Newbie needs help: Can you get a good workout with by just doing pullups, pushups?

[inkwachemis]

Hey everyone, I'm new here. I'm 24 yrs. old, 5' 10", 150lbs. I'm pretty skinny, but I weighed even less a year ago and managed to put on some weight in the last year (about 20 lbs) by just eating ALOT without working out. I think I'm now at a good point to start building up a little bit in muscular tone as I'm starting to get a small gut now, sucks! I'm not really looking to totally get beefed up now, I'm just looking to get good muscle definition and maybe gain about 10 or so more pounds at the most in muscle mass. So my question is, how does a newbie in all this start? Will doing sets of pushups, pullups, doing the ab-wheel, and curling some decently weighted barbells do the trick? What would be a good "at-home" week-long regimine that I could do that would accomplish what I'm looking for. Am I totally off the mark here? How many sets of everything should I do? And how often per week? And since I have a really fast metabolism, anyone have any good diet ideas that would help supplement what I'm after? Thanks everyone.
-jeff

 

[Enock]

That depends where your at, Some guys can barely do any pushups at that point yes they will do quite alot for someone that doesn't want to get at all serious about lifting. Using all the different variations (wide close ect..) you can target chest/tris, and w/ some dumbbells you can incorporate quite alot of other excercises.

If you don't want to buy many weights get some dumbells. After pushups become to easy you can further train chest using your dumbbells that you also use for bis/tris. via, flys the torque will make those little dumbbells give alot of weight onto your chest if your arms are nearly all the way extended out. Chins and pullups can go a long way for a good back, you don't tend to grow out of doing them very easily, if you do you can use a rope and wrap it around your legs (bend your legs to hold onto the rope) and put the weight on the other end. Works great considering chins are hard to beat as a back excercise even when you are a member to a full blown gym. Basically most excercises have variations that make them harder you want to look into what makes them hard to perform, since that way you can use the fewest amount of weights and cover the largest basis.

Example,

Get a pair 25IB and a 35IB dumbbells

day1.

Chest/Tris.
Pushups (unless that become so easy its stupid)
Flys, remember you can greatly vary the amount of weight used in these by the spread of your arms (torque) I.g. if you just do it like a dumbbells press its going to be way to easy however if you've got a complete spread on your arms out to the side its much harder). It helps to either do these on a bench or one the ground w/ some pillows under your back so that your elbows if need can drop below your shoulder line

Kickbacks
Skull Crushers

day2.
back/bis

Chins/pulls ups (w/ or w/o weights)
curls
(any simple variations of the two)

day3.
Shoulders/abs

dumbbells shoulder press
can't think of there name put the damn things whereit looks like your trying to take flight, these will work quite well with limited weights again because of torque.
crunches/reverse crunches
weighted crunches

day4.
legs

This one is kind of a bitch you can't do to much w/o having to much weight. Basically you can do lunges holding the dumbells, that way since it only works each leg at a time the leg is forced to carry more weight.

calve raises, get a block and a tall chair, stand on the edge of the block w/ only one foot hold a weight in the hand of the foot side you are working use the other hand on the chair to stablize your self. (other option is to hold a weight in each hand and spring upwards actually like jumping but w/o bending your knees (except mabe a little for landing so you don't hurt your self) basically your using the extra force that is placed on your calves for exceleration. This can also be done 1foot at a time to increase difficulty (to be honest its hard to add size to calves, this isn'y going to help you add 10IBs much)

Just to warn you, if you manage to gain 10 decent pounds, you won't stop your going to get a gym member hip or start building your self a decent stock of equipment ITS ADDICTIVE! have fun

 

[endpoint]

Is there something that is stopping you from joining a gym......./purchasing a home one (just a bench is enough...nothing fancy second hand even).

You will reach a point where the body weight exercises dont do anything. But if you have a couple of dumbells you can slap on more and more weight and never grow out of them.

A friend of mine built a good body with the following:

two milk crates
a plank of wood
bars and plates
rafters on the roof


thats all it took. He squated using just the dumbells.

But you can last a little while on bodyweight exercises

 

[MonStar1023]

I dont personally think so but a lot of people agree that you can. Pushups and pullups are bodyweight type exercises. Weight resistance is really important in gaining mass if you ask me. Just my $02.

 

[inkwachemis]

hey, thanks for the replies so far. Since I'm new to all this, I"m kinda unfamilar to what exactly the names of the particular exercises are. Is there a site where I can look up the name of the exercise and be properly instructed in how to do them? Oh and yeah, I have thought about buying a simple bench that I can work with, and I probably will. But for now, since I'm basically out of shape and all, will bodyweight exercises do some good? Should I take any protein supplements? thanks
-jeff

oh yeah- would doing a bunch of pushups, pullups everyday be overtraining?

 

[zen42]

Pullups are a great exercise! Do them in a smooth and controlled manner. Once you can do sets of twelve, start doing weighted pullups.

Pushups are good, but dips are great. As you get stronger do weighted dips.

Don't underestimate the effictiveness of compound movements, even 'bodyweight' ones.

Enock's suggestion is one good way to start putting on muscle.

Zen

 

[buddha1]

Hey i guess i sort of come from the old school. I use to swim competitively so I didnt start lifting weights until after 3rd year in college. I think bodyweight exercices are great for muscular strength and endurance. B/c my swim coaches use to have hissy fits b/c i wouldnt lift i had to do bodyweight exercises. I use to do 1000 pushups and situps , 200 dips , 100 pullups , 500 squats, and 100 lunges, run and swim......pound for pound I was very strong.5-6 times /week. First 2 weeks sucks b/c feel sore all the time but starts to get better from there on out. And to tell you the truth everyone thought I was always lifting till my friends explained i never did. And some of the most incledible pumps in your life. Lift smart, Hot hard-------------buddha1

 

[nacius]

I used to do the same stuff Budda. I did the 1000 push-ups ever other day and the 30 minutes of on/off crunches for swimming. My friends thought I was so strong because I was so cut. It wasn't until I went with those same friends to the gym that they realized (am i did too) how weak I was. All I was, was cut from body weight exercises. I did have awsome tri's from the pushups though.

 

[bigpoppadrew]

http://www.workout.com/exerciseZone/exercises.asp?nav=1&typeid=1 this is a good site to learn what the names are and what muscles they work. You really should buy a bench and some free weights. I do everything I need with just a universal gym, a bench, dumbbells, a barbell and lots of weights. You don't really need the universal gym though if you don't have the $$. Read all you can on this board and check out the diet board as well, lots to learn here. If you are 150lbs you should consider more then just 10 lbs... think more like 20 or 30 but take it 5 or 10 lbs at a time. Good luck bro remember to enjoy your workouts and try to increase your workout everytime and you will notice gains pretty quick.

 

[liftah]

There's no doubt that you will get some basic development with what you are talking about doing. But, there's no way you're going to get the whole package, even ignoring the lower body. Leave the pull ups in there. Throw in some bench presses, military presses, skullcrushers and you should be able to see another 10 pounds in no time. If it was me, I would be doing squats and deadlifts in addition to that, but, hey, thats me.