Slim and reasonably muscular

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Actually, muscles BURN calories, thus making people get thin. FAT STORES calories, thus making people get...fatter. Just a tiny detail.

Hm, diet's almost all right. Certainly a lot healthier than most. But I see several problems:

1) Not enough protein. You need about 40-45% protein in your diet if your goal is to gain muscle but keep yourself slim. Protein is the major building block of muscle after all, and if you don't eat enough, you naturally don't gain muscle.

Since you're vegetarian, I suggest these protein-rich vegetarian foods:

Tofu (PERSONAL FAV FOOD), SPINACH (Popeye woohoo! but it's one of the best), artichokes (EXCELLENT), eggplant, cauliflower, cucumbers, green peas, beets (GOOD...), broccoli (BETTER...), buckwheat, millet, wheat germ, rye, lima beans, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, navy beans, split peas, soybeans (organic sugar-free soybean milk with a dollop of honey is MANNA...), cantaloupe, banana, apple, almonds, cashews (YUM, cook with long-grain rice and saffron with onion, star anise and star onion, it's great), pumpkin seeds, filberts, sunflower seeds (I take the raw ones as a snack), HEMP SEED (THIS IS MY TOP PICK!).

But if you're willing to relax the vegetarian rules a little...

BRING ON THE EGGS!

Seriously, eggs=instant natural protein pill. I eat about 8-10 eggs a day, yolk and all. I'm crazy about eggs. On a serious note, it keeps me at 20-22% body fat (VERY healthy for a female).

2) Do you know why the French are slim? Because they eat little and often, and take their meals at a RIDICULOUSLY slow pace. Had a french friend who took 30 minutes to finish a salad. The pace he chews is equivalant to a cow...

3) Dude, where's the fruit and veggies? Lack of variety here. See (1) for comprehensive list of suggested foods.

4) Lack of fats. You need some of that to produce enough human growth hormone and testosterone. Really. Testosterone is a steroid i.e. fat-based hormone. So get your food oil ratio up to 10%, with most of it unsaturated. Check list (1) from ALMONDS onwards for healthy sources of fat. Add sesame seed oil, olive oil, and canola oil into the mix, but sparingly.

5) Stop the canned food. Baked beans in tomato sauce isn't exactly healthy, what with the colouring and the preservatives in that stuff. Do you have any idea how much sugar is in processed tomato sauce? I recommend steamed kidney beans and Italian-style stewed tomatoes with baked corn. That's SO much more natural, and way healthier.

Okay, regarding your exercise plan, it seems very one-sided. Press-ups and sit-ups only work your chest, arms, upper back, and abs. WHERE ARE YOUR LEG MUSCLES? Leg muscle exercises are the best way to boost lean muscle growth, because of the sheer amount of hormone your body needs to produce to recover from a good leg workout. Natural HGH booster. Squat, squat, and squat away, with lunges and step-ups for variety. BUT MAKE SURE YOUR TECHNIQUE IS CORRECT. The wrong technique in squats can totally bust your lower back, knees, and ankles. NOT A PRETTY SIGHT. Not to mention painful.

Now, I want to know your intensity. For slim muscled builds, its recommended to go for 3-4 sets of 10-12 repetitions, about 40 seconds of rest in between, with 70% of your one-rep-maximum i.e. the maximum weight you can carry for only one repetition. If your intensity is too low, you won't see results. Too high, and you risk injury (especially with the lack of recovering protein in your diet).

That's my personal recommendation, from an ACE trainer point of view. For details, feel free to PM me.

Regards.

Thanks for the replies. Thanks in particular to emorah_slaytron. Your effort into helping me is very appreciated.

Just one thing I am worried about squats is that I've heard or read they make your backside grow really big. I don't want a massive backside that protrudes from my body. A little vain I know but I just don't like that look.

Technique, technique, technique. Yes, squats DO increase the ass , but it very much depends on your body type.

Put it this way. Squats utilize the same muscles as moving between sitting and standing. If squats give you a big butt, then EVERYONE will have a big butt because we all sit and stand. See the point?

A real-life example: my friend and I both use squats as a major component of our leg exercises. I squat heavier than he does (120kg for me vs 80kg for him) yet I have a smaller ass than he does. But he had a big bum to begin with, even before exercising. Having met his family, it's pretty obvious all that junk in his trunk is genetic.

I, on the other hand, have an average butt that did not grow at all. In fact, my butt shrank as I lost more fat and gained in muscle tone.

But at least I know it's buns of steel My niece once commented that I have an ass made of rock XD

I'm no expert, but you can do lots of isometric exercises where you just prop yourself up and straighten out your body and hold it for .5 to 2 minutes at a time, (i.e. on your elbows and toes, on your back with legs raised and knees straight) or just leg-lifts, or isometric push-ups where you incrementally straighten your arms up to 10, count-down by 5, with 10 quick, normal push-ups in between, repeating as much as you feel you can at the moment. There's also good isometric breathing exercises where you hold your breath and resist against yourself between exhaling. (I don't have any links or anything, sorry) They seem to encourage your muscles to get nuclear-powered metabolisms and should make you hungry after your digestives get their blood back, and like some have said get lots of protein. Supplements are probably really bad for you, just eat normal food. This is all my meandering experience and opinion, so take it with a grain of salt.

Stretching really good is probably very important for a variety of reasons.

Last edited by CMaximus on 05 Dec 2008, 8:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Did you see that on MadTV?

In order to improve muscle tone, you have to exercise the part of the body you want to have tone. It's not easy, and there is no magic pill.

I agree with emorah_slaytron on quite a few points. Her food lists and protein recommendations are excellent, and I agree with her on eggs. Squats, especially, are important. They are not just a leg exercise, but they provide an even more systemic training effect than push ups or sit ups. They are best done weighted as emorah described, although I believe you would see improvements even if you did them with only bodyweight resistance. Not everyone likes weights, so it may be easier for you to just add in a set after your push ups and sit ups. Here are some other bodyweight exercises you might consider adding to your repertoire:

handstand pushups - If you are young and healthy, that is. Support your feet on a wall and be sure to get good depth. This will more evenly load the anterior and posterior heads of your shoulder, which pushups do not do.
jumping lunges - Get down into a lunge, jump up, switch your feet, and land. Repeat.
back bridges - Lie on your back, but your hands by your ears, and push up with both your arms and legs. Hold for time. Take it slow with this one especially.
burpees - Excellent choice for hitting a lot of muscles. Start standing, squat down and put your hands on the ground, kick your feet back into pushup position, do a pushup, bring feet back into squat position, squat up, and jump.

I cannot think of any others off the top of my head, but experiment and have fun.

Also, I second the recommendation of getting a steamer.

Look on Mens Health for some professional advice on being trim and fit. They will give you many options on foods and exercises.

i'll have to add my opinion about the exercise regime as well. i agree with emorah_slaytron about the squats. i've read that they increase your testosterone levels during the recovery period. i don't know how true that is, i'm not sure what research has been put into it so i can't comment on the accuracy of the claims i read. one thing i do know is that they're the biggest, strongest muscle in your body. they can lift more weight and do more work than any other muscle, and when you do resistance training (which creates micro tears in the muscle that the body rebuilds and reinforces, creating a bigger, stronger muscle) they'll burn the most energy on recovery while your body rebuilds them because there's more to build.

if you're looking for real world strength, then you should be working your whole body. people will often work their "beach muscles" (pecks, arms, shoulders, abs) and avoid everything else (legs, lower back, lats, etc) so they look buff but can't really do much with those muscles. if you want to run faster, lift more, or do better in just about any sport, then you'll have to work the rest of your body.

the other thing to remember is that whenever you work a muscle, you should make sure you're working the opposing muscle groups. if you don't do this you can end up with problems with your posture, which can give you back problems, pain, etc. a couple of things us rowers deal with are tight hip flexors (a lot of people deal with those because a lot of people spend most of their day sitting, but we spend 3-4hrs sitting in the boat, as well as whatever we do during the day at work or school), strength imbalances between our chest and lats, and (for people in sweep boats) strength imbalances between muscles on the left and right side of your body. all these need to be fixed, and we generally spend the first month of winter training balancing everything out.

so i'll give you a few exercises that you should be doing if you have access to weights:
squats: a must have exercise for anyone with just about any fitness goals (unless you're a paddler or in some sport where extra leg strength is useless and extra weight is a detrement). MAKE SURE YOU DO THEM PROPERLY!! ! get someone like a personal trainer to teach you how to do these because if you do them wrong you can seriously hurt yourself
deadlifts: they'll work your hamstrings and lower back, this'll balance out the strength increase in your quads. it'll also help you pick up more weight because, well, that's what a deadlift is, you pick up weight from the ground. again, do this one properly or you'll hurt yourself. this one should also help your posture
bench press: lots of people like this one, it gives you a nice "pump" (when your muscles fill with blood and feel really tight) in your chest and triceps, and guys like having big chests. there are all kinds of variations on this exercise that will focus on different muscles, so you can switch it up every once in a while.

to balance out your chest you can use so many different exercises: seated rows, lat pull downs, pull ups or chin ups (with or without added weight), bent over rows, etc. but you should be working your lats because if not your chest can get too strong and will pull your shoulders forward, which can cause back problems. also, when your back gets big you get nice "wings" when you flex, and it just generally makes you look bigger and more fit. people really underestimate the role these muscles play in making you look more athletic.

as for arms and shoulders, again there are a wide range of exercises for them, they're pretty easy to find so i won't bother listing them. they should be low on your priority list because they're very weak compared to the other muscles in your body so they won't burn as many calories and are much less important when it comes to most sports. most of the time they're just for looks. i'm a rower, and a lot of people thing that in rowing you'd need big arms, but i never work my arms. 90% of my strength comes from my legs and back, the other 10% from my arms (and i'm really not exaggerating here). at the moment i'm actually hoping my arms will get smaller because i've got to make weight for competitions (i'm a lightweight rower) and my arms are already bigger and stronger than they need to be, so they're wasted weight.

as for how many reps/sets to do, emorah_slaytron gave a pretty good ballpark. people will respond differently to different rep ranges, so don't be afraid to experiment, but 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps is where most people do their work. when you're doing it you should be using enough weight that when you do a 12 rep set, you're done after 12. if you're able to do more than that, chances are either your technique's off (you might not be using the full range of motion) or you're not using enough weight.

if you're not doing weights, then rjay09 mentioned some good exercises to do. if you can, try to throw in some pull ups or chin ups (it's really easy to make a chin up bar, i've got one at home, and my roommate built one here) to work your back.

also, don't be afraid of getting a big butt, if you're working your whole body everything should be growing pretty proportionately so even if it does grow a bit, it shouldn't look out of place.

ALMOST agree with rjay09. Handstand pushups are VERY advanced, but it's mostly shoulder work. Not so much on muscle gain, except making your shoulders broader looking. As for the back bridges...it's more of a stretching exercise than a strength exercise (yoga calls this the downward bow) and on certain types of people may cause (a) dizziness, (b) back strain.

I suggest doing planks instead. Lie down on your stomach, raise up on your elbows, making sure they are DIRECTLY beneath the shoulder joints, forearms flat on the floor, straighten legs and come on on your toes, then lift the whole body. Keep your head, spine, and legs in as straight a line as possible, tighten your abs, breathing normally, and HOLD until you just can't keep the body straight. Great core workout. To make it harder, do it on a Bosu-ball or an exercise ball.

Ah, burpees. Used to do this when I was a competitive athlete Great for building core strength, explosive power and anarobic stamina, but not much else when it comes to muscle gain.