Douching - Is it right doing? Safe? Vulnerable?

What is douching?

The word "douche" means to wash or soak in French. Douching is washing or cleaning out the vagina (birth canal) with water or other mixtures of fluids. Most douches are prepackaged mixes of water and vinegar, baking soda, or iodine. You can buy these products at drug and grocery stores. The mixtures usually come in a bottle and can be squirted into the vagina through a tube or nozzle.

Why do women douche? 

Women douche because they mistakenly believe it gives many benefits. Women who douche say they do it to:

• Clean the vagina
• Rinse away blood after monthly periods
• Get rid of odor
• Avoid sexually transmitted infections (STIs)
• Prevent pregnancy

How common is douching?

Douching is common among women in the United States. It's estimated that 20 to 40 percent of American women 15 to 44 years old douche regularly. About half of these women douche each week. Higher rates of douching are seen in teens, African-American women, and Hispanic women.

Is douching safe?

Most doctors and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommend that women don't douche. Douching can change the delicate balance of vaginal flora (organisms that live in the vagina) and acidity in a healthy vagina. One way to look at it is in a healthy vagina there are both good and bad bacteria. The balance of the good and bad bacteria help maintain an acidic environment. Any changes can cause an over growth of bad bacteria which can lead to a yeast infection or bacterial vaginosis. Plus, if you have a vaginal infection, douching can push the bacteria causing the infection up into the uterus, fallopian (fuh-LOH-pee-uhn) tubes, and ovaries.

Indian rupee slips below Rs 100-level against UK pound, hits new bottom

Indian rupee today hit a fresh bottom below Rs 100 level against the British pound, even as the markets remain focussed on the Indian currency hitting a record low of sub Rs 64-level against the US dollar.

The rupee hit a new low of Rs 100.35 against the British pound (GBP) early this morning, as weak domestic fundamentals including ballooning current account deficit weighed down on the Indian currency.

After a modest recovery from its bottom, rupee was seen trading at Rs 99.7 against the British pound by mid-day trade.

The rupee has depreciated by about 25 per cent in the past three months, from close to Rs 83 in mid-May, while it was even higher at about Rs 80 against the British Pound in March.

At close to Rs 100 level, the British pound is the most expensive against the Indian rupee among major foreign currencies across the world, followed by euro (Rs 85), Swiss franc (Rs 69), US dollar (Rs 63.7), Canadian dollar (Rs 61.5), Australian dollar (Rs 57.8), New Zealand dollar (Rs 50.9) and Singapore dollar (Rs 49.8).

Against the US dollar too, the rupee today hit a fresh low below Rs 64-level and slipped to as low as Rs 64.11 before marginally recovering to Rs 63.72 by mid-day in the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market.

The rupee had recorded the decade's worst single-day fall of 148 paise to close at record low of 63.13 yesterday, while it dropped further by about 98 paise this morning.

Forex dealers said besides strong demand for the American currency from importers and banks, dollar's strength against other currencies overseas amid expectation that the Federal Reserve will soon taper its bond-buying programme weighed on the domestic currency.

Continuing plunge in equity markets in view of sustained capital outflows by foreign funds is further adding to the pressure on the rupee.

Mock Mars food space mission concludes

A four-month simulated mission aimed at studying ways to feed astronauts during a trip to Mars has finally concluded.

The mission, dubbed Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS), was launched in mid-April this year and concluded on Tuesday this week, when six explorers emerged from a space habitat.

The 118-day operation, which was led by Cornell University and the University of Hawaii, was running nearly 8,000 feet above sea level on the northern slope of Mauna Loa on Hawaii's Big Island.

Using micro-blogging site Twitter, Commander Angelo Vermeulen announced, "We have landed. #hiseas Mission 1 is officially over."

During the mission, the explorers ate several different types of instant foods. They used shelf-stable ingredients to cook some of their foods. They rated the foods and prepared detailed records of their body mass, health status and moods.

Sharing his experience during the mission, Vermeulen said that they enjoyed wheat bread, nuts, rye crackers and dried fruits. He noted that shelf-stable foods are normally highly processed and hence lack fiber. He added that he would like to include spices, hot sauce and herbs during a mission to Mars or Moon.

Funded by American space agency NASA, HI-SEAS will help scientists determine how to keep astronauts healthy as well as happy during long travels in space.

Female Frogs Prefer Multitasking Mates

A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Minnesota has unveiled that it is not only the tendency of humans, but of frogs as well to seek a mate who has the ability of multitasking.

The study of mating calls led the researchers discover that the female gray tree frogs seek mates, which could produce rapidly pulsating, long and recurrent mating calls.

Lead researcher Jessica Ward said that the duration of typical mating calls for the frog species was of 20-40 pulses a call as well as something between five and 15 calls a minute. A tradeoff was faced by male frogs between duration and call rate.

The report concluded that the females did not prefer any simple task. The multitasking ability just was kind of dancing and singing all together.

It is being said that the hypothesis that females preferred males with the desirable quality of doing more than one thing at once was proved correct by the study. Recordings of 1,000 mating calls suggested that males producing longer calls were doing so at shorter rates.

"It's easy to imagine that we humans might also prefer multitasking partners, such as someone who can successfully earn a good income, cook dinner, manage the finances", in the words of Ward.

Left or right brained? Study says theres no such thing

Following a two-year study, University of Utah researchers have debunked that myth through identifying specific networks in the left and right brain that process lateralized functions.

Lateralization of brain function means that there are certain mental processes that are mainly specialized to one of the brain's hemispheres, researchers said. In the study, they analysed resting brain scans of 1,011 people between the ages of 7 and 29.

In each person, they studied functional lateralization of the brain measured for brain regions — finding no relationship that individuals preferentially use their leftbrain network or right-brain network more often.

"It's absolutely true that some brain functions occur in one or the other side of the brain. Language tends to be on the left, attention more on the right. But people don't tend to have a stronger left or right-sided brain network. It seems to be determined more connection by connection," said Jeff Anderson, lead author of the study.

The participants' scans were taken during a functional connectivity MRI analysis, meaning a participant lay in a scanner for 5 to 10 minutes while their resting brain activity was analysed.

By viewing brain activity, scientists can correlate brain activity in one region of the brain compared to another. In the study, researchers broke up the brain into 7,000 regions and examined which regions of the brain were more lateralized.

They looked for connections and added up the number of connections for each brain region that was left-lateralized or right-lateralized .

Excessive Smartphone Use Leads to Risks of 'Screen Sightedness' Among Kids

Recently, a report about increasing use of Smarthphone has been published in 'Daily Express'.

There has been noticed an increasing obsession for Smartphones, not only in adults, but also in children. It is the set of games that lure them to spend lots of time on the handsets and that too with a very close vision. The handsets are put only 18 to 30cm away from the eyes whereas while reading newspapers and books, a distance of 40cm from the face is maintained.

Considering this, it has been recently warned by a top UK eye surgeon that sight problems are becoming common among children as young as seven.

At such a young age, their eyes are getting affected, which is a sign of big stress.

It was in 1997 when Smartphones were launched for the first time. According to David Allamby, a leading laser eye surgeon in the UK, since then there has been noticed a 35% increase in patients suffering from advancing myopia (short-sightedness).

After analyzing the ongoing trend, he has further warned that if an immediate ban is not put over the use of Smartphones by children, in next 10 years, this ratio will increase by 50%. Yes, a large number of young adults and children would then suffer from this condition.

Turning out to be rocket science

After years of effort and back-to-back failures, today’s GSLV launch is crucial to ISRO’s quest for an indigenous cryogenic engine

Once again, a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) is on the launch pad at Sriharikota. This launch will be crucial — after two successive failures of the rocket, the Indian Space Research Organisation can ill afford one more troubled flight. Moreover, the space agency needs to demonstrate that, after 20 years of effort, it has now mastered cryogenic technology.

The GSLV retains the first two stages of its predecessor, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). In order to carry heavier satellites than the latter, the third stage of the GSLV uses cryogenic propulsion. Running on liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, a cryogenic engine offers greater energy efficiency than those that use other propellants. The improved efficiency means that the upper stage can carry less propellant, with the weight saved translating directly into more payload.

ISRO tried to purchase cryogenic technology from what was then the Soviet Union, but the deal that was signed in 1991 ran into trouble after the U.S. imposed sanctions. Russia, which inherited the deal after the breakup of the Soviet Union, backed out of providing the technology but agreed to supply seven flight-worthy stages for the GSLV. (For more details see “The long road to cryogenic technology,” The Hindu, April 15, 2010).

Left with no option, ISRO began the Cryogenic Upper Stage Project in April 1994 for developing an indigenous version of the Russian cryogenic engine and stage. While this technology development was in progress, it could fly the GSLV with Russian-made stages.

The GSLV, equipped with a Russian cryogenic stage, first flew in 2001. However, unlike the PSLV, which shook off the failure of its first launch and went on to notch up 23 consecutive successes, the GSLV has been trouble prone. In its seven flights so far, three were outright failures and another two suffered serious problems.

In April 2010, the GSLV flew for the first time with an indigenous cryogenic stage. Close to five minutes after lift-off, the cryogenic engine came to life but only very briefly. With thrust from that engine failing to pick up, the rocket soon tumbled into the sea.

In December the same year, the GSLV was flown again, this time with a Russian cryogenic stage. But disaster struck yet again, with the vehicle going out of control less than a minute into the flight, breaking up into pieces and exploding into flames over Sriharikota.

ISRO has gone to great lengths to learn from those failures and adopt suitable changes, say senior officials of the space agency.

The Russian cryogenic engine and stage design is complicated. Booster turbopumps installed at the bottom of the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks maintain a steady flow of propellants to the main turbopump.

Glitch rectified

Analysis of the data radioed down by the rocket during its April 2010 flight showed that the booster turbopump supplying liquid hydrogen had caused the problem. The turbopump had started up normally and attained a maximum speed of 34,800 revolutions per minute. But its rotation slowed after less than one second and stopped soon afterwards.

A detailed review concluded that one of the pump’s seals could have gripped the rotating shaft as a result of thermal deformation or some tiny contaminant becoming wedged somewhere. Alternatively, the casing of the turbine that drives the pump could have ruptured.

The review led to a tightening of manufacturing tolerances for the booster turbopump’s parts as well as more stringent procedures for its assembly. Extensive testing has also been introduced, including of the fully-assembled turbopumps.

The starting sequence for a cryogenic engine is a complex process, involving split-second timing. The cryogenic engine as well as the stage’s two small steering engines were tested briefly under simulated high-altitude conditions at ISRO’s Mahendragiri facility in Tamil Nadu to ensure that their ignition went smoothly.

In the GSLV’s December 2010 flight, a shroud, which protects the cryogenic engine during atmospheric flight, opened up as the rocket accelerated to supersonic speeds. In the process, it pulled apart connectors for electrical cables carrying control signals from onboard computers mounted near the top of the rocket to the rest of the vehicle. Out of control, the vehicle turned sharply and soon broke up. The shroud has now been strengthened and the connector mounting modified.

In its forthcoming mission, the GSLV is carrying GSAT-14, a communication satellite weighing close to two tonnes.

The rocket could launch seven more spacecraft over the next four years, according to ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan. This could include four communication satellites, a meteorological satellite identical to the Insat-3D that was launched last month on Europe’s Ariane 5 rocket, the GISAT remote sensing satellite as well as Chandrayaan-2, the country’s next lunar exploration mission.

The cost of launching Insat-3D on Ariane 5, not including insurance, came to $82 million (Rs.490 crore), Dr. Radhakrishnan told this correspondent. The ‘marginal cost’ of each GSLV — that is, the additional expense the space agency incurs on the launch vehicle but which does not include all the organisational costs and investments for supporting the mission — came to about Rs.200 crore.

However, the current version of the GSLV will probably not be able to carry communication satellites weighing more than about 2.2 tonnes. ISRO has already launched several considerably heavier communication satellites aboard Ariane rockets. The Department of Space’s latest annual report shows eight more communication satellites being launched abroad over the next four years, including the GSAT-7 that will fly on the Ariane 5 later this month.

ISRO is in the process of developing a more powerful rocket, the GSLV Mark-III, that will be capable of carrying four-tonne-class communication satellites. The rocket’s giant solid propellant booster and its big liquid propellant stage have already been successfully tested on the ground. But an entirely new cryogenic engine and stage have also to be prepared.

Test firing of the GSLV Mark-III’s cryogenic engine would start soon and the intention was to have the entire vehicle ready for its first developmental flight by 2016-17, according to the ISRO chairman.

gopal.raj@thehindu.co.in

The graphic that accompanied this article has been removed as it had some factual errors.

Keywords: Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, GSLV, Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV, GSLV Mark-III’s cryogenic engine, GSAT-14, communication satellite, ISRO

New 2014 Rolls Royce Wraith India launch on August 19

The BMW Group owned British luxury car maker Rolls Royce’s new 2 door coupe- the Wraith.

We have always known that the Wraith is headed to India and we recently posted spy pics of a 2014 Rolls Royce Wraith that was spotted in Delhi. Now, official word is out that the Wraith will be launched on August 19.

The new Rolls Royce Wraith is being touted as the most powerful and sporty Roller ever and we really have no intentions of challenging this claim.   The new Wraith coupe is based on the Ghost luxury sedan, which in turn, is based on the BMW 7 Series flagship sedan. The Wraith is the only two door coupe in the British luxury carmaker’s product portfolio and is targeted at those who are in the market for a sporty yet classy two door coupe. The Rolls Royce Wraith is powered by a 6.6-litre Twin Turbo V12 engine that has max power output of 624bhp and a peak torque of 800Nm! The ‘sportiest-ever’ Roller can dismiss 100kmph from standstill in just 4.6 seconds. The engine is mated to an 8-speed automatic gearbox which uses GPS data to preselect an appropriate gear ratio to deal with the upcoming road conditions (WoW!).

The interiors of the new Roller come with top notch materials that consist of richest of the leather (read: Phantom spec) and have been hand-crafted to perfection. The interior of the car is adorned with open pore wood named Canadel Panelling. Rolls Royce says that the interior of the new car has been inspired from that of an ultra-luxury yacht.

Stay tuned to Motoroids for more on 2014 Rolls Royce Wraith India launch

via OD

Tags: 2014 Rolls Royce Wraith, rolls royce wraith india, rolls royce wraith india launch, rolls royce wraith launch in india
Category: News, Rolls-Royce, Rolls-Royce Wraith, Upcoming Launches

Reference to Motoroids..

Alto, Eon, other small car sales defy slump

Even as most segments in the domestic passenger car industry including utility vehicles are witnessing a decline in demand, the mini car segment that comprises of the Maruti Alto, Wagon R, Hyundai Santro and Eon, has witnessed a surprising growth in the first four months of this fiscal.

The segment grew by 6.5% to 180,085 units between April and July this year, at a time when the overall passenger car segment has declined by nearly 10%.

Even the compact car segment, which comprises the bulk of other small cars such as the Maruti Swift, Ritz, Hyundai i10 and i20, Ford Figo, Honda Brio, Volkswagen Polo and Toyota Etios Liva, saw sales decline by over 10% during the same time.

“There is definitely a trend that the mini car segment is witnessing an uptick in demand,” said Vishnu Mathur, director general, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. “I think the entry-level car consumer is returning to the market as he has waited long enough. The discounts in this segment are also very high so the feeling is there is no better time to buy a mini car.”

The maximum growth has come for Wagon R, which has seen a 31% growth over last year, followed by the Eon, which grew by 15% and the Santro a more sedate 6%. In contrast bigger and more expensive compact cars such as the Figo, i20, Swift and Polo have seen sales decline by 40%, 25.3%, 12.1% and 1.4% respectively.

Manufacturers said a large chunk of demand for mini cars are coming from small towns and rural parts of the country. For example, around 45% sales of Hyundai’s entry level small car Eon comes from rural and semi-urban markets.

“Even though the demand for cars is sluggish, our rural sales has grown by 20% this year,” said Mayank Pareek, chief operating officer, marketing, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.

“That demand is reflected in the higher numbers for these cars. We are also increasing our penetration in the countryside and hope to cover 100,000 villages this year. There is lot more optimisim in rural markets than in urban centres.”

Breast cancer drugs could be used to treat lung cancer

Experimental drugs previously developed to treat breast and ovarian cancers may also be effective at treating some lung cancers, Medical News Today reported
In a study published in the journal Oncogene, researchers discovered that drugs called poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors could help treat approximately 50 percent of non-small cell lung cancer tumors.
Currently, PARP inhibitors are used to treat women who have been diagnosed with breast or ovarian cancers caused by mutations in the BRCA1 OR BRCA2 genes. The drugs target two DNA repair systems simultaneously, which enables them to kill cancer cells while leaving healthy cells intact.
It is believed that the drugs would act similarly against some non-small cell lung cancer tumors.
"Lung cancer is hard to treat and unfortunately has very poor survival, so there is an urgent need to find new treatments,” said Dr. Chris Lord, a scientist at the the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London where the study was conducted. “Our research opens up an exciting new route, by showing how we could repurpose drugs originally designed for use against other forms of cancer."
Non-small cell lung cancers comprise 80 to 95 percent of lung cancers, and these types of cancer are the second most common cancer in both women and men worldwide, Medical News Today reported. Survival rates for non-small cell lung cancers are low; even when diagnosed at stage one, the five-year survival rate is only 49 percent.
Researchers say their next steps will be to test PARP inhibitors on lung cancer patients in clinical trials.

Will Twitter and LinkedIn Outlast Facebook?

If anyone follows the social media space on a daily basis, it was tough to miss the excellent piece penned by 13-year-old Ruby Karp this week. As she explained in her Mashable post,Facebook is struggling to resonate with the next teenage generation. Funny thing is I agree with almost everything she says.

Facebook is heavily -- let me take that back -- I meant to say *overly* reliant on the social graph. As a 28-year-old, I frequent the network because 98 percent of my peers are on it. It's been an amazing way to keep up with old friends and make new ones from around the world (e.g. was an excellent resource during my trip to Spain last month for making & keeping friends from around the world).

Then again, I'm highly peeved by the number of weddings and babies that show up in my news feed. I can only imagine what Facebook is becoming for my 28-year-old single girl friends, and I won't be surprised if more & more of my friends depart the network before we know it. (MEMO to my female friends: live your own life and stop worrying about others).

While Ruby discusses how many of her peers are turning to upstart social networks like Snapchat, she gives additional reasons for why her teenage peers are turning their backs on Facebook.

Considering I was "invited" to join Facebook while I was a sophomore in college, I especially love this line: "Facebook was just this thing all our parents seemed to have."

In Facebook's pursuit of world ownership, they somehow forgot that the kids hold the keys to the next generation. Kudos to Mark Zuckerberg for taking notice and scooping Instagrambefore they really hit their stride as the userbase has more than tripled since the acquisition.

As the Facebook upper age brackets continue to rise, the network becomes increasingly unattractive to the younger generation. If you're friends aren't on it, you're surely not going to be compelled by your grandparents.

While Ruby's article harps on Facebook's potential lack of sustainability, I want to make two quick arguments for networks that I've longed believed will have greater sustainability: LinkedIn and Twitter.

LinkedIn possesses an inherent advantage over all of the other social networks: it is a professional network. If you're a recent graduate pursuing anything in the business realm, I don't care if your great-grandfather is on the network -- you need to be joining him. For this reason and many more, I believe LinkedIn has some great growth ahead of itself as I've longed maintained.

Twitter possesses a different kind of advantage, and it's known as the interest graph. Whether it is your favorite brand, your favorite team or your favorite celebrity, Twitter allows you to keep up with what you find most interesting. Although your interests may change with time, it's simple to follow or unfollow the accounts. There's a reason Twitter refers to itself as an information network as opposed to a social network, and I firmly believe the platform's sustainability is a catalyst behind that self-assessment.

While I have my doubts that social networks like Snap-chat can survive the long haul, they'll likely be scooped up by Facebook before it matters to them... and Ruby Karp should get a commission check for shining a light on Facebook's glaring long term problems.

LPG distributor portability soon

Scheme in Chennai, Coimbatore by August 15  

For lakhs of households in Chennai and Coimbatore switching over to a cooking gas distributor of their choice, especially of another public sector oil marketing company, is set to be a reality soon.

Making it happen will be the Union Petroleum Ministry’s web-enabled inter-company distributor portability scheme, which, oil industry sources say, will be rolled out in the two cities by August 15. Indeed, it may well be freedom for consumers who find themselves stuck with their distributor in the absence of an option to migrate to another company.

While distributor portability is available in a limited way now, within the company and at select localities, for Indane consumers in Chennai, the soon-to-be-launched scheme will give them more choices. It will be an easy online process involving a few steps for customers desirous of changing LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) agency.

There will be no manual intervention. A timeline is also likely to be prescribed within which the customer request should be processed and the job completed.

For the scheme, clusters comprising distributors of the three oil marketing companies – IOC, BPCL and HPCL – were formed recently in both the cities. The idea, according to sources, is to offer multiple choices to customers residing within a particular radius.

Inter-company portability, however, could not be launched in areas where only one or two of the oil companies have agencies. Where all three firms have distributors, the distance from the agency to the customer premises would also be a determining factor for the launch.

In Chennai, about six lakh consumers or around 20 per cent of the households using subsidised LPG would get the portability option, while in Coimbatore around three lakh of the 12 lakh customers would be covered initially. Industry sources said five clusters had been formed in Chennai. On the contentious issue of what should be done with the equipment, oil industry officials said the incumbent distributor would collect it when the customer moves to another company. The new distributor would supply the cylinder and pressure regulator at no additional cost.



Keywords: cooking gas, LPG, distributor portability scheme

Justice for a brave heart: Timeline of the Delhi gangrape case First Verdict is Today

Body Metabolism Boosters (BMB)

What is Metabolism?

As defined by Wikipedia “the set of chemical reactions that occur in living organisms in order to maintain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures and respond to their environments”.

What is the Problem now?

Many of us have a sluggish metabolism. This can make it really difficult to lose weight and extremely easy to gain weight. A slow metabolism can also make you tire out easily so you don’t get to enjoy all that life has to offer. However, there is good news. You can easily boost your metabolism naturally if you know how. 

Below, you will find 7 Tips to increase your metabolism:

1. Early Morning Intense Exercise – A short and intense exercise as soon as you get up can do wonders for your metabolism. The best part is you only have to do about five minutes of intense exercise to reap the benefit all the day. The exercise you do can be really simple. Examples would include running in place, jumping jacks, and lunges. Of course, if you have a stair master or a jogging machine, that would work too. Just get your heart rate up for five minutes and cool down for two minutes.

2. Eat Some Spicy Food – Hot spices like curry, cayenne pepper, black pepper, cumin, and turmeric all help the body speed up your metabolism. There are other “hot” spices that you may not think of as hot but they react in the body in this way. They include cinnamon, cardamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Try adding these tasty spices to your soups, stir-fries, casseroles, and other dishes. Curry goes great in some type of salads like quinoa salads. Some people love the taste of cinnamon in their coffee. Just add it to the grounds before you brew it.

3. Drink Lots of Water – Water is magical in this way. Drink a lot of water and your metabolism will magically increase because the metabolic process needs water to fuel it. It’s even better if you make sure you are drinking alkaline water.

4.Keep Your Thyroid Healthy – To work efficiently, the thyroid needs selenium, zinc, copper, and iodine. However, the American diet is notoriously low in these important minerals. To get more of these minerals, eat more seafood and nuts.

5. Never Skip Breakfast – Unfortunately, in this fast paced world we live in, many of us have a tendency to skip breakfast or grab something nutrient poor on the way out the door. This is one of the worst things you can do for your metabolism. Always eat a healthy breakfast. This should include a healthy protein like eggs from pasture raised chickens and fruit bursting with antioxidants like blueberries or strawberries.

6. Don’t Eat As Much Late In the Day – Unfortunately, most of us eat more at dinner than we do at breakfast. We also tend to snack at night before bedtime. This is exactly the opposite of what you want to do to speed up your metabolism. Try to eat more earlier in the day and less at dinner. Plus, try not to eat for at least three hours before bedtime.

7. Build More Muscle Mass – Weight training isn’t just for body builders. Building muscle mass should be part of all fitness programs. Even if you can’t join a gym or buy fancy equipment, you can build muscle mass. A couple of cans of food or water bottles filled with water can serve as weights for your arms and you can use those big rubber bands (cheap) or your own body weight to provide resistance to your legs to build more muscle mass.