University Workout?

[Flytch]

Hey all

So here's the deal, I'm living in halls at university and have a pretty small room with just enough floorspace for most exercises but nothing like star jumps etc. I'm 5 10 and 186 pounds, leaning towards the muscled but I have been inspired by this website to join the rebellion and shift the stomach fat that makes me so self conscious while sorting my life out. I can't afford a gym membership and it is pretty cold outside at the moment so I'm limited to my room. My chest is naturally quite broad so I've been hoping to approach workouts in a way that will gain muscle and lose fat, but not make me overtly bulky.

I've heard references to 'compound exercises' on the forums and I'm not sure what they are but they seem like they might be useful Can anyone recommend any bodyweight exercises practical in this environment, bearing in mind that it is an old building and I don't want to disturb the people in the rooms below me

(Note - I do have two 3 kilogram dumbells at hand)

[Guest Carjack]

Compound exercises are any that work multiple joints.

A bicep curl only moves the elbow joint, so it's an isolation.

A pull up moves the elbow and shoulder joint in unison, so it's a compound.

There are over 600 muscles in the body, so building a routine on isolations is silly. You're better off sticking with major exercises like push ups, under table rows, pull ups, squats and running.

As for the best exercises you can do:

Do push ups with your shoulders down and body straight, with your elbows in. Then work on a hard variation like dive bomber push ups, one arm push ups and/or handstand push ups. Works chest, shoulders, lats, triceps and abs, and tension throughout your body to stabilize yourself and hold the pose works other muscles to a lesser extent.

For pulling power you can do under table rows, or when you're outside, hand from a tree branch or swing set and do pull ups.

Your midsection is best targeted by abdominal planks, leg raises, hanging leg raises and bridging. You can also combine ab work and pulling with those dumbbells of yours by getting in a push up position with them and doing alternating rows (renegade rows).

For legs and glutes, squatting and running (at a very fast or changing pace) are best. They're natural movements and work more muscle than lunges.

Squat thrusts and burpees are a good way to get an intense workout done.

Pistol squats and progressions to them are good for strength, if you're flexible enough.

Now if you want to lose fat, the most effective methods are:

1. Resistance exercise. Increasing resistance builds more muscle and strength than increasing reps. Muscle burns fat. To my knowledge, weight bearing exercise has more of a fat loss effect than, say, riding a bike.

2. High intensity cardio. Slow cardio "in the zone" burns a few calories while you do it. Anaerobic exercise burns more calories at rest than low intensity cardio.

So a few workouts you could put together from the above information:

1. Pushing power:

Work on your push ups until you can do 40 or more, then get on your knees and do one arm push ups.

Do lots of sets with all resistance exercises instead of maxing out on one set.

2. Overhead pushing power:

Do regular and dive bomber push ups and work to handstand push ups at the same time.

3. Lower body strength:

Air squat, horse stance, bow and arrow stance. Then work on pistol squat progressions.

4. High intensity cardio.

Do squat thrusts or burpees. Increase the number of reps and decrease the time.

To start, do 10 burpees at the top of the minute, every minute, then tell us how you feel. Every session you'll pick a number and see how fast you can get through the sets. Shorten the time frame and increase the number.

5. Interval timer.

Download an interval timer like this one:

For every interval, do as many reps of an exercise as you can. The lowest number of reps in that time frame is your overall score for that day. I can score up to 25 doing just air squats Crossfit style. What's your score?

You can also go out and sprint.

Don't listen to emo music while you do tabata intervals.

[Knightwatch]

If you're careful to not drop it, and have some kind of pad to put it down on (even your pillow or whatever), a kettlebell could do you wonders. No end to the sorts of ways you can train with it.

[Redbat]

Do push ups with your shoulders down and body straight, with your elbows in. Then work on a hard variation like dive bomber push ups, one arm push ups and/or handstand push ups. Works chest, shoulders, lats, triceps and abs, and tension throughout your body to stabilize yourself and hold the pose works other muscles to a lesser extent.

Just to add to this, Art of Manliness has a great article with a whole bunch of push up variations you can try. Link

Steve has done a guest post for the site too, actually.