Get Stronger When You're Too Small to Lift Weights
Are you tired of having your parents tell you that you are too young or small to be lifting weights, yet you still want to get a little stronger? Here are some effective alternatives to dumbbells and barbells.
Steps
- Decide where you want to be stronger. (Arms, Legs, Abs.)
- Decide a time when you want to be working out. If your schedule allows it, the best time to work out is right before eating. This is because your muscles are more receptive to nutrients right after they've been exercised. If you find time in the morning before breakfast or at night before dinner, that's best. You may find it a bit harder to sleep if you exercise within two hours of bedtime, so try to do it earlier if you can (however, after that you will actually sleep better than you would if you hadn't worked out, which is another good reason to get serious about exercise).
- Research the best exercises for the part of your body you want to get stronger. The basics are push ups, pull ups, crunches, sit ups, and wall sits.
- Muscles need a few things to grow: They need to be repeatedly brought to exhaustion during exercise, they need good nutrients, and they need at least 16 hours to recover.
- Do a given exercise until you can't physically do it anymore. That's called a set. Wait a few minutes for your muscles to breathe, and then do another set (for a better workout, you can do a set of another exercise while you're waiting). Do 3-5 sets of a given exercise before calling it a day.
- Now this is important: Give your muscles at least 16 hours to recover before working out that muscle group again. Exercise breaks down muscles, allowing them to rebuild themselves stronger. If you don't give them time to rebuild, then you'll stagnate and won't ever really improve. A good routine to get into is to do legs one day, then arms the next, and so on. Once or twice a week, do neither.
- Perhaps most importantly, remember to eat well. Vegetables, leafy greens, fruits, whole grains, lean meats, eggs, dairy, all that healthy stuff you see on the food pyramid. Ideally, you want fruits, vegetables, and leafy greens to comprise about half of what you're eating by volume. If you're really serious about getting fit, stay away from processed foods, candy, sugared cereals, and fast food. If you can cut them out entirely, do so. You want to eat things that still look like they did when they came out of the ground (or animal). Try to stay away from foods you find in the center aisles at the grocery store. A hot pocket and a bag of chips isn't a healthy meal.
Tips
- It can help to do more than one body part at a time, just remember to not quit, and keep going.
- Remember to keep good form, even when you're nearing exhaustion. Always value quality over quantity. Doing a hundred rushed, sloppy push-ups isn't exercise, it's a waste of time.
- Food is important, especially vegetables. Fish and chips is unhealthy. Drinks are important as well; make sure you have plenty of water.
- Keep in mind, “no pain, no gain” is not true. Remember to rest enough between exercise bouts.
Warnings
- Never do it when you're injured or sick!
- Always warm-up before working out to slightly stretch your muscles and start blood flowing. Stretch afterwards to keep your muscles limber and make sure they develop correctly.
Things You'll Need
- Open space
