Building muscle -no gym

sshintaku

I'm in the process of trying to build more muscle. I am fairly toned (see profile pic), but I'd like to be "ripped." I've been at this for about 5 months, mixing in yoga and interval videos (30 Day Shred, Fitness Blender Leg workouts), and running to lose excess fat. I've definitely toned up in these past few months and dropped the few extra pounds I was carrying. I carry most of my fat on my lower body. I eat an average of 1600cal/day and have been maintaining my weight. I am currently 5'5", 129lbs, 26 years old, female.

My two questions are:
is it possible to continue building more muscle with this type of routine or will I have to figure out a way to work in some resistance training?
Even though I am maintaining at 1600 a day, it seems a LOT lower than what most people here recommend for maintenance/building muscle. Thoughts or suggestions here would be appreciated.

ninerbuff

Muscle is built with progressive resistance and higher volume training along with a surplus (doesn't have to be big) because building muscle means adding mass.
Doing repetitive movements with no progressive resistance would build muscular endurance which is what you would achieve if you followed your current regimen.

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

ChaplainHeavin

I'm in the process of trying to build more muscle. I am fairly toned (see profile pic), but I'd like to be "ripped." I've been at this for about 5 months, mixing in yoga and interval videos (30 Day Shred, Fitness Blender Leg workouts), and running to lose excess fat. I've definitely toned up in these past few months and dropped the few extra pounds I was carrying. I carry most of my fat on my lower body. I eat an average of 1600cal/day and have been maintaining my weight. I am currently 5'5", 129lbs, 26 years old, female.

My two questions are:
is it possible to continue building more muscle with this type of routine or will I have to figure out a way to work in some resistance training?
Even though I am maintaining at 1600 a day, it seems a LOT lower than what most people here recommend for maintenance/building muscle. Thoughts or suggestions here would be appreciated.

I would suggest two things that have certainly helped me tone and build muscle without going to the gym or using weights.

1) A Push Up workout: I do push ups in three positions: Standard, V-Shaped and Hands Spread Out Wide. I began doing as many push ups as I could within 2 minutes for each position and have stretched it out to 5.5 minutes resulting in 600 push ups in one workout.

2) I follow up the workout with two, 8 minutes Plank Workouts. The links to these workouts are below.

Plank Workouts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mV-c3u2KAQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvzaUmLaTjI

SezxyStef

Muscle is built with progressive resistance and higher volume training along with a surplus (doesn't have to be big) because building muscle means adding mass.
Doing repetitive movements with no progressive resistance would build muscular endurance which is what you would achieve if you followed your current regimen.

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

This...non progressive load resistence training will get you leaner probably but you wont be building anything.

sshintaku

This makes sense, but does it make any difference if I switch up body weight routines when one gets easy? Example: 30 Day Shred got too easy, moved on to more advanced workout routine same style. Or is it basically the same because the "resistance weight" stays the same?

jwdieter

You can modify bodyweight workouts to provide progressive resistance. Weights are just a lot easier.

Also have to eat at a surplus to build muscle.

Chaskavitch

It is absolutely easier to build muscle lifting weights, but you can definitely build a lot of muscle using body weight workouts or using resistance bands. The only site I can think of right now is breakingmuscle, but if you look online for body weight exercises, there are a ton of great free routines. As long as a lift or move is difficult, especially if you're struggling toward the end, it will probably build muscle. Stepping up your routine like you've been doing is the right idea. I've also found that for leg exercises, going deeper into the squat or lunge makes a HUGE difference in how difficult it is, and which muscles it works. Have you been seeing a difference in your muscle size/shape when you switch to a new routine, or is it just fat loss revealing muscles you already had?

MagnumBurrito

Check out Convict Conditioning. Great progressive BW workouts.

sshintaku

It is absolutely easier to build muscle lifting weights, but you can definitely build a lot of muscle using body weight workouts or using resistance bands. The only site I can think of right now is breakingmuscle, but if you look online for body weight exercises, there are a ton of great free routines. As long as a lift or move is difficult, especially if you're struggling toward the end, it will probably build muscle. Stepping up your routine like you've been doing is the right idea. I've also found that for leg exercises, going deeper into the squat or lunge makes a HUGE difference in how difficult it is, and which muscles it works. Have you been seeing a difference in your muscle size/shape when you switch to a new routine, or is it just fat loss revealing muscles you already had?

In my upper body I've definitely been building muscle. I would say I've just been losing fat in my lower body, as my legs have always been fairly muscular (just covered in chub haha)

sshintaku

Check out Convict Conditioning. Great progressive BW workouts.

Looks good, thanks!