kaleyrae90 said:
Hey, Rosie! It's Kaley from AM. I'm trying to come up with a good base workout for me... Austin suggested asking you because you would be more knowledgeable when it came to girl workouts. Is there any way you could help me out? It would be greatly appreciated!
Kaley,
Sure, I'll help out. As for "girl workouts", man, put THIS mindset out of your head. There's NO such thing, LOL. To get muscle and look good, you have to train same as guys. Some people will tell you differently, but I disagree; you have to train as hard and heavy and as intense as you can to get good results. 'Easy' days should be factored in, yes, and every 6-8 weeks take a week OFF doing any resistance work (but keep doing the cardio in that week), since your central nervous system needs a rest after a while.
Weekly Training Schedule
Ok, so this is what I think would be best for you:
Monday - Gym: Upper Body
Tuesday - HIIT Cardio
Wednesday - Gym: Full-Body
Thursday - HIIT Cardio
Friday - DAY OFF
Saturday - HIIT Cardio + Gym: Lower Body
Sunday: DAY OFF
Resistance Training Programme
You may need to get Austin to show you how to do some of the exercises. I have chosen mostly compound, multijoint exercises, but have tried to keep them uncomplicated, given that you are a beginner to resistance training. You can progress the exercises once your form is spot on, and you are confident in doing them. Please note that form should be the focus at the start (i.e. don't be too worried about how much you are lifting; as long as you are lifting properly, the exercises will be effective!) I have done a 3-day split of Upper Body, Lower Body, and Full-Body, so that you are hitting each body-part twice, but also giving yourself enough time to recover. I have given you 3 sets of 10 reps (i.e. 3 x 10) to start with, as this will give your body a chance to become accustomed to the exercises, and also allow you to work on form. Weights selected should be a weight that you can lift for ~10 reps, but no more; and heavy enough that you'll be struggling on the last couple of reps of the LAST set, but not heavy enough that you struggle on the last rep of the FIRST set.
Upper Body
Instructions: Complete all sets of exercise 1 before moving onto Exercise 2.
Recovery: 60-90 seconds
1. Flat Barbell Bench Press 3 x 10
2. Barbell Bent Over Row 3 x 10
3. Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press 3 x 10
4. Bodyweight Dips 3 x 10
5. Incline Dumbbell Bicep Curls 3 x 10
Lower Body
Instructions: Complete all sets of exercise 1 before moving onto Exercise 2.
Recovery: 60-90 seconds
1. Barbell Front Squats 3 x 10
2. Barbell Romanian (sometimes call stiff-legged) Deadlifts 3 x 10
3. Seated Calf Raises 3 x 6
4. Standing Calf Raises 3 x 6
5. Abs 4 x [a. weighted crunch (knees at 90 degrees flexion in the air) x 15, b. rope crunch x 15]
Full-Body
Instructions: Do this as a circuit - i.e. Start with Exercise 1 (Dumbbell Sumo Squat) and once done that, move straight onto the next exercise, until you have finished Exercise 9. Take 1-2 minutes rest (i.e. sit down) after you've completed exercise 9. Then repeat the circuit (the rest time DURING the circuit should be moving from one exercise to another). Rest again for 1-2 minutes at the end of the second circuit. Then complete it a third time (i.e. 3 sets - once through the circuit is ONE SET). Do 10 reps for each exercise (i.e. do 10 Dumbbell Sumo Squats before you move onto doing 10 Lying Leg Curls).
Sets: 3
Reps: 10 reps per exercise
Recovery: 1-2 minutes between circuit sets
1. Dumbbell Sumo Squat
2. Lying Leg Curl
3. Wide-Grip Lat Pull-Down
4. Push-Ups
5. Standing Dumbbell Lateral Raise
6. Bench Dips
7. Standing Alternating Dumbbell Bicep Curls
8. Abs - Crunches (as many as you can in 60 seconds)
9. Abs - Plank (hold for 60 seconds)
Justification of Resistance Training Programme
You are a complete beginner to resistance training; therefore 3 days a week will be sufficient enough for you(Baechle, et. al. 2000); and the programme written is for 'conditioning' only, to be used for "strengthening and stabilizing those areas that give us greatest support, along with any areas that are at the highest risk for injury . . . along with any other individual weak links present" (Aaberg, 1999, p. 59). It is also the time to get you 'acquainted' with resistance training; and to establish good posture and technique (Aaberg, 1999). All the exercises selected are strength exercises (Epley, 2004).
A three-day lower-upper-and full-body body split has been given, with reps of 10 "to develop an endurance (muscular and metabolic) base for more intense training in later phases and period" (Wathen, et. al., 2000, p. 156) and strength (Chu, 1992). Multiple sets of primarily compound exercises have been used, because it will a) the greater frequency per muscle group will boost your growth hormone more than doing an single sets, which will build more muscle mass and thus increase strength more effectively; b) increase neural activity; c) recruit more motor units in a given session, and therefore train your body to work more effectively as a whole; and d) increase your bone density and bone strength more than isolation exercises would (Heyward, 2006).
HIIT Cardio
'Warm-up' (i.e. cycle lightly or just jog, depending on what mode you do it in) easy for 4 minutes. Then perform 8 x 20 second efforts as hard as you can, making sure that you have 10 seconds easy as possible between each effort (i.e. 4 minutes in total time). Then 'cool-down' (i.e. go easy) for 4 minutes. Easy as; 12 minutes total. you should feel ****ed afterwards, though.
Hope this helps you, girl. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to ask!
Regards,
ROSIE.