to the different machines at specified times of the day. Othervise don’t be afraid to ask someone close by.
If you really don’t want to go to the gym, I would recomend getting barbells and stuff like that. Sorry if I am vague but my vocabulary is not that big in english about stuff like that.
There are loads of exercises that can be done with weights. And many feel that free weights is the best way to exercise.
I know that stuff like that costs but not that much if you consider how long that stuff is gonna last without breaking
Anyway good luck and search the internet for some good working out at home tips. There are loads with sites with info. Just don’t believe everthing you read, including me.
1)Maybe that’s not quite right, I mean a tube-thing that you do exercises with, like you suggested with the elastic rope.
There are two reasons not to go to the (free) gym. First and foremost, I don’t want to. I just don’t like it. Call it a phobia, I don’t want to be seen exercising. Second, I do exercise sporadically. Check e-mail, 30 situps. Do some homework, 30 pushups. I don’t want to go “work out” for an hour, it’s not the way I work. My attention span is too short to do something so boring for so long voluntarily anyway.
I also don’t want to buy anything because I’ll be moving abroad in just a few months, so equipment wouldn’t be a good investment. Anyway, I do NOT need more stuff right now.
I’ve done searches, but I prefer to be able to get feedback as I go… Anyway, most sites aren’t tailored to the specifications I laid out.
There is no way to spot reduce. If you want a flat stomach, sit-ups won’t do anything. You’ll need to reduce your overall bodyfat to lose that spare tire. Sit-ups (I prefer crunches, less likely to hurt your back) may in fact make it worse as you increase the size of you abs and push your middle out more.
In order to lose bodyfat you must do cardio workout, such as running, biking, etc. combined with a sensable diet. Doing the exercised you mentioned (situps and pushups) are fine, but neither will help you lose weight and eliminate the spare tire. If you are going to only do sporatic anaerobic exercise you will never lose weight, unless you restrict your food intake.
The most important exercise you can do is a modified pushup, done vertically, pushing yourself away from the dinner table.
You can do resistance workouts with nothing more than a milk jug filled with water. That’s about 8 lbs, and you can do various exercises for your upper body with them and a sturdy chair. You can also do some lower body workouts, such as lunges with the same weights, and wall sits without any equipment.
But again, without cardio, you won’t see your washboard stomach.
Echoing what Telemark said, combining diet and excercise is SO important if you’re trying to lose weight or increase your general fitness level. While it may be easier to do a couple of push-ups here and there, to my mind, it’s much better to do your excercising in one big chunk, so you can keep your heart rate elevated.
A mix of cardio and weight training is also important–I, too, did the whole “only situps” thing, and it didn’t work for me at all. What’s helped me the most is biking to work, trying to eat more fruits and vegetables (hey, when you’re eating a salad, that’s one less burger and fries value meal you’re consuming, right?) and doing excercise videos and working with home weights to get cardio and strength training in. So far, I’ve lost about ten pounds, and I can see a definite change in my body.
I know you said you don’t want to buy any equipment, but have you thought about a bike? If you’re going to be living abroad soon, it could be a great mode of transportation for you in your new home. I’m not sure why you don’t want to leave the apartment, but the cheapest excercise you can get is walking or running around your neighborhood. It’s tempting to just want to work on one part of your body, but you have to subscribe to a broader excercise plan to truly see changes. It’s not easy, but you’ll be so proud of yourself once you start to see a difference. Good luck!
For your core, the abs and back, there is nothing like Pilates. Get a video or a book and a mat. And while it’s mostly women you see doing it, it was invented by a man, Joseph Pilates. (And it is pronounced pehlahtees)
Honestly, you will get your best workout options at the gym. Especially since it’s free for you, use it! Don’t like the people? Who cares? You’re there to work, not socialize, not make friends, not preen in front of your peers.
Generally, if you are working with substandard equipment (i.e. cheap) at home, you will have very limited success, and may wind up being disproportionate. Right now, you are not really exercizing your back or shoulder muscles, nor your leg muscles. Shoulders in particular are very tough to work out without weights, you kinda need something to lift over your head.
Try the gym for a little while, even just a half hour every other day can do some good.
Hershel Walker of NCAA, USFL, and NFL fame used to claim that he never did anything other than run, and do pushups and situps. He would do thousands per day, and was, in a word, chiseled. (I don’t know if I buy that story, but there it is).
To get more bang for your buck, try doing pushups with your feet up on a chair. Also try different hand positions, from touching thumbs, to as far apart as possible. Try them one-handed.
For abs, do bicycles (shoulders off the ground, hands behind your head, knees up, feet off the ground. Extend one leg, bring the other knee to your chest, touching that knee with the opposite elbow, then switch legs and elbows. (These are really tough at first, but get easier after a while.))
Get a chin-up bar. Very inexpensive ones are available that you can put in a doorway to do chin-ups and pull-ups. (Or find a place to do chin-ups – an overhang, monkey-bars, etc.) These are great work outs for your shoulders, upper-back, biceps, and, if you do leg raises at the same time, your abs.
