@fish3rofm3n So, honestly, all you really have to read is this first part, I’d recommend reading the rest because I have some pretty useful knowledge that I’d like to share but for your sake, you only have to read this first part.
A weighted vest.
This sounds perfect for you. You can do the exact movements you’ve been doing but it will just be harder because you’ll be heavier. You can control the exact amount of weight you put it. It will fit to your body, it’s convenient, absolutely no gym needed, just wearing weights.
Now, don’t go all gung ho with this. I wouldn’t recommend running or any kind of exercise that is very hard on your joints. Adding weight to your body that your muscles aren’t accustomed to handling is good because that’s how you build muscle, BUT, adding the weight and then working your joints a bunch is bad. Your joints aren’t built to handle that kind of workload. Think about this, when someone is going for a heavy lift, they use wrist straps, a belt, gloves, knee brace/sleeves, ankle braces, etc… or even, OBJECTIVELY SPEAKING, no offense to anyone, but overweight people, among other issues, usually have some kind of joint pain, this is because their joints aren’t able to handle the weight of their body. This is because although our joints do get stronger with exercise, they’re not meant for such heavy weights. So we use things to protect ourselves. I would just recommend, what ever you already do, just don’t use the weighted vest for joint strenuous activities. Squats, lunges, push ups, pull ups, anything like that, is all fair game, but, basically, don’t use the weighted vest for cardio. If you really want to though, then use it for a short period of time, then take it off and continue as normal.
So, I see a lot of good advice here, but really all you have to think about is; work harder than last time.
Always work harder than last time. Maybe hold a position a few seconds longer, do a few more reps, slow the reps down, do more sets, literally ANYTHING to make the movement harder. I would just make sure to actually track what you’re doing. For example. If you do 20 push ups in a row and you do three sets. Okay great: 60 reps. Next time you go to do some push up, do 22 in a row for three sets. That will equal to 66. And keep going that way. Or maybe hold at the bottom for a little bit. Or add different variations like incline, decline, diamond, wide push ups. Just as long as it’s harder than the last time you worked out. And even if you don’t have the energy to work harder, try to at least do the same amount as last time or even a tiny bit less. It’s pretty straight forward, don’t think about it too much. Just do what you like to do! It has to be fun, otherwise you won’t do it!
The actual barebones science of it; If the movement is harder, you’ll use more of your muscle, if you’re using more of your muscle, you’ll tear more muscle fibers (which Is what happens when you workout, don’t freak about that lol, it just sounds scary) if you’re tearing more muscle fibers, they’ll regrow bigger and stronger when you sleep.
Also, generally speaking, the only legit way to gain mass is to eat more. You absolutely need to eat more than what your body needs in order to get bigger. It doesn’t have to be much, maybe 200 calories more. It’s a very small but manageable change.
There are some things that affect weight and mass. Water weight, muscle density, body fat percentage, volume of food absorbed by your body, literal amount of food still left over in your stomach/body that hasn’t digested. So many things affect weight so I’d invest into a caliper to track body fat percentage and track your workouts to gauge your strength.
