Become Stronger Quickly Without Going To The Gym
A reader asks…
How to become stronger relatively quickly without going to the gym?
I hate going to the gym, and it’s damn expensive as well. I want to build muscle mass without necessarily bulking up. I don’t care if it’s noticeable or not. I just want to get stronger. I’m 17 and skinny, 5’6 and 112 lbs. I have good abs but I suck at cardio and my arms are lame. Push ups are a pain for me.
Can anyone suggest some workouts, tips, whatever?
Yeah, I was considering martial arts as well, but the courses here start in september. Anyway, it’s not that I hate working out. I hate the gym. The place. I find it depressing 
Oh, and how about food?
I’m a big eater. I try to eat lots of proteins, but some times I end up eating whole cartoons of ice cream at once. I don’t gain weight, but I guess it’s not good for muscles..
Red meat, fish, milk, this kind of stuff, does it help?
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3 Responses to Become Stronger Quickly Without Going To The Gym
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@Jared provided a great answer. I’d like to add to that. Have you every used resistance bands? They’re not for sissy girly men. Click here for some muscle building, fat burning FREE resistance band workouts and you’ll see what I mean. Blake’s a great instructor. You’re really going to enjoy his show. There’s a new show every day.
To get stronger muscles but not bulk up a lot, do lots of reps with not so heavy weights. You could lift 10 pound weights while watching TV. Also, you won’t want to hear this, doing chores around the house can increase muscle strength.
Well — strength is a result of muscle fiber density/size. The more dense the more torsional strength per cross section of muscle. In other words the more packed with muscle your muscles are, (density) , the stronger without a huge increase in size. This only goes so far, then size is required to increase strength.. further most people will gain size to some degree, impossible to relegate it to ‘density’ alone.
With that said — muscles respond to stimuli — specifically you have to make microscopic tears in the fiber to gain strength. These tears heal, and increase strength. It is the built in adaptation the body does in response to stimuli. Men just happen to be stronger (even at the same weight/size as women) because our bodies have more ‘catabolic’ hormones/chemicals running around that give us more muscle mass with little effort. But I digress..
Again, stimuli — So, you have to apply ANY stimulus that causes the muscles to work harder than they typically do. Think when you are working out you need to ‘tear’ your muscle fiber. (Not tear a muscle, but make striations/micro tears/rips in the fiber so they will heal and be stronger the next time.) — Whether or not this helps motivate you,.. is irrelevant, it is the way the ‘process’ works.
You don’t want to use a Gym. That is fine –
However you say pushups are a ‘pain’ for you. You have to put forth some effort to obtain results.. any results. There is no EASY (relatively) way of getting ‘strong’. There is not tradeoff where you don’t *look* strong but can become strong easily. (The tradeoff being you don’t have to work very hard, on the flip side you won’t look as strong as you are.) —
That just doesn’t happen. — Maybe with loads of HGH/IGF-1/and Anabolic Steroids you could do some pretty lame workouts and gain some mass.. but that just isn’t practical.
You should start by using your body weight. I’ll give you a few exercises and start them .. give them several weeks.. and see how you are progressing. If you like what you see — add in more. (You can find complete workout regimens outlined online everywhere.
1) Any Single-Leg Exercise
The pistol (single-leg squat to the floor) is the most advanced 1-leg exercise. But you can also do assisted single-leg squats with a band, or onto a bench, or even with a Stability Ball between your back and the wall. (You may find single legged swats too difficult at first, and should opt to do weightless two legged squats until they are WAY too easy.. then move to single — Or assist your single leg to a ‘safe’ weight by supporting your weight with the wall, chair, or something else. (I know you feel invincible, but you can get injured easily when you aren’t in shape.. no point in having to wait 4-6 weeks for an injury to go away.. right?)
Leg exercises using only your bodyweight for resistance is an extremely effective for fat loss exercise and will burn up a lot of calories.
2) Decline Push-ups
These are harder than normal pushups, thanks to your elevated feet. And in this position, you can still use a close-grip to fatigue your triceps, a “piked-hip position” to build your shoulders, or even the Spiderman leg motion to work on your abs. Pushups are really one of the most versatile upper body bodyweight exercises
I know you hate them, but they are up there among the best bodyweight compound exercises. So get over it =) — I would include regular pushups to start if this is too advanced. (You can really work the muscles with your own weight if you get creative.. some of these exercises would put some of the biggest guys you know to the test.
3) Bodyweight Inverted Rows
**If you don’t have ANYTHING you can make to pull your body up. (If you don’t know what this looks like.. see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvkIaarnf0g ) Then pullups/chinups will suffice.
I choose these over chinups and pullups because bodyweight rows let your chest rest, while your back is strengthened. It’s the perfect compliment to a pushup. (I say this because you want to ‘balance’ your work and development. And with that kind of chest work.. this is the exact opposite motion, whereas pull-ups work the outer lats more.
Do 8-12 repetitions per exercise. Don’t rest between exercises. Go through this bodyweight circuit up to 3 times, resting 1-2 minutes after each circuit.
You can start with one time.. and work up to two times , and three.