A Few Exercise Questions!?
I’m a twenty year old female, 5′3 and 120lbs. I’ve recently decided to try and get muscle, and have started a few things like drinking Protein shakes and riding my bike to work, which is about 2-4 miles a day round-trip depending on the detours. Still, there are some things I need to know:
- For a woman of my size, how much protein should I have daily to build muscle? The shakes give me 15grams and I do eat other foods with protein. Should I have more? If I had 30grams in drinks on average, how much and what types of exercises for building muscle would be recommended?
I’m sure that riding a bike is more used to lose or maintain weight rather than build muscle, but is there a chance that riding three to five times a week will build muscles in my legs? Are there any other leg exercises that would be better?
Any other tips for a lady trying to workout outside of the gym would be a great help. Thanks!
You wont benefit much from the protein shakes. Those help ppl that are working with heavy resistance (weight) training to rebuild, repair torn muscle fiber. If the muscles arent over-worked, they wont call for repair. Tired, and well used muscle doesnt mean “over” worked. The standard rule is one gram per one lb of lean body weight. but again — if your body isnt going to use it… why drink it? Proteins don’t ’save for later’. You pee out any unneeded proteins soon after.
Have a 3 oz chicken breast instead. Or…have two! Natural proteins solve lots of concerns. (hunger being one of the biggest!)
Cycling is great for legs! Squats, and stretching too… dont discount stretching!! It helps build lean muscle.
You would want an upper limit of 122 grams of protein a day which will serve your needs well. It depends how much muscle you are looking to build but I would start by leaving your bike on a high (hard) gear when you cycle so there is more resistance to your legs. Also incorporate exercises like lunges & squats and as you get stronger incorporating some jump lunges and jump squats.
Remember you can get a great workout using just your own bodyweight as resistance!
How to Calculate Your Protein Needs:
1. Weight in pounds divided by 2.2 = weight in kg
2. Weight in kg x 0.8-1.8 gm/kg = protein gm.
Use a lower number if you are in good health and are sedentary. Use a higher number (between 1 and 1.8) if you are doing intense weight or endurance training.
Example: 120 lb female who is a regular exerciser
120 lbs/2.2 = 54.5 kg
54.5 kg x 1.2 = 65 gm protein/day
Be careful about getting too many calories from the protein shakes. Many of them have a lot of sugar. Chicken breasts, tuna, turkey, and salmon all have 25-30 gm of lean protein per serving. If you had a turkey sandwich for lunch and a piece of chicken for dinner you would likely get enough protein in a day. Lowfat Milk is also a great source of protein (about 14 gm/cup).
As for good leg exercises, I like staircases. Either in your house or on your local high school bleachers, I like to run up and down them first stepping on every step, then stepping on every other step. Finally, more slowly, I try to do every third step. I repeat this until my legs feel like rubber.
Also calf raises on the edge of a stair work well. Drop your heal down low so you are stretching your calf then go up on your tippy toes. At first you may want to do both legs together and maybe hold onto something. Eventually graduate to doing one leg at a time and not holding anything. (You probably need to get used to the motion/balance first though.)
I also used to do lunges across my living room. If you have weights, you might want to try holding them in your hands while you do this. If not, you might try using something else heavy. If you fill up old milk jugs with water they will each weigh about 8 lbs. (or less if you don’t fill them the whole way). They would make good weights to use while lunging.
Another good one is squats. Again, these can be done with or without weights. Make sure you use good form or they will not be nearly as effective.
Good luck!
I have no idea of the amount of protein that you need. Just remember this, don’t get all of your protein from meat because meat is high in fat (unless you’re eating low-fat, or no-fat meat). You can get protein from certain vegetables, whole grains, and nuts.
To build muscle, you need to do a moderate number of sets, with a small number of reps in the sets. Anything higher will focus on building endurance.
If you’re trying to lose weight, you should know that an increase in muscle may increase your weight because muscle is heavier than fat. If you want lean muscle, do slightly more cardiovascular exercise than strength training.