Any advice for a minor muscle gaining with only dumbbells?
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Hello. In general, I am in good shape metabolically, but I have neither fat nor muscle (as a male I weigh 52 kilos :/). Since going to the gym is not something I prefer, how can I gain muscle by following an exercise program at home using only 5kg dumbbells? The "programs" I've tried on my own so far either tire me out or make me feel like I'm not working hard enough. How do I know when I'm doing something that's the ideal difficulty for me?
Also, I have almost always weighed 52 kilos in my entire life. I always attributed this to my fast metabolism, but if anyone has advice on that subject, I would like to hear it too.
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@Sokolov To learn about resistance training I would recommend watching: Natural Hypertrophy, Eric Bugenhagen, Alex Leonidas, Basement Bodybuilding, and GVS. As you watch their videos and workout you will over time learn what best works for you and how to form training routines. Since, you only have 5kg DBs you will have to center everything around calisthenics, most importantly: pull ups, push ups, sit ups, and squats. These 4 exercises can be good enough for a long time if you keep making them progressively harder as you improve. If you have time and will don't limit yourself though, with DBs you can do a lot of typical "isolation" exercises so try and explore different exercises.
For calisthenics you'll need a pull up bar. Parallel dip bars could be also nice as they allow you to do body rows and not only dips which might be good stepping stone towards pull ups. A few resistance bands will be a good investment as well as you can attach them to doors or something and use them like cable machines.
Being skinny doesn't always imply good metabolism so unless you know better it's not given. Track calories for a few days to see how much you actually eat as likely you're under-eating. Then do simple maths to figure out how much you need to eat to gain weight (working out alone won't be enough).
Intense weightlifting is not "optimal" and peaty, so some might suggest doing eccentric only and generally take it easy to reduce stress, etc. but deviating from pure peatism and training intensely, IMO, will teach you more and you'll progress faster. Such "optimal" fancies rarely work from what I've seen and the traditional heavy lifting is more effective.
Hope it helps.
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Keep it simple, push-ups, overhead triceps extension, lateral raises, biceps curls, hammer curls for the upperbody, lunges for the lower body.
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Natural Hypertrophy is GOATed, esp. if you plan to remain natty. Eric bugenhagen is funny, but his sauce is on the sauce, so not necessarily the best recommendation for a newbie. Just my opinion though, YMMV.
If you’re limited with resistance weight there are a few ways you can overcome this: higher reps, slower reps, or exercise variations to increase difficulty. Of these, only variations is probably anywhere in the realm of Peaty, (and remember Peat often described himself as sedentary, so intentional exercise is not Peaty).
High reps are obvious, (you increase the reps per set) slow reps are less obvious, (start with a 10 second push up, move to a 12 second push up, move to a 15 second push up etc) variations are swapping a normal squat for a one legged squat, or changing hand positions to a push up and progressing to a one arm push up, etc.
Ask yourself, why do you want to work out? Don’t want to be bigger or stronger? These are very different goals. You have to train for your goal, or you will develop fuckarounditis.
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Thanks for the replies. What I want is simply gaining little bit of muscle mass without stressing myself too much tbh. Like I said I only weigh 52 kgs right now so I don't know upping my weight to 60-65 and if that extra kilos I will be put on coming from a muscles and not from fats makes me a happy man in the end.
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@Sokolov honestly optimize hormones, get your thyroid in order and eat a slight surplus while being reasonably active. You should gain muscle.
For example reasonably active would be chopping wood, moving furniture, taking the stairs always, parking (if you drive a car) at the end of the street and walking longer, if you take a bus or trolley-getting off a stop early or late and walking, cleaning your tub or shower every two days or so, etc. just never slouch on chores, and have the energy to want to do them.
