i dont know the first thing about exercise so bare with me

i dont have access to a gym or anything but i do have a stair stepper, one of those exercise balls, and ankle weights. i've also been eating more calories, drinking ensure etc..

im looking to gain 10-15 lbs, gain a larger butt (lol), and gain muscle in my legs etc. lately ive been doing kickbacks but i'm not sure if i'm doing them right, i'm not sore afterwards really.

what are the most effective exercises to do around my house to meet my goals? is the stair stepper just going to burn too many calories, so i shouldn't use it for now? ANY advice is appreciated, thanks!

A stairstepper is a good cardio workout. If you do it with enough resistance you can also help your butt get toned (and some say it may even help to get it bigger). If you step with the heel off the step, your calf muscles will get a nice workout and may also grow and get more shapely and defined.
Using the ankle weights, put both (I am not sure how heavy yours are) on one leg and do kickbacks. This will work your glutes and if weight is heavy enough, it wll make the muscle grow. Also, you can do lunges (put the ankle weights on). This will help to tone and build nice thighs and help your glutes as well. You can also buy resistance bands (like huge rubber bands) in a sport store and use these in place of weights to get some musclebuilding going on. They are light, portable and not expensive. Some sample exercises usually come with the bands [removed]
Make sure you eat lots of good, nutritious food. Don't just fill up with calorie-rich junk food. It's really not good for you. You do need to eat a lot in order to build muscle mass whn you are doing weights but it should be healthy food.
You can do exercises for your glutes using the big inflated exercise balls.
Lie down on the floor, your legs straight, and put your feet up on the ball. Then try to make the ball come closer to your butt by pressing on it with your heels and rolling it towards you. Do 8-10 reps, 3 sets, 3 times a week. Your glutes will thank you (after they stop hurting you will be thankful too).
Good luck and let us know how you progress (and you will).

awesome, i'm sure i'll have more questions as i go along. the most common answer i've received is JUST EAT A BUNCH OF JUNKFOOD. as skinny as i am, i still dont think thats the best solution. i like the calf muscle and band suggestions, those are unique and cheap lol. thanks so much

That's a terrible, terrible answer (the eat a bunch of junk reply, not rita's post). Junk food will put fat on all over. You'll gain weight, but it won't be what you want, where you want it. Working out allows you to *sculpt* your body the way you want. More calories, definitely, but more protein specifically and a lot of heavy leg and glute work will give you a fuller, tighter back side. :)

just an update already,

im so excited..the reason the kickbacks werent working is b/c all of this time ive been doing them wrong. now i can totally feel them with the ankle weights, im shaking. yay.

update and question

i still havent had much luck gaining weight..either this is really hard or my scale is broken, pretty frustrating :mad: :mad:

and ive been doing the butt exercises 4 days out of the week with ankle weights. i feel sore when i do them, but i do not feel sore the next day..am i supposed to? thanks

There's a couple problems there...
1. You should not be working the same muscle group so much. It will lead to overtraining which will end up in muscle *loss*. You need to allow for recovery time for the muscles so they can repair the damage you do during excercise. Muscle is actually built *during recovery*, not in the workout.

2. If all you're working is the butt, you're not going to see a major change on the scale. The gluteus are not very large muscles, so even if you get more size there, you will not see a major change in weight. I would highly recommend a more balanced strength training routine. Working *all* your muscles improves muscle growth where you're working the hardest. But even if you're working everything, 10 to 15 pounds of muscle is a lot. The scale is not going to be a good gauge for your progress. Use the mirror.
You don't necessarily have to feel sore the next day to know you've had a good workout. But you may need more intensity than just ankle weights for the kind of changes you want. If you work hard and allow at least 1 or 2 days between workouts, it should help.

wow, okay thanks, i was not aware i could "overtrain" crap!! :dizzy:

ill try to look into other strength training exercises, esp. for my legs..thanks

im still a little worried b/c i dont have access to a gym

You might get a couple resistance bands, and learn to do squats and lunges (you can slap on a backpack with books for added weight there, and those are two incredibly good glute/leg exercises). Resistance bands are inexpensive, incredibly versatile, and take up almost no space to store away. You should be able to manage a great full body workout with a set of bands.

i bought some pilates bands, they were dirt cheap.. hopefully thatll work out okay.

k ive been doing these kickbacks+a few squats and lunges 3x a week now for about a month and i dont feel sore after doing them really and i don't see/feel a difference yet. am i just being impatient or should i change my routine? :confused:

on the plus side, i have gained 6 lbs

If you're not feeling it at all, you might want to change it up. Add some more resistance, try a nre exercise, and/or slow down your reps. Slowing it down is surprisingly difficult and can really increase the intensity and muscle building of the leg workouts. Step exercises might supplement your workout too.

just an update, THE GOOD--i think i have a decent workout with weights squats, lunges, kickbacks and i this thing i do for my calves.. i can actually see a little muscle growing. and i feel like im gaining weight around my butt/middle.

THE BAD-- i was at someone elses house with a pretty accurate scale, it's definitely fancier than mine (says it's a body/fat scale) and I weighed myself first thing this morning. Anyways, either my scale at home is way off or I havent gained but like ONE lb over six weeks of paying for boost/ensure drinks very frequently and eating a lot more. ive never been this skinny in my life and i was already ridiculously thin before, im really bummed about it, does that mean itll take me like a whole year just to gain 10 lbs? it seems like i lost it so quickly. :confused:

The "bad news" probably better news than you think. If you see muscle gain but look leaner and see some weight gain, it means you *are* gaining muscle. Are you trying to gain some bodyfat too? What exactly does your diet look like these days? What foods, what time are your meals?

mm, okay here's a list of what ive had today and id say its pretty typical, keep in mind im a college student/bum and i dont eat red meat..

1030 am-- zone perfect protein bar (prior to this i never ate breakfast other than coffee, yes i know BAD. i ususally have a protein bar or a boost/ensure drink at some point in the day)

1pm lunch-- trader joes microwave dinner :/ tofu pad thai, i just checked and it's 600 calories+7g of fat (i'd say i eat these *types* of dinners/lunches 4x a week)

dinner 6ish-- chicken burger, spinach, and a baked potato w/ sour cream (i used to eat a LOT of veggie burgers and tofu stirfry but last week i started thinking it's probably better if i substitute it with real chicken.)

snacks,etc--popsicle, crackers, bowl of fruit, lotta peanut butter out of the jar with half a chocolate bar, water ALL DAY long, a little grapefruit juice, v8 juice for today. i also make smoothies with bananas and fatty yogurt sometimes, i know i need to get in a habit of making more and i have scrambled eggs a few times a week.

oh and thanks for taking out the time to help me, i've posted other places and people havent been NEARLY as helpful. even though i haven't gained many lbs my mom says that i look better (i think that's also b/c ive been out in the sun a little). i guess i just need to stretch out my stomach to where i can eat more w/o getting full.

Well, it looks pretty good. As long as you're eating every couple hours, you should be able to keep calories high, and you seem to just be limited by how much you *can* eat. You might try adding more oils like olive oil or flax oil if you can get some. Calorie dense, very healthy, non-filling. Drizzle on salads, on a potato, in the burger... 1 Tablespoon of oil has 120 calories, so they add up fast. Although I don't know your exact protein count there, you seem to getting plenty so that looks good too. The best thing I can recommend is the oils and to keep your food choices as healthy as you can. You're pretty much fighting a high metabolism (which you'll wish you could have forever in a few years, trust me) so you may not be able to get *exactly* what you want, but small tweaks to diet and exercise here and there should get you in the right direction.
Good luck and let me know if that helps and how you progress. :)

i did not know that about the oils, im encouraged that im doin somethin right. thanks! expect updates :)

just an update, i haven't gained any fat on my body. according to one of those little home tests i'm only at 5 percent body fat..aka, i haven't changed. i havent' done ANY cardio other than walking around a little every day like the average person. i'm worried either i haven't counted my calories enough or i have a thyroid problem. i dont have health insurance or else i'd go to the doctor. im pretty depressed about all of this..

Wow. I was really hoping you'd see *some* difference by now. Has your weight changed at all? You may well have hyperthyroidism, but unless you think it's an actual detriment to your health, medication might be extreme anyway. I wish I had some better advice other than "wait a few years" since metabolism almost always slows naturally anyway.

yeah, in college my dad was 6'1 and 137 lbs so it could just be my genes.. i feel like my metabolism is faster now though, but then again i've never been really depressed/lost weight/then tried to gain weight back before. :( I went to the gyn today just to get checked out and asked about the thyroid, she felt for swelling and said there wasn't any. she could write a referral for the regular hospital for me to get a physical and test my thyroid, but that's $$ i could use for food at this point! so i think im gonna hold out and do more research.

as for my weight, my bmi is scary, i dont think i've gained any since the end of june. it's really hard to tell b/c i was relying on that faulty scale and the increments i gain at are sooo slight. AT MOST id say 3 lbs since the beginning of may but thats just an estimation. the strength exercises showed more results than gaining fat. i told myself if i could get to a certain acceptable weight, id sign up for the ymca and start using their weight machines (not cardio). last week i gave up on homemade shakes and bought this calorie shake mix (600 per serving) at the vitamin shoppe. if i have some of that WITH meals maybe but im not getting my hopes up. ive completely ditched veggie burgers. pasta/olive oil/and chicken are my friends now.

another annoying thing is ive had people ask me DO YOU EAT, implying im anorexic. its made me feel more self conscious than ever.

That's a drag, but don't let it get you down. Obviously they don't understand it's your metabolism and people can get downright rude as if nasty commens would help someone who *was* anorexic.
Let me know how the shakes work for you. Good luck, girl.

good news! my dad bought a new scale, returned the one he had just bought.. b/c one time it said he weighed 10lbs lighter than his actual weight. yadda yadda.

anyways, point is I think since the end of june I've gained 2lbs. This scale IS accurate and says that I weigh 4 more lbs than the other one, so yay.

Hey! That's better than nothing. :) Progress is progress, no matter how slow.