Beginner with limited resources looking for advice!

[travix13]

hola!

tl;dr at the end

I'm a 21 year old aussie who is moving cities in ~3 months where I know no one, hoping, by the time to be in much better shape for doing exercise, having higher self confidence and obviously attracting the ladies.

I have been gradually losing weight for the last year, losing about 15 kilos in the last 18 months. Now it is time to gain flexibility, core strength & better looks.

Here are some photos of me currently:




Pros:
I like the V slowly showing itself around my hips
I like the way my arms are slowly starting to look
Cons:
My shoulders are tiny, I hate this.
My pecs are tiny.
no definition at all in my stomach

Goals in 3 months:
Lose another 5kg of fat
Get bigger shoulders
Get bigger pecs
Get more defined in my arms (some definition without flexing would be the end goal)

Now I've been running 3-4 times a week for the last 6 weeks and I'm really enjoying it so I don't want to stop that, I do lunges and squats as a warm up for running and I feel that this is adequate to keep my legs in the shape I want them to be. I'm not looking to be specifically huge anywhere, just more lean & defined with a little bit of size added in said areas.

The only problem is I'm currently unemployed so there's no gym membership or buying of extra equipment available. In my access I have a chin-up / pull up bar, 4x 5kg weights, 4x 1.25kg weights & 2 dumbbell bars, that's all.

My targeted exercises that I actually know how to do are:

Arms:
Military press with two dumbbells
Bicep curls
hammer curls
tricep kickbacks
chin ups
pull ups
arnold press

Shoulders:
Front raise
side raise
Arnold press
military press

Chest:
push ups
chest press (i don't have a bench so I use my coffee table and this stops my arms from going under parallel to the floor)

I have a problem doing abs as I've fractured my tailbone in my past so sit ups & crunches and what not are extremely uncomfortable for me to do so I resort to:
bicycles
planking
and I guess leg raises while hanging from my chin up bar.

I don't have any sort of work out routine how ever I do eat pretty healthy, Lots of fruit and veg, chicken, tuna, steak, never eat out, drink lots of water, fruit & nuts as a snack and some times a meal replacement shake for a snack (with water not milk).

I'm getting a bit of core strength together but I only ever work out when I feel like it and don't really stick to working out specific muscles, I just do as I please

I'm looking for someone to maybe have some creative ways to work out without spending money on equipment, if my diet is good for gaining muscle but shedding fat, and how I should go about getting bigger shoulders & pecs without stopping training my arms, abs or running.

Thanks for any help in advance. Sorry for the long post

TL;DR
unfit fatty looking for ways to get bigger shoulders & pecs without spending **** tonnes of money on gym membership or equipment.

 

[Goldfish]

Exercises:

Plenty of good exercises there already. Most people do situps in a terrible manner anyway, so planking's probably a better option for you, anyway. Most people get leg raises wrong, so a better choice is probably static L's (there's probably another, more accurate name for this exercise), which is to hang from the bar, contract your core while your body is still straight, and then raise your legs (start with bent knees, and work up to straight legs) to 90 degrees, then just hold it there. Basically, rather than relying on concentric and eccentric contractions to get your legs up and down, you're using your abs (and hip flexors, no point in denying that they're heavily involved) to get into the position of greatest torque, and just trying to hold that position.

I'd like to see you add in some rear delt flies and wide grip bent over rows. This will help put meat on the back of your shoulders and you're upper back, which will not only make you look better from behind but it'll also significantly reduce the risk of creating muscle imbalances and subsequent injuries down the line. Also, they'll help you progress on your chin ups and pull ups.

Since your dumbbells don't go very heavy, once you can do more than about 3x15 on a compound exercise, I'd recommend using the pre-fatigue method, in which you do an isolation exercise for the target muscle first, and then get straight into the compound exercise. So, say you're doing 3x15 with all the weight you've got on overhead press. If you're targeting your rear delts, then do a set of lateral raises, and as soon as the set's complete, throw the rest of the weight onto the dumbbells and do your overhead press. You might only get 5-10 reps instead of 15. This is good.

Progression-wise, I'd do each exercise for 3 sets, start light, and work between 5 and 15 reps. For isolation exercises, I'll extend that all the way up to 30 reps.

With squats and lunges, I'd also be adding in the dumbbells. And I'd add Romanian deadlifts (and progress them into dumbbell swings once you've got good technique) and glute bridges to work on the back of your legs and hips. Just like the rows and rear delt flies, this will help even things out, make you look better from behind and prevent injuries. All wins.

Lastly, make technique a priority over weight/reps. It's better to do 5 good reps than 10 bad reps. That'll mean good postural alignment and core tightness for every single exercise.

Diet:

As a beginner, you can gain muscle and lose fat relatively easily, although as you progress further, this will be increasingly difficult and impractical, thus why bodybuilders go through bulking and cutting phases (while bulking they gain weight, knowing that some of it will be fat, in order to gain some muscle; while cutting they lose weight, aiming to keep as much muscle as possible and get rid of the excess fat). The earlier you are into your training life, the less you need to worry about diet for the sake of getting bigger muscles or less fat if you want both -- just eat healthy, continue losing weight slowly and steadily as you've been doing, and it'll pretty much sort itself out. Unless you're lactose intolerant, I don't think you need to abstain from milk -- after all, it's nutritious, it's hydrating, it has electrolytes, and while it does have calories in it, they're the right kind of calories for body composition management, in that they alert your hypothalamus that you've acquired x amount of calories, thus it can reduce appetite by an equal portion. When looking after your body composition, it's not always about minimising calories, but making sure that the calories you're consuming are actually contributing to satiation, which milk does (largely unlike chips and soft drink -- you could consume 1,000kcal worth of chips and soft drink, and be ready for more; I doubt 1,000kcal worth of straight milk will have the same effect).