Ask Jujimufu #2 - Muscle and tricks on a budget

You ask Jujimufu, and Jujimufu responds. Here are some questions I get through the contact form on this website and directly through e-mail, and here are my responses for everybody to see!

Question from Noerfi about building muscle + tricking with a low budget:

Hey there Jujimufu,
I'm a huge fan for years now but never really did too much like building muscle.. but i thought why not starting now? I'm 21 soon, a tricker and student. But sadly i'm studying electrical enineering in germany which takes a LOT of time. So i'll come to my questions:
How much time would you recommend spending on building muscle and tricking in comparison? As a beginner in building muscle of course.. I've never been in a gym and lifting weights except for 2 weeks last winter with a friend because it was for free.. which is my other issue. As a student i really don't have a lot of money. I literally have to eat and drink for a maximum of 3€ (~4$) a day. now a gym costs about 32$ a month which might become a problem. Do you think i could start at home somehow because i'm not that well trained anyways? the only thing i have is a door mount pull-up bar and a little space in my basement. would you recommend to BUY stuff to train instead of going into a gym on long-term?
So the main issue: how to manage my time, how often to train and how to train cheap, and all that besides tricking. and maybe how to eat the right things, keeping it cheap, too.
It'd be great to hear from you and if you might have some advice. thanks

btw everyone loves my aerials.. thanks to your tips :)

My answer:

Hi Noerfi,

You can build muscle and trick on a low budget, but the amount of muscle you will be able to build will be limited in proportion to the amount of food you eat and time you spend training. To build an appreciable amount of muscle you need to eat an amount of food, and a variety of food you wouldn't be able to afford with your budget. Also, I've never seen someone successfully build muscle or strength doing home workouts without equipment or experience. I would never have been able to achieve anything I've achieved without stepping foot into a gym.

So for the long term I would recommend transitioning yourself into a gym this year, and investing in your own equipment as well years down the road. (The best do both, not one or the other.) Training at gyms is important because, equipment aside, there is a huge psychological response to "being seen" when you train, and becoming comfortable training in the social setting.

If I were you and I was in your position, given what I know now and have experienced, I would focus 100% on tricking and see if I could find a way to make some money. Then I would join a gym as soon as I free'd up some money. I would focus on training for strength, not muscle. Getting stronger doesn't require anywhere near as many calories as building muscle. Then, the foundation from tricking and that strength training would be excellent for building muscle later when you graduate with your electrical engineering degree and get a job that makes enough money to feed yourself for more effective muscle building.

And actually, that's basically what I did for myself, except I worked at a gym at your age while I went to university, and so had a free membership. I used the money I made there to buy some of the food and supplements I wanted. Then I graduated with a biology degree, got a better job, and now can afford everything I want for my training.

- Juji

oh, and happy to hear from a fellow aerial'er! Aerials will save the world! ;-)