Building muscle/lowering body fat

21katykat01

Hey everyone,

I've moseyed along so far on my weight loss journey in the middling range of exercise. I do a fair bit of brisk walking during the week, and one intense two-hour taekwondo session a week. Since I started the taekwondo in June, I've noticed a great improvement in my fitness and strength, but I want to take this further as my body fat % is still way too high.

I was wondering anyone has suggestions as to routines I can do at home to start building my strength and reducing my body fat. I don't have access to a gym and I don't have any free weights or anything, but if these are something that are essential, I can probably get a cheap set.

At the moment my daily routine consists of 50 sit-ups, 50 bicycles (legs and core) and as many press ups as I can do in 2 minutes (which isn't many at the moment, my upper body strength is awful!)

Please remember I am essentially a beginner with strength training and although my core strength is pretty good, the rest needs a lot of work.

Thanks for your help!
Katy

Pandorian

Body weight exercises (pushups, squats, lunges etc) will do wonders. No need for fancy gym equipment or pricey gear.

lowliar

Body weight exercises (pushups, squats, lunges etc) will do wonders. No need for fancy gym equipment or pricey gear.

What he said. Check out bodyrock.tv and see what she is doing. Sometimes she does all body weight, sometimes she uses some kettle bells, etc. It's mostly good plyometric stuff, pretty intense, but it won't kill you. The good thing about her is that she changes it up every week, and changing it up is the key to good fitness.

Laces_0ut

if you are serious about strength training you will need to lift actual weights. there are some ladies who post on MFP who have great advice hopefully they will be posting in this thread soon. you could also try the bodybuilding group for help as well.

this is an article about someone who got serious about strength training....very inspiring.

http://nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

21katykat01

It's mostly good plyometric stuff, pretty intense, but it won't kill you.

Sorry for my ignorance, but what's plyometric stuff?

kevin3344

This is an easy one: anything from Jillian Michaels. I'm doing 30 Day Shred and let me tell you it's a workout.

I picked up Ripped in 30 the other day and will probably order 6 Week 6 Pack after. You can probably pick them up on Amazon for $9 apiece.

AZackery

To build muscle, you have to eat foods that will help you build muscle and not just that, you have to eat a lot of food. I'm aiming to get lean and not build muscle. Maybe later on in life, I might aim to gain 5 pounds of muscle, but right now, I can't see myself eating 2500 and up calories a day. That will increase my fat and I don't want that.

You check your body fat percentage. Do you know how to see if you are gaining or losing pounds of fat and pounds of lean body mass?

Formula:

Weight x BF% = Pounds of fat
Weight - Pounds of fat = Pounds of lean body mass

Your lean body mass is the requirement for your body. You want to maintain that number or increase it. When a person aims to build muscle and follow things that will help them gain muscle, they will notice their pounds of lean muscle going up. This is how a lot of people determine if they have gained muscle. It takes time to gain muscle, just like it takes time to lose pounds of fat.

When a person gain muscle, their scale weight will go up and their body fat percentage will go down.

Add Tae Bo to your routine, especially Tae Bo Ripped Extreme (A workout for women) and Cardio Sculpt. This will help you. You can go to Collagevideo.com and check out the workouts. You can find these workouts at Walmart, Target, Barnes and Nobles, Collagevideo, Amazon, etc. They should be cheaper in the stores.

You can also buy Supreme 90 Day, if you like. It's a muscle confusion program. You get 10 dvds for $19.99. You can buy Supreme 90 Day at The Dollar General Store, Walmart, Target, Walgreens, Bed Bath and Beyond, online. Try getting it from the stores, instead of their site.

They have a website, Supreme 90 Day.com. You can view the workouts by clicking on Sneak Preview. Warning, a lot of people hates Tabata Inferno.

JamesBurkes

It's mostly good plyometric stuff, pretty intense, but it won't kill you.

Sorry for my ignorance, but what's plyometric stuff?

Explosive movements.

So a simple squat up and down is just a squat. Dropping down and then exploding up, is plyometric. You can apply it to most exercises although the form changes - for example with squats, you don't go anywhere near all the way down, for example.

However, when most people talk about plyometric training they usually just mean "jump" training, like the P90X "Plyometrics DVD" and similar - good, jumpy exercise that's hard work for your cardio system..