Building muscle

amerr
amerr Posts: 190
edited September 27 in Fitness and Exercise
I'm basically at a weight that I'm happy with, within 4 pounds or so. My question is how do I build muscle and lower my body fat? Can I do it at home without gym equipment and a trainer? What types of things should I do? Do I need to keep doing cardio or focus more on strength training? Help please!

Replies

  • chevy88grl
    chevy88grl Posts: 3,937 Member
    Strength training will build muscle. I've been focusing more on that and less on cardio - and I see a difference already. :)
  • kevinsherrell
    kevinsherrell Posts: 21
    Good old fashioned calisthenics are great for building muscle and staying lean.

    Pushups, Sit-ups, Jumping Jack, Flutter Kicks, Body Squats - all give a great heart and body workout.

    And they can be done anytime – no gym needed :)
  • KaizokuNoMaiku
    KaizokuNoMaiku Posts: 164
    Keep doing your cardio, it stimulates your metabolism and it also helps speed up your muscle recovery because the nutritions are going faster through your body. The story about doing cardio will decrease your muscle is just a load of bullsh*t unless you do more then 2 hours of intense cardio or 8 hours of normal cardio per day.

    You can do it without a Gym or Trainer but ofc it will be harder then when you have those availible because for 1 anny good Gym should have a bttr type of scale that also tells you your % Body Fat / Fat Free Mass / Muscle etc etc.
    And this will let you track your progress much easy'r.

    On the types of exercises that you should be doing, I am afraid I cant help you on that I only know how to train at a Gym ( Or at home but with the equipment ).
    But Push-Ups and Pull-Ups are 2 great exercises that work a lot of muscle groups.
    Just remember that having good form is more important then doing more weights because if you are doing say a bicep curl and you do stuff like swing your arms or set your shoulder more to the front then quickly pull it back while using your deltoids to pull the weight your not working that bicep at all ( See this at the Gym at least once per week ).

    You lower your bodyfat by eating less calories but making sure you get enuff nutritions for your muscle's.
    Your body has 3 places where it can get energy, your stomach your body's fat reserves and your muscle.
    If your stomach doesnt have enuff your body will start using your fat reserves and if still not enuff your body will canibalize your muscle's. Basicly what you want is to eat small meals but more often say every 3 hours orso so you can max out your metabolism and keep using your fat reserves aswell during the day.

    Now with building more muscle do you mean you wanna just get the six pac thing going or wanna actually go towards bodybuilding ? ( And I dont mean Arnold big but just getting all your muscle's somewhat bigger so to speak ).

    Best of luck ! =)
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,331 Member
    Yes you can build muscle at home. You can even build muscle with body weight exercises. It won't be quick, but you can do so. While I don't have a straight muscle building workout with body weight on my blog here, I do have a more beginner body weight workout which might work for you. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/rileysowner
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