Need help with equipmentless workouts

hello everyone, i am new to this website and i have been reading some posts which have made interested enough to register. but anyway,

i am 19yrs old, 5"10 around 140lb(very thin/skinny) , with little to no exercise training except push ups and minimal running. what i am trying to achieve is to increase strength/endurance, build size and make my mile times a little shorter.

i have work and school which doesnt really give me much time to visit a local gym and use weights so i do what i can at home but its not really effective.

i am trying to get myself ready for the marine corp and hopefully leaving for bootcamp early next year.

thanks for your help/input/advice

you don't have any equipment at home?
no dumbells? no pull-up bar?

You have a routine ?
you have a diet plan?

what is your timeframe for working out (ie. how many hours daily/weekly) ?

other than that can't really give you much, except eat more train harder....

I'm in a similar situation, I don't really have access to any equipment, and I only started working out a few months ago. Here's what I can tell you from my experience.

First and foremost, you need to eat. 3 meals a day at minimum, and tons of carbs and protein. I'll often make a cup of rice a day and eat half of it at breakfast and half at lunch. Mixed with a scrambled egg for the protein, I usually put some soy sauce on for flavor. It's tasty and quick, others can probably give you better diet advice, this is just what's been working for me. Also eat after you workout, as soon as you can, I've read this is the best time to do it.

As for workout, we have a very similar height and weight, but I'm 7 years older than you (that means I'm an old man). You're lucky as you can probably beat the hell out of your joints without worry, but it might just be a matter of working up to it. It's taken me about 3 months to get to a point where I don't hear a bunch of pops and clicks when I'm doing my exercises. You'll have to see how much you can handle, but for running the best I can do right now is every other day -- I'm hoping to work into something better.

I think the marines test you on a 2 mile run, I could be wrong, but I know it's more than 1 mile. I suggest finding a route to run, at least twice a week, and try to build up to 2 miles. I have a pond I run around, I started at 1 lap at first, and was completely winded, but now I'm up to 4 laps and ready to move into 5. I like to do a nice and long warm up walk and cool down, I think it helps avoid injury. I messed up my knees when I first started doing it and couldn't run for 2 weeks, so it's important to take care of yourself.

For pushups I try to do 3 sets of 20 a day, but I think I may be graduating to another set soon. I know someone on this board knows what the bootcamp tests are like, but I think it's something crazy high like 50 pushups in 2 mins is average. Though if I were you I'd worry more about my form at first. One trick I got from the lifters here was a breathing technique where you hold your breath during the reps. You'll obviously not going to do this for 20 pushups, but I started with 5 pushups holding my breath, rest in the up position for a second while I exhale/inhale, repeat. I've actually seen improvement and can do 7 pushups holding my breath. Someone else here could explain it better than I could, I just find it's easier to focus on the pushups when I don't have to worry about working my lungs.

You're also supposed to do situps, but I havn't been doing those lately since they're easy for me to do, so I never feel like I get a work out and I get bored easily. Actually, if you have a good situp plan I would love to hear it.

So yea, keep in mind I'm a beginner too, so don't do anything I said without reading up on it first. If I'm wrong about something, someone feel free to correct me.

I'd invest in a pull-up bar. It's hard to work the back/use the shoulders through that part of their range of motion otherwise.

I'd also personally want a stabilization ball. Together those two things will cost like $40. For hamstring curls if no other reason. I personally can't live without a skipping rope. They're cheap too.

With those two things and basically anything heavy you can get a good workout. You won't put on size like you were lifting heavy ass weights, but you'll get fit. Also you'll be able to do functional training which will actually probably be better in a lot of cases if you are training specific motions (ie martial arts).

For major muscle groups: Squats/jumpsquats, hamstring curls, mountain climbers, shuttle steps, sprawls, muay thai squats, box jumps.

Push-ups, dive-bombers, some kind of weight carry (sprint short distances while holding like 40-50lbs over your head), bear crawls.

Pull-ups. <- bis/back. Key.

Core: Stab ball knee tucks, pikes, stab ball crunches, bicycle kicks, trunk twists (with a weight), leg raises.
Personally what I always come back to for core is: 30 secs of fast crunches, 30 secs of legs off the ground crunches, 30 secs each side of oblique crunches. Then PLANK till failure. Planks are, as far as I know, the BEST core exercise. I only do the crunches first so I don't have to plank for too long.

There are so many more options/possible exercises. It's more fun when you set it up as circuit/have a partner. AND, you don't need the same recovery time for calisthenics as you do for resistance training so you can do those pushups/pullups EVERYDAY YEAH.

to denver,
I have no equipment whatsoever other than a floor and a wall (haha)
i am most likely investing a pull-up bar and some dumbells to help me out, so far for exercise routines, i have been looking at blazindave's pushup routines and i am able to do 30normal/20 diamond/20 wide pushups/20 military with a breaktime inbetween each for about 3-5 minutes, for running i use the treadmill, showing that i am doing 8:30-9 minute miles, but my goal is to reach atleast 7, but then i also know running outside is completely different.

for diet plans, i only eat twice a day because in the morning i usually dont eat before school which i am guessing is not healthy for me if i am planning to grow. when i do eat i consume meats/fruits/salads that my lovely mother prepares for me :) , i have also started to include egg moreoften.

thanks to everyone for your thoughts, its really helping me out i will sure include your guy's inputs in my routines.

firstly about your diet.
You need to eat breakfast, it's the most important meal of the day period.
(well this is about to change if you make it into the army, you'll realise how important it actually is).
And you're going to need to eat more, and more often. Eat snacks (healthy snacks), you're skinny guy and you will be needing all the calories you can possibly eat (with healthy food). You got like 3-4 months before the bootcamp, in that time you can't dramatically over eat. If you workout properly 4-5 times a week. Generally the six meals guideline is very good, but if it's impossible just eat healthy snacks, and you'll probably want to look into protein shakes and the likes.

For training regime, you should look into some kind of cycle with what muscles groups you want to do. IE. monday - legs , wednesday - core, friday - chest, hands, upperback.
it is not optimal to train every muscle group in our body with every workout. Instead of going into detail, I'm just going to suggest you look into p90x or p90 program once you get the pull-upbar. (it is "purchasable" in the internets). You have 90 days before the bootcamp, the program is very good for this kind of situations and I think you should look into it. (there are alot of threads about it in this forum). It is something you can do at home, with few dumbells and a pull-upbar.

That being said, my bodyweight training cycle is as follows and I can elaborate if you want to know more. (it's divided into blocks, and I cycle the blocks so that I do each musle groups 2 times a week).
the blocks are:

ring strength block (need rings for this)
yamakasi pull-up block
handstand block (also from yamakasi)
push-up block
goodnight abs block (similiar to abs ripper x in p90x)
quadrupedie block (also known as catwalk block)
stair running block
catwalk stairs block
wall hanging block
plyometrics block
crawl block
and few more which i can't remember now. everything can be done outside, and with friends.

eat, eat, eat... and then after you've eaten, eat some more.

to denver,
for my diet, what do you recommend to eat in the morning? and for snacks should i just eat protein bars?

as for my exercise, with the help from my newly purchased pull up bar and 20lb and a 25lb set dumbbells i am slowly but surely progressing, starting to go through a cycle and doing more reps.

now only time will tell if all this pays off.

thanks again for replying and for your thoughts everyone i really appreciate it

to denver,
for my diet, what do you recommend to eat in the morning? and for snacks should i just eat protein bars?

No need for protein bars. Yogurt cup = 170 calories, 5 grams protein. String cheese = 80 calories, 5 grams protein. 20 hazelnuts = 180 calories, 4 g protein. 1 cup milk with some chocolate syrup ~170 calories, 8 g protein.


These are just examples, but the point is you want to eat a bunch of little things that add up. I'd also recommend snacking closer to after you eat rather than before. That way you don't lose your appetite for the next meal.

Also, you don't need to eat a big breakfast. I am in a similar position as you and here's how things generally break down:

Breakfast ~400 calories (tall glass of mixed juices and some combination of granola bars or cookies.) If you have the time, obviously try to prepare something more well-rounded but if you're in a hurry or don't have an aPpetite, some juice and some granola/nut bars is better than nothing.

Lunch ~1000 calories. Yes, I eat out for lunch. You can still pick relatively healthy meals that have a lot of protein and calories. A sandwich at panera generally runs 800 calories and 30-40g of protein. Yes, there's a lot of sodium but unless you have specific issues related to sodium and aren't eating it 3 times a day it's fine. (Disclaimer: I am not a doctor)

Dinner ~900 calories. I usually eat this at home and it's typically some kind of meat (chicken breast or salmon fillet), pasta, and alfredo sauce with cheese.

That's already 2300 calories. Add to that some snacks (say a few yogurt cups, a glass of milk, some nuts and I think you have plenty there) I usually also have a half-meal towards the evening. Something like PB&J. You can easily add it up to 3000 or 3500. People might tell you that you need to eat 4000 or more calories and 200 grams of protein and 6 meals a day but there's no need to go crazy, especially at first.

The key is to stock up on random high-protein foods that are relatively healthy and make choices to pick the higher calorie foods at the store. If you're picking out a peanut butter, check to see which one has more calories (the "natural" ones tend to have more). Same thing with anything else.

Also, make sure to have diversity in your meals. Don't plan on eating 3 chicken breasts for dinner. Maybe make a chicken breast, some pasta or rice, and a salad. Again, pick the dressing that has the most calories for the salad and the sauce that has the most calories for the pasta.

And try to mix in fruits and vegetables too. They're not full of calories or protein, but you still need them as part of a healthy diet.

Also don't overdo it. If you're not hungry, don't try to shove down an entire meal. Once you're hungry, you're more capable of overeating (which is a good thing here)

Umm,

Eat more than just 3 meals. 900cal at a time like bew said is way too much. And you also asked about protein bars... protein bars are good if you're like me and you're at work and you don't have access to anything else... otherwise make a turkey sandwich or something like that with whole grain bread. Almonds, black beans, are great sources of fat. Make sure your bread is whole grain. Cottage cheese/milk any type of casein protein before you go to bed.

Umm,

Eat more than just 3 meals. 900cal at a time like bew said is way too much. And you also asked about protein bars... protein bars are good if you're like me and you're at work and you don't have access to anything else... otherwise make a turkey sandwich or something like that with whole grain bread. Almonds, black beans, are great sources of fat. Make sure your bread is whole grain. Cottage cheese/milk any type of casein protein before you go to bed.
Possibly. I'm just speaking from what I do, not from what is technically the best thing to do. I guess in that regard none of my advice is scientific. The problem with most people is that it's hard to fit 6 meals into their daily schedule.

Looks like you don't want to join a gym but you have a pull up bar and dumbbells so p90x I guess. Just try to eat as much as you can. If you need help packing on calories, start drinking lots of whole milk. You need to put on weight.

start drinking lots of whole milk

see: GOMAD: How to Gain 25lbs in 25 Days with Squats & Milk | StrongLifts.com (http://stronglifts.com/gomad-milk-squats-gallon-gain-weight/)

I was going to suggest GOMAD but most people get a little freaked out over drinking a gallon every day