Ok to start with I'm not some sort of work out pro, so don't judge me harshly. In the past two months I've dropped 30lbs of fat and recently I've begun working on my body a fair bit. I use basketball to really sweat off some weight and give my legs a good jolt of energy. It's kind of my cardio work out I guess... Anyways I've also been doing sit ups and push-ups, since I have no money for a gym membership to try and tone my body. I started with 30 sit ups a night, and 10 push ups a night. Small numbers I know but I was really out of shape. I'm up to 160 sit ups a night and 40 push ups. I do these every night and play basketball ALMOST every night. So far I've seen good results but my arm strength isn't really increasing at the rate that my stomach is flattening out(and finally getting some muscle behind it). Is this normal? Should I add other arm work outs to help increase my arm strength? Or should I just continue the routine as is and try and push myself a little bit more when it comes to the push ups and just start doing larger numbers? Please remember I don't have any money for weights or anything like that >_> Ideas? Thoughts?
Although situps and pushups are allround the best toner, in my opinion anyway, diversity is always a good thing, and since your doing the same thing every night you're not leaving enough time for the muscles to repair. If i were you, create a little rotar that consists of 2 days, have one include sit ups, pushups, pull ups (try to vary the style aswell, i.e. one leg over sit ups and triangle push ups). Have the other day include squats, leg raises, lunges, "toilet seats (hold the toilet seat position for as long as possible)", "the plank" etc etc. As for weights, your going to have to be creative and it depends on what you've got lurking around, toolboxes are often quite heavy as are bricks. Just don't lift anything fragile!
Definitely mix up your exercises. Your body will get too used to doing pushups and situps and the effectiveness will drop. Dont do them every day either, as overflow said, your body wont have time to repair. Pull ups is a great exercise and maybe do some tricep-letdowns. Just get a chair, sit with your back against the seat and your butt on the floor, reach behind you and put your arms behind you and grab the chair then push yourself off the ground with your feet still on the floor. There are otherways to do it but that is a good one. You should really save up a couple bucks and buy just one or two dumbells that you think it is a good weight for you, the exercises you can do with those are countless. You could also fill up some 4-litre or bigger jugs with water and lift those