Kayllaira wrote:
Swimming and the elliptical machine are good for cardio that isn't rough on the knees.
Add cycling to that -- it's the only cardio I can personally stand/enjoy. Elliptical is kind of fun but you're stuck to a gym, and swimming is okay but you're stuck to a relatively confined space and can't listen to music. They are good options, nonetheless.
Callysta wrote:
I am just wondering what a fairly thin woman (5'10" and 115lbs) can do to tone up.
I'm really hesitant to criticize people on the low end of the weight spectrum, especially in a country plagued by fatties, but 5'10'' 115 is a bit too low in general. I'm between 5'10'' and 5'11'' (guy) and when I weighed 125, I looked like Captain America pre-buff. Ironically, I was in extremely good cardio shape, biking about 200 miles a week.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21121834This population study obviously won't mean you specifically
will suffer, but there is a J shaped curve when it comes to BMI and health risks. Most health nuts and physicians I talk to cite the biggest risk of being underweight is that if you encounter a semi-serious health condition and end up in the hospital, your body's ability to recover or tolerate the stress will be severely handicapped. And of course, you don't want to sit on the fence between your body utilizing fat and carbs vs lean tissue and organ tissue.
My advice is to add some weight doing resistance exercises and eating a minimum of 1.2g protein/kg body weight. Then, you would want to focus on making sure your body fat % is low by doing plenty of cardio and eating a clean diet. There is such a thing as "thin but fat." The advantage of starting out as a skinny person is you really won't have much fat to cut at all.
If you want practical rather than aesthetic improvements (for stairs and paintball), you just need to add some muscle and make sure your cardio is in reasonable shape. Even small commitments such as 30 minutes a day several days a week can make a noticeable difference.