Q&A for: 9-Oct-05
665. Q:
I'm really small and have very small boobs. What can I do to get them bigger in a healthy way and still stay underweight?
A:
Sorry, that's not something I'll be able to help you with. You could do chest exercises like pushups or the bench press, but the increase in your chest size is very unlikely to be noticeable unless you gain significant amount of weight.
The only sure way to increase the size naturally is to put on some fat which may not be something you're interested in. A traditional 'bulk' program (where you'd try to primarily gain muscle without gaining too much fat) would also be inappropriate for you since that muscle won't do much for your boob size and may make your body excessively muscular.
So, there's no good advice I can offer unfortunately. About the only thing you can do naturally is try to gain some weight and see if you like your appearence better then.
666. Q:
I run the mile and a half in exacly 9:16 at my cross countrymeet, and im 13. Is that a good time for my age?? I also run the mile in 6:00 mins. is that good too? Please tell me the truth!
A:
Yeah, that's pretty darn good! The thing about doing 'good' is that you should only compare against yourself. If you start measuring yourself up against others it'll distract you from your own training and progress and you'll lose focus. So don't worry so much how good you're compared to others, but instead make sure that you're always better than you were two months prior!
667. Q:
I'm 15, weigh 230lbs, and I live in the middle of the country. There are no gyms around and I certainly don't have enough money to buy all the training equipment. School has a lot of tempting foods too, but none of them healthy (what else is new?). How can I lose weight sufficiently (I know about 1-2 lbs a week) when I don't have the resources available, and I don't have as many food choices?
A:
As far as equipment, take a look at this program. I wrote it up for higher rep training, but if you can get several different weights of dumbbells and bring reps in each set to below 12 to failure, it becomes as good a program as anything you can do in the gym. Having a pullup bar is a big bonus, but you could just do more bent-over rows for the back muscles. Here're the dumbbell types you'd need for this program:
- Heavy DBs for squats, deadlifts, lower-rep bent-over rows, lower-rep overhead extension.
- Medium DBs for lunges, shoulder press, higher-rep bent-over rows, higher-rep overhead extension, lower-rep bicep curls.
- Light DBs for side raises, kickbacks, and higher-rep bicep curls.
So you can see you only need 3 pairs of dumbbells to go to failure on all the different exercises of that program in 12 reps or less. I can't tell you the exact weights to get because everybody's strength is different. But a good ballpark is 15-20 pounders for light, 30-40 pounders for medium, and 60-70 pounders for heavy. You can also buy adjustable dumbbells (small short bars + weight plates) to get even more flexibility.
Best place to get weights is at garage sales! But even if you buy new all these dumbbells should cost you well under $100 and maybe even under $50. If you get a weight bench, you'd also be able to do more chest exercises, including bench press and flies. A good weight bench will run around $100, though you'll find cheap ones for $50. Just make sure they feel sturdy.
As far as eating healthy, I would recommend that you talk to your parents about it and get them to help you with buying more fresh veggies, fruits, meats and fish. I am sure that no matter where you live you can eat healthy. Things like lettuce, broccoli, dry beans and lentils, and plain oatmeal are available everywhere and could be a great core of your carb intake along with some fruit here and there. Lean beef, skinless boneless chicken breasts, canned tuna, eggs can make up the core of protein intake and is similarly widely available. The olive oil and dry-roasted nuts (or even natural peanut butter!) will take care of healthy fats. Check out Q&A #531 for some other ideas how to eat healthy as a student. Get your parents on board with your plan and I'm sure they'll help you get the healthy foods you need. Good luck!
668. Q:
what is your oppinion on kettle bells? are they really that good to use vs weights and ez bars?
A:
Kettlebells are great pieces of equipment that allow one-arm power exercises like snatch which cannot be done with conventional dumbbells and you can structure very complete exercise programs using just kettlebells. But there's no evidence that they're superior (or inferior, for that matter) to more conventional equipment like dumbbells or barbells. So it's a matter of personal preference. Variety is always great and you could use both conventional equipment as well as kettlebells in your training.
669. Q:
is it possible to get my bodyfat to 3% with the correct training and still be lean?
A:
I think you may have mistyped your question... But to answer it anyway -- no, 3% body fat is an impossible target, but if you could reach that level you would be incredibly lean.
670. Q:
What is the average amount of calories burned doing normal everyday things no strenuous exercise. And then how many calories would be burned if added 35 min aroebic and 49 walk?
A:
You burn about 3 calories/minute doing stuff like cleaning the house, 5-6 calories/minute with aerobics and about 4 calories/minute walking. The thing you have to keep in mind is that number of calories burned is NOT a good indicator of whether a given activity will help you shed unwanted fat. While all these activities can play a role in a fat-loss program, relying only on them to lose the fat will bring you only limited results. Large amount of cardio exercise will lead to significant loss of muscle as well as fat which will eventually bring your weight loss to a halt and slow down your metabolism. This in turn will make you vulnerable to regaining the fat you lost. That is why I recommend weight training and diet as the two foundations of successful long-term fat loss. You can read about it here.
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