Preventing bony chest??

Oh well in that case, I think what you need to do is just focus on gaining muscle, as you probably lost a lot of muscle, bone density etc during your unhealthy fat loss. This could explain why your bones show sooner than you'd wish. So if you want to look more like the squat-girl, it's all about gaining more muscle, which you'd definitely have to do for a 6-pack. Women need a higher bf% than men to be healthy, your six-pack shows at a higher % than ours, but you can't get it as visible as men can without it being unhealthy. So don't try to get a 6-pack

It's very important for women to remember that women like that Miss Universe are not healthy. A healthy woman has around 20-25% bf. Going lower than 15% is not advised.

Do you work out at home or in a gym? What equipment do you have access to? (Dumbbells, Barbells, Cables?) Any injuries etc we ought to know about before we go into routines?

Either way, my guess is what's best for you is a full body routine, as Scoobys beginner routine is. You're definitely not going to need isolations ^^

sorry myschly, I didn't see your post when i replied the last time...

Firstly thank you for stressing the importance that women do not try to reach body fat levels the same as men.  This, for whatever reason, never occurred to me and I think this is really, really important for women to realize.  But to hear it coming from a forum of bodybuilders, people who know the sport, that is even more reassuring that my natural inclination that women should/could look more like squat girl than miss universe, is good.

Right now I work out at home doing Scoobys beginner.  I have a no mar chin up bar and 10lb dumbells (?)  The small weights for each hand with a weight on each side of your hand kinda weights??  They're a solid piece though.  You can't change the weight on the end.  I also have one of those therma band (??) things.  The stretchy resistance band I use for physio.

I have a gym membership that I've only used for swimming up until now but I have access to the city gym.  I will be using the treadmill and cardio machines though because I've been given the okay to go back to running to see how it goes.

In terms of injuries I just have a weird problem with my legs/hips.  Mostly only in one but it's there in both.  The therapist says it's originally caused because all of my joints have too much mobility in them.  ie- the muscles don't stabilize the joints properly.  This is most pronounced in the spine and hips.  The major category of muscles affected are the muscles used to hold the body upright.  All the postural muscles. (So I'm hoping doing these routines are going to help with that)  It's quite painful most of the time... everywhere...

The biggest issue though is that because I've always stayed active despite knowing what the problem was, it's created more problems.  This continued until I couldn't walk anymore because of the pain and because they muscles just couldn't do it anymore.  My leg was actually having to be dragged behind because the hip flexor was seized.

To compensate for the extra-mobility/instability in the hip the iliotibial band, hip flexors and some other one i don't remember became quite fibrous with adhesions.  Basically trying to get as solid as possible to stabilize the hip.  (I was biking 30k a day to work at this time and running 5k every other day) .... then... I was doing nothing.

So.  I have to take it slow.  I have exercising to stimulate the glutes cause they're not firing as they should/could.  Not to make them bigger but to trigger the brain to tell all the fibers to work at once.  Also to build up core slowly because it's horribly weak.  For example, because of the instability in the hips and the adhesions etc.. plank pose (great for core) is excruciatingly painful.  not just when I do it, but for days after it is difficult to walk.  So we've dropped that one for a bit until I get a little more strength from the bridges etc.

Whew... that was a long one.  how's that for a weird challenge?  No... no isolations I don't think.  I think I did have muscle loss but that was about 5 years ago the last time I stopped eating so I've gained a fair bit of the day to day muscle back.

Anyway, that's my story in a nut shell... as always, any advice is welcome.

Thanks guys.

Lassy, I understand how you can be self-conscious about a bony chest, but with the physical challenges you have right now, I think you need to re-focus your thoughts on getting healthy and gaining overall strength. Once you're at a healthy weight and have good strength, then you can worry about a bony chest.

Scooby's beginning plan is a good one, and I think you'd be best to stick to that for awhile. Your problem is because your muscles don't stabilize your joints well enough, so strengthening the muscles should help. If I were you, I wouldn't think about using any weights yet, not even 10 pound dumbbells. Bodyweight exercises are plenty good enough to get you stronger.

If you have problems with certain exercises, like planks, see about modifying them. You can do planks from your knees instead of your toes, for instance, and do them for only very short periods of time. If planks are totally out for now, just do crunches. Be sure you have proper form when you do crunches--take a look at Scooby's videos in our Video Library. Even if you can't do a full crunch, just a partial one that tenses your abs would be a good start.

A couple ideas come to mind for your situation. Please check with your physio, but have you tried bodyweight squats? These are great for building all the muscles of the posterior chain (including lower back--use proper form!) as well as the core muscles. And I also wonder if certain stretches might help you? I'm thinking specifically of using a styrofoam roller to roll out tight spots like hip flexors. But, as I said, check with your physio first.

oh...
I just wanted to mention in all of this...
I'm still swimming minimum (30-45min) 2X per week often 4X depending on my schedule.  I'm still active.  It's just weight bearing exercise is tricky because it causes problems for so long after.

 

What RT said about reps--I agree, go with half the number! You definitely don't want that severe tearing type pain. And you may have to alter the number of reps depending on how you feel. If half still gives you that bad pain, cut it back more; but if you're not sore at all, not even DOMS, increase by a couple reps the next time and see how you feel then.

AND that's a good video for bodyweight squats. Just a couple things I'd like to add--as RT said, what you do with your hands isn't that important, but it IS important to keep your chest up, so you're not bending forward at the waist. The bend is from the hips, and you should keep your upper body as upright as you can and still keep your balance. You also might have difficulty going all the way to the bottom of the squat if you have flexibility problems, so go as deep as you can comfortably. If you can't go all the way down, work on flexibility and you'll get there. Also, go at a speed that's comfortable for you--and don't go overboard on the reps!

Swimming is great cardio, so keep that up!

It can be frustrating trying to build back up again, but taking it slow and steady is the best for long-term progress. Keep a progress diary, so in 6 months you can look back and see how much you've improved!

Yeah definitely don't go to failure. For strength, it's best not to go to failure, and for hypertrophy (bigger muscles), failure isn't needed. So never go to failure until your problems are gone. Do 3x3-5 with what you can do 3x8-12 with. "No pain no gain" is probably misunderstood as often as "survival of the fittest". DOMS yes, any other pain, stop.

My theory is that with the right chest exercises i might be able to gain enough muscle just to sort of fill it in a bit so that the dips between the ribs aren't so noticeable.  so the chest (other than where my breasts are,.. which aren't too big to start with) is more smooth than having the ribs visible.