What do you suggest to get toned/more muscle?

I'm 139/140lbs, 5'11, 17 years, Female, and I'm thinking a pretty high body fat %.

All my family are built like that, even with average sort of fitness. So I'm thinking it'd be hard to built muscle, but that's what I want to try to do.

I'm a pear shape with violin deformity ( http://www.lipo-book.com/picture/upload/Image /originalbookimages/6_11.gif ). It's really annoying because I like my thighs, their general size, but my torso and arms are too skinny. I know though if I gain weight, it'll go straight to my legs because I gained weight before, thinking it'd go fairly all over but basically all of it went to my thighs :/. Plus they're all jiggly and untoned.

Soooo I want to build more muscle in my arms and tone my thighs. My stomach area is ok. I would like some suggestions - I'm a real cardio person, I walk alot and sometimes jog and hate working out but am willing to commit.

Hi pyth0n,

If you have excess fat in your legs that you're not happy with and at your level of diet and cardio your not dropping the weight then it may be time to amp up the cardio and cut back just a little on food intake overall. I don't know your diet so i'll just keep it as general as that.

For toning your arms, you'll definitely need to grab some weights. I don't know your strength so I can only guess that about 5-10 lbs for triceps would do and about 10-15 lbs for biceps. Per arm of coarse. You should be able to do about 15 reps before getting to tired to continue. If you can't do 15 reps slow and correct then you need to drop the weight a bit. If you feel to much stress on your joints then you need to drop the weight as well.

I find that working triceps while laying on the floor has much less strain on my joints then when doing "kickbacks". If you lay on the floor raise your arm so that you create a right angle then slowly and in a controlled manner drop your forarm untill your hand and weight reaches your ear. That should be good. 3 sets of biceps and triceps every 4-6 days should get you nice and tones within a month or so. This goes without saying but you should increase weight/resistance as needed. For example you may try going 2.5 lbs more during your next workout, whenever that should be, so that you keep building as apposed to building once and then mantaining.

For abs, lay on the floor and do as many reps as you can. Stop, rest 10 minutes and do another set doing as many as you can. Two to three sets should do. Don't be discouraged if you aren't able to do half as much during the second set. Your abs are lifting your whole upper body and aren't very large so it makes sense for it to be difficult. Even the pros find working abs very difficult.

Arms should be be lightly placed in the back of your head, remember to relax your neck. doing that workout once every 4-6 days will get you a stronger core in no time. If you want, grab a 2.5 or 5 lbs weight and place it behind your head during your first set. You'll find that even the lightest weight can have a dramatic difference.

Oh wow, to much writing, i'm going to bed..

I was going to let someone else tackle this post, but I read the first response. ::facepalm::

OP, lift heavy weights focusing on compound lifts. Shoot for 80% of your 1RM doing 10-12 reps. I'm assuming you're a female, so try to get the book New Rules of Lifting for Women. Nice article on fat loss, Hierarchy of Fat Loss

And of course, most importantly, keep your diet in check. That will have the BIGGEST effect on weight loss or gain.

Hey Josiah

I'm really not that keen on losing more weight. I'm relearning how to maintain after steady weight loss over a year. I'm 63.5kg at a height of nearly 6ft, my bmi is about 19.5 so I'm keen on not losing any more weight.  Anyway if I did I'm not 100% sure it'd come off my legs, since with my build excess fat seems to want to store there. Plus the general size I'm ok with, it's more just firming them up.

I'm not able to buy any exercise equipment :P Suppose I should've said that before. Do you have any at home suggestions? What about two bottles of water? Or even things not to do with weight lifting - I've heard of bench lifts (I think it was called that) where you sit on the end of a bench/chair/bed and lower yourself then up again. I'm doing 3 sets of 10 of those each, have been doing it for three nights now.

And thanks heaps for all the other info I'll try it out later =)

Hey bmx

With diet do you mean add lots of protein or just talking any sort of calories?

Original Post by pyth0n:

I'm 139/140lbs, 5'11, 17 years, and I'm thinking a pretty high body fat %.

 I guess that statement confused us.

Why?

lols sorry if it's blatantly obvious

jokes just realised the typo.. hehhh

You think you have a high body fat%, but your upper body is too skinny? I'm still confused.

To answer your question, eat more. Lift weights and have a surplus of calories at the end of the day. Try to get at least 1gram for every pound you weigh, in this case, 140grams of protein a day. You should be able to get all of that through a healthy diet.

Yea my upper body is too skinny, but my lower body is a good size. It's out of proportion.

How much more though should i eat? 

Original Post by pyth0n:

Yea my upper body is too skinny, but my lower body is a good size. It's out of proportion.

How much more though should i eat? 

sounds like you are a pear like me (only my lower body needs some fat zapping). i had to work on building my upper body for sure, and compound moves are great for filling up the top. isolation exercises are probably not what you are after. 

im not sure about your strength but working on doing a chin-up/pull-up really filled me out. as well as rows & presses. just try to pay attention in doing enough push-pull exercises. i used to do some isolation exercises and was worried about not working my triceps directly.

but it turned out fine and i started to notice some other smaller muscle development that i had not paid any attention to before, like my teres major & minor.  oh and i think working on widening your shoulders would be help too.

Original Post by pyth0n:

I'm not able to buy any exercise equipment :P Suppose I should've said that before. Do you have any at home suggestions?

 Bodyweight exercises. There is a link in the FAQ section of this forum to My body is a barbell.

Or improvised weights - check out the stuff I started with ;) Anything that's got some heft to it and you can get a good grip on is a potential weight; backpack full of books, a shopping bag filled with water bottles, small children if you've got any, a bucket of sand or rocks, a wet towel for isometric grip work, the lexicon your dad bought in college - it doesn't need to be a formal weight to provide some resistance and a useful training effect for a beginner-to-intermediate trainee.

On another note, whoever thought up the description "violin deformity" for what's a pretty normal build deserves to be punched in the face repeatedly.

Original Post by melkor:

 

On another note, whoever thought up the description "violin deformity" for what's a pretty normal build deserves to be punched in the face repeatedly.

I must have skimmed right over that part - jeez - deformity? Really?

Original Post by melkor:

Or improvised weights - check out the stuff I started with ;) Anything that's got some heft to it and you can get a good grip on is a potential weight; backpack full of books, a shopping bag filled with water bottles, small children if you've got any, a bucket of sand or rocks, a wet towel for isometric grip work, the lexicon your dad bought in college - it doesn't need to be a formal weight to provide some resistance and a useful training effect for a beginner-to-intermediate trainee.

 Unless the OP is familiar with lifting and form, I still would suggest bodyweight exercises. They will be able to learn and master proper form, which is the most important aspect of lifting. Once form is mastered, and sets are easily completed, then I recommend progressing towards weights.

Improvised weights can be very useful..but as time moves ahead, investing in some db's..adjustable would be optimal and most cost effective for long term usage..is something I would recommend.

I just googled "violin deformity" and I'm a little confused. Is this an actual medical issue, or just a body shape? It seems to be talking about a body shape, just a way of carrying fat. "Deformity" seems to be an awfully harsh word. I mean I'm shaped like that, but I never considered myself deformed...Or am I just not getting the information correct and there is an actual serious medical issue related to this?

@ the violin deformity.. yeah the name does loads to boost confidence aye. Is it real common though? I assumed when I lost weight it'd go away but it seems to be as prevalent as ever.. like in proportion to the rest of my body I mean..

And thanks all for the suggestions, Ii'll definantly try them out and get back to you soon =)

Original Post by pyth0n:

@ the violin deformity.. yeah the name does loads to boost confidence aye. Is it real common though? I assumed when I lost weight it'd go away but it seems to be as prevalent as ever.. like in proportion to the rest of my body I mean..

And thanks all for the suggestions, Ii'll definantly try them out and get back to you soon =)

I definately have that shape. I think it's fairly common. And I also think it will go away if I lower my body fat % enough. But its going to take a lot of work. And I have the same problem as you, even though I lost weight its still there. Just stick to a healthy diet, lots of protein, and weight lifting and cardio. I've seen some improvement with that...

The "violin deformity" is a body shape that the majority (i.e. greater than 50%) of woman share. From my understanding, the name comes from the plastic surgery industry- they've learned that calling a perfectly normal physical characteristic a "deformity" will essentially boost sales.  I know that doesn't answer your question, but maybe knowing that you aren't deformed will make you feel better.