No weight room but want to bulk...help!!!

sarahnc_

Title says it all...I recently lost about 20 lbs, and I'm happy with my weight but...I'm "skinny fat".
I have NO *kitten*, and yet still have some stomach flab. I'm down to about 24% body fat. I really want to bulk up, but I'm scared of gaining all fat instead of muscle if I don't have a weight room at my disposal.
These are my questions:

1) Are body weight exercises sufficient to put on some muscle mass?
2) Also I find it VERY hard to hit my protein macros (I live with a french host family...they eat a lot of bread, not much lean protein.) I'm currently living abroad (it's temporary) so when I go home I will be able to use weight lifting equipment etc....but do I start now, or would it be a waste of money (whey is super expensive in France, and my funds are limited...)

waldo56

Yes, bodyweight exercises will work fine. That's pretty much all I do and I bulk just fine.

To do so though you want to stick to low reps, the hardest exercises you can do. If you are doing 10+ reps of anything, move on to a harder variation of the exercise.

sarahnc_

Yes, bodyweight exercises will work fine. That's pretty much all I do and I bulk just fine.

To do so though you want to stick to low reps, the hardest exercises you can do. If you are doing 10+ reps of anything, move on to a harder variation of the exercise.

Good to hear! Any specific recommendations? I've been doing assisted pull-ups, chin-ups, push-ups, dips, inverted rows an bodyweight squats...are those difficult enough? I feel like with some (all but pullups /chin-ups) I can reach 10 rep too easily?

cwolfman13

Yes, bodyweight exercises will work fine. That's pretty much all I do and I bulk just fine.

To do so though you want to stick to low reps, the hardest exercises you can do. If you are doing 10+ reps of anything, move on to a harder variation of the exercise.

Good to hear! Any specific recommendations? I've been doing assisted pull-ups, chin-ups, push-ups, dips, inverted rows an bodyweight squats...are those difficult enough? I feel like with some (all but pullups /chin-ups) I can reach 10 rep too easily?

Convict Conditioning is pretty brutal....You Are Your Own Gym is also a valuable resource.

Sreneesa

Yes, bodyweight exercises will work fine. That's pretty much all I do and I bulk just fine.

To do so though you want to stick to low reps, the hardest exercises you can do. If you are doing 10+ reps of anything, move on to a harder variation of the exercise.

So refreshing to hear as seems everyone always says around these parts you gotta lift heavy.

RunDoozer

Yes, bodyweight exercises will work fine. That's pretty much all I do and I bulk just fine.

To do so though you want to stick to low reps, the hardest exercises you can do. If you are doing 10+ reps of anything, move on to a harder variation of the exercise.

So refreshing to hear as seems everyone always says around these parts you gotta lift heavy.

Bodies are heavy.

Sreneesa

Yes, bodyweight exercises will work fine. That's pretty much all I do and I bulk just fine.

To do so though you want to stick to low reps, the hardest exercises you can do. If you are doing 10+ reps of anything, move on to a harder variation of the exercise.

So refreshing to hear as seems everyone always says around these parts you gotta lift heavy.

Bodies are heavy.

Should have said heavy weights..lol

Good point.

ninerbuff

Yes, bodyweight exercises will work fine. That's pretty much all I do and I bulk just fine.

To do so though you want to stick to low reps, the hardest exercises you can do. If you are doing 10+ reps of anything, move on to a harder variation of the exercise.

THIS. Body weight can be leveraged to make just about any exercise more progressively difficult. You might also consider equipment like TRX suspension training (which uses body weight only) too. It takes up little space and can be taken anywhere since it weighs only 2lbs.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

piratesluver

You can also try things like crunches, sit-ups, lunges, leg lifts, squats etc for toning.

waldo56

Yes, bodyweight exercises will work fine. That's pretty much all I do and I bulk just fine.

To do so though you want to stick to low reps, the hardest exercises you can do. If you are doing 10+ reps of anything, move on to a harder variation of the exercise.

Good to hear! Any specific recommendations? I've been doing assisted pull-ups, chin-ups, push-ups, dips, inverted rows an bodyweight squats...are those difficult enough? I feel like with some (all but pullups /chin-ups) I can reach 10 rep too easily?

What are you doing for pushups? The general pushup progression typically goes: standard pushups (elbows in) -> decline (feet elevated) pushups -> diamond pushups -> uneven pushups (one arm in, one out) -> incline wide leg one arm pushups -> wide leg one arm pushups -> narrow leg one arm pushups

If you are going bench dips, switch to doing parallel dips when they get to easy (using 2 chairs is a common at home apparatus for this).

Wall handstands are good to start doing as well, once you move on from decline pushups. At first work on the amount of time you can hold it. Once they start getting easy, go get a stack of books, put it under your head, and do pushups, progressively removing books until you can go all the way down to the ground (back to the wall is safer for handstand pushups).

Inverted rows can be replaced with the toes to bar or knees to elbow exercises (both are horizontal pulls like a row) when they get too easy, on both those exercises you should strive over time to do them as slowly and momentum free as possible.

In the legs, move to split squats at first, then start working on doing pistol squats. You'll get the most mileage pistol squat wise by using a chair or lower object, then sitting down and standing up using pistol squat form (eventually you'll be able to do them on the floor).

Additionally, you can also use a chair and do step ups (the deeper the step up, the better, try to lock out the back leg and lift your back toes, so the back leg gives little to no assistance). They work the glutes/hams a little better than squats do.

littlekitty3

Check out Bodyrock.. It's free, mostly body weight, and I'm pretty sure you can use things around the house like kitty litter for weights.

Linnaea27

I'm commenting to follow. I don't have easy access to a gym (I live in a very rural area) and I'm trying to get stronger too! Interesting suggestions here.

cwolfman13

Yes, bodyweight exercises will work fine. That's pretty much all I do and I bulk just fine.

To do so though you want to stick to low reps, the hardest exercises you can do. If you are doing 10+ reps of anything, move on to a harder variation of the exercise.

So refreshing to hear as seems everyone always says around these parts you gotta lift heavy.

the reason being that regardless, progressive overload is required...if you're just doing the same sets of the same push-ups for example, over time, you're not going to have a training response because you're not progressively overloading your body and challenging yourself. You have to make them harder and harder and harder to do (you really don't want to be doing tons or reps) so this can be problematic for some, especially those that are unfamiliar with using different techniques for the same exercise to make it more difficult. Conversely, with weights...you just throw on another plate every training cycle to efficiently overload your body's capabilities. Weight training is a very efficient way of progressively overloading your entire body. You have to have more knowledge and more imagination to do so with body weight.

lrmall01

Nerdfitness has some pretty good bodyweight write ups to get you started:

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/12/09/beginner-body-weight-workout-burn-fat-build-muscle/

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2012/08/23/batman-bodyweight-workout/

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/12/17/advanced-body-weight-workout-warning-this-will-kick-your-*kitten*/

You didn't ask, but keep in mind you also need to eat enough if you really want to bulk. If your using MFP, be sure to have it set so you gain weight, not lose.

Ashes_To_Beast

Yes, bodyweight exercises will work fine. That's pretty much all I do and I bulk just fine.

To do so though you want to stick to low reps, the hardest exercises you can do. If you are doing 10+ reps of anything, move on to a harder variation of the exercise.

Good to hear! Any specific recommendations? I've been doing assisted pull-ups, chin-ups, push-ups, dips, inverted rows an bodyweight squats...are those difficult enough? I feel like with some (all but pullups /chin-ups) I can reach 10 rep too easily?

You should check out video's on youtube from " Athlean-X " the guy has some really good bodyweight or weighted exercises including plank variations that just kill the core.

Ledgehanger

So refreshing to hear as seems everyone always says around these parts you gotta lift heavy.

Well... my problem is that when I do body weight exercises, I *am* lifting heavy... /sigh.

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

marjoleina

Thanks, no gym membership money here, so am working on this at home and have no weights. Going to try these

rocketfish74

What waldo up top said. Although I don't feel you need that many different types of push ups to get results. Here are the variations I rotate around every week. I'll only list a few that you can actually google. Some exercises I learned in jiu-jitsu that use their own terminology.

Pushups: standard, claps, medicine ball, hindu (aka divebomber) --> when you get good try one arm or weighted (stuff backpack with water bottles)

Core: superman (back exercise), staight leg lifts, abdominal twist (with or without weight), jack knife

Legs: everything waldo said - pistol squats are great. You'll get to the point you won't need a chair support and just do single leg squats. Deep lunges are terrific and harder than regular body squats, jump squats are awesome too.

Cardio and full body: burpees burpees burpees!! You can incorporate any of the push up variations and leg variations into your burpee routine. When you go down, do a push variation. When you jump up, do a leg variation. Try 10x10 to start.

To make any exercise harder, do slow motion. slow down each movement to a 5 second count instead of doing them at regular speed. You'll up the intensity and see good results.

Also always always maintain proper form with full range of motion. All the up, all the way down. You're wasting time and cheating yourself by not following through on the movements. Not to mention increasing risk of injury.

edit: btw u look great in your photo

waldo56

What waldo up top said. Although I don't feel you need that many different types of push ups to get results.

What I outlined was a progression; you'd only work one at a time, moving on when you can. There is no need to do a lot of different exercises each workout, if anything that is couterproductive.

What I wrote out is still all pretty basic stuff, the rabbit hole goes very, very deep. Intros to most of the high load upper body pathways can be found in one of the links posted above:
http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2012/08/23/batman-bodyweight-workout/

In the lower body, when everything else gets too easy you can add weight to pistol squats and step ups (don't need a lot), and start doing shrimp squats and natural hamstring curls.

JoRocka

listen to waldo- he is the body weight king.

zilfig64

Nedfitness.com - good site - I use their progression, but add a lot of other exercise - especially for core, and pushups - diamond pushups, shuffle pushups, etc., to add length and variety to the routine.

Here is a good infograph on some exercises - you can youtube the individual ones to get good form examples:

http://www.strengthstack52.com/periodic-table-of-bodyweight-exercises/

and if you want to be either motivated or intimidated - check out this video: (or search you tube "44 best bodyweight exercises" ) this guy is unreal!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POdzasJklxw

msthang444

what about kettle bells? have you thought about those?

sarahnc_

Thank you for the awesome responses guys! Going to revamp my weekly routine now with all these great resources.

to whoever suggested kettle bells- I would love to BUT i have no gym and no weights...had resistance bands but I broke the handles such is the life when you're abroad for only a year, and you use all your money for travel....

qballjr13

I second the Convict Conditioning. I use these ideas for the night that I cant get to the gym. The book is great and takes you from baby steps all the way through into extreme exercises...one arm pull ups, one handed handstand pushups etc. It is meant to guide you and train not only your muscles but your tendons and everything else that holds your body together to make you the strongest you can possibly be.

belgerian

Interested in what others have to say

abby_g77

Number one way to gain/lift a butt is to do squats! Do something like 3 sets of 20 then just keep building on to that. You need to make sure you doing them with correct form to prevent injury. Also do things like mountain climbers, crunches, lunges, push ups. There are so many variations of every one of these exercises. I follow fitness pages on instagram for ideas.

No_Finish_Line

Yes, bodyweight exercises will work fine. That's pretty much all I do and I bulk just fine.

To do so though you want to stick to low reps, the hardest exercises you can do. If you are doing 10+ reps of anything, move on to a harder variation of the exercise.

good advice. leg stuff might be challenging to find stuff that you truly reach failure at ten reps, even one legged stuff.

might have to get creative, or just go extreamly deep into the movements

No_Finish_Line

incline wide leg one arm pushups -> wide leg one arm pushups -> narrow leg one arm pushups

incline one arm is really supposed to be easier then flat?

waldo56

Yes, bodyweight exercises will work fine. That's pretty much all I do and I bulk just fine.

To do so though you want to stick to low reps, the hardest exercises you can do. If you are doing 10+ reps of anything, move on to a harder variation of the exercise.

good advice. leg stuff might be challenging to find stuff that you truly reach failure at ten reps, even one legged stuff.

might have to get creative, or just go extreamly deep into the movements

The more upright you do single leg squats, the harder they become (the issue can be forced with hand position and nonworking leg position). Full pistol squats are ultra deep squats.

Working up to 10 pistol squats will keep most people busy for a while (you can also magnify the effectiveness of higher rep work using rest-pause techniques, which works especially well in the legs when bulking, though that is a topic way beyond the question at hand).

Other squatting variations like shrimp squats are harder. Done with the working leg elevated to allow for full squat depth, they are very challenging.

With all BW squatting forms though, beyond basic pistol squats they become more quad dominant as they get harder.

Pistol squats are very easy to weight; due to being single leg work it doesn't take much weight to greatly increase the difficulty (plus weight position makes a big difference). Weight vests, KB's, or DB's will help keep the difficulty up. Someone who can do a single pistol holding 50% of their body weight in DB's on their shoulders (DB front rack) is really, really frickin strong.

OTOH natural hamstring curls offer an extreme level of difficulty for the posterior chain. RARE is a person strong enough to do 10 good form unassisted reps with their hands held overhead (the hardest variation). Due to the way the force transfer is, the exercise big time transfers to sprinting speed (I know the Green Bay Packers use them in offseason strength and conditioning program).

waldo56

incline wide leg one arm pushups -> wide leg one arm pushups -> narrow leg one arm pushups

incline one arm is really supposed to be easier then flat?

I suspect that you have your inclines and declines backwards.

Incline = hands elevated. Decline = feet elevated.

JoJo__Fit

You lost me at body weight exercise!