I'm 18 years old, heading off to college in 2 months.



I'm pretty scrawny (skinny, not too much muscle). I'm looking to build some muscle before I leave, and then continue while at college. I don't really have any gym experience, but I have some weights at home.



Anyone have advice for what type of workouts would help me build muscle? (especially my arms)

Forget the weights and do pushups. I joined the Army years ago and in 2 months I developed the mass that I currently have in my upper body. People were shocked when they saw me. Also, pull ups will help develop your arms, chest and back. You can buy it for less than 20 dollars and install it in your doorway to your room. Your body is the best resistance you need. Try doing push ups during commercial breaks for an hour a day and build up to 2 hours. Good luck.

The three exercises that build the most muscle are

1 Benching

2 Dead left

3 Squats



I do push ups every day and my chest has go-ten alot bigger

and when you do alot of one work out it makes you cut

push ups are for chest and triceps but I do them so much that it work my abs a little and I got a ball on my biceps and I don't do curls

Do heavy bench pressing and since your skinny u can really pop out your lats with pull ups. and i would the weighted push ups put a 10pound plate on your back while you simultaneously balance it in your back this will contract all your muscles including biceps chest shoulders and abs.

To gain the most overall muscle, you need to do free weight compound exercises: deadlifts (back), squats (legs), and bench press (chest). Even though some exercises like deadlifts and bench press partially target the arms, you can put more emphasis on the biceps and triceps by doing isolation exercises such as barbell curls and cable pulldowns. I would suggest doing 6-8 reps for each exercise. This is considered the ideal range for muscle growth. Anything lower will just increase strength and anything higher will just increase endurance.



You should never workout for more than 1 hour. If you do, the cortisol in your body will start breaking down muscle for energy (not a good thing!). Also, only work each major muscle once per week so it has time to rebuild itself.



The most important thing you must do in weightlifting is progress every week. You do this by writing down everything that you do during each workout: the number of reps, number of sets, and the amount of weight. The next time you work those muscles, you absolutely must do more weight, or at least more reps, than the week before. Otherwise, the body won't feel threatened, and it won't build any muscle, or at most a negligible amount.



It's extremely difficult to gain muscle and lose body fat simultaneously. What I would do is break everything down into two phases, a bulking phase and a cutting phase. During the bulking phase you shouldn't do any cardio or at most very little and increase the calories. When you think you've gained enough muscle, you start the cutting phase by decreasing the calories slightly and greatly increasing the cardio, but you should still do weighlifting in order to keep the muscle that you've gained.