Two Day Per Week Program for my Girl - Feedback?

[Doberman13]

I was hoping to get feedback on a program for the girl I'm seeing. She only has two days a week to get into the gym (Tuesday and Thursday) where she has an hour to workout. She will have some time on the weekends for in-home workouts and/or cardio as well.

She is a smaller girl at about 5'3"-5'4" and around 100lbs. She had always been naturally toned but had a baby a year ago and lost a lot of what she had going. She is not fat (obviously) but she wants to get that athletic look back. This is more about the mirror and not about the scale.

I was thinking a full body workout twice per week then light cardio on the weekend. Here would be a sample breakdown:

Tuesday: 1 Hour

• Squats
• Chest Press (machine)
• Goodmornings
• Front Barbell Raise
• Standing Dumbbell Press (or possibly side dumbbell raises?)

Thursday: 1 Hour

• Squats
• Stiff Leg Deadlift
• Seated Row
• Lat Pulldown
• Barbell Curl

Saturday/Sunday: 3 Mile Walk (pushing the baby)

On Tues/Thurs she would rotate weeks where week 1 would be like a 5x5 and week 2 would be 3x8 then repeat....

Thoughts?

 

[Torobestia]

For a 2-way split, I like splitting the squats and deadlifts and the bench and press in order to be practicing a press twice a week and a leg movement twice a week (and it's a different one, too). The general layout might be like

Tuesday
Main lifts
-Squat
-Bench
Accessory lifts
-Choose 2 Squat supplemental lifts: good morning, GHR, lunges, front squat, step ups, unilateral leg press
-Choose 2 Bench supplemental lifts (I'd go with one back and one tricep lift): pullups/chinups, close grip bench presses, T-bar rows, rolling barbell/dumbbell tricep extensions
Other
-1 Shoulder/postural health exercise for 3 sets: facepulls, band pull-aparts, exterior rotations, rear delt raises/flys
-Abs

Thursday
Main Lifts
-Overhead Press
-Deadlift
Accessory Lifts
-Choose 2 OHP supplemental lifts (again, I'd go with 1 tricep/shoulder movement and 1 back movement, personally):
-Choose 2 Deadlift supplemental lifts: good mornings, GHRs, stiff leg deadlifts, RDLs, reverse hyperextensions
Other
-1 Shoulder/postural health exercise for 3 sets: facepulls, band pull-aparts, exterior rotations, rear delt raises/flys
-Abs

The objective of the main lifts could be to get stronger on each. How you periodize it would be up to you. Ideas include Western periodization (pretty common for bodybuilders, not so much powerlifters), conjugate/Westside, and 5/3/1. For the accessory movements, I would go with 3-5 sets of 8-15 reps.

EDIT: added the shoulder/postural and ab work to each days. These "other" exercises could in theory be done the day after the lifting days as they only require about 20 mins, but if she really can't make that happen then do them at the end, but do them.

 

[wrathchild281]

bump up the reps in my opinion like he said 8-15 range. Also for time purposes you can get more volume out of supersets and drop sets. Every so often through in a cycle of 4 excercises combined together

 

[MysteriousNom]

Good info in this thread.

OP just make sure she has her form down

 

[EWolfe08]

jilldunnfit might have some good suggestions for female training. I've seen her clients most of which get awesome results. Not sure if there's a way to tag people on this forum?

JillDunnFit.com