Wife's Workout Plan

[GreenMachineX]

Hey guys, I need some input for my wife's training plan. There's a couple in exercises in there that are must haves due to her physical training test for work she takes a couple times per year. Those are pushups, planks, farmers walks, DB swing, and deadlift. Otherwise, she wants to address weak points such as Lateral delts, Triceps, and all things lower body of course.

Here's the plan:

Day 1
Bench Press
Inverted Row
Pushups
Cable Upright Row
Cable Reverse Flies
Overhead Triceps Extension

Day 2
BB Squat
Romanian Deadlift
Walking Lunge
Hamstring Curl
DB Swing
Leg Lifts

Day 3
Standing Overhead Press
Pullup
Dips
Barbell Row
DB Lateral Raise
DB Curls

Day 4
Deadlift
Front Squat or Leg Press
Hamstring Curl
BB Hip Thrust
Farmers Walk
Planks

Upper body is 3-4 sets of 8-12. Squats and deadlifts are 4-5 sets of 3-5. All other lower body is 4-5 sets of 8-12. Rest 2-3 minutes between sets. Cardio will be steady state running or HIIT.

Is it too much work per workout? She's been working out for years, but not progressing. I don't get it. Any thoughts would be welcome.

 

[GreenMachineX]

@Hyde @Resolve10 @MrKleen73 @Dustin07 @SkRaw85
Am i missing out any other strength gurus?

 

[Dustin07]

What's her biggest goals?
Seeing the db swings on lower day reminds me of one of the hardest parts of xfit programming. I have a lot of kb experience and a worthless piece of paper that says I'm certified to coach kb lol. But in my experience a ton of swings make your shoulders feel like gi joe shoulders with little screws going through them.

Russian style swings (to eye level) are less taxing on the shoulders than American swings that end overhead. In theory of course swings are a posterior movement, but in application they do tax the shoulders. so I'd keep that in mind when programming them.

I'm growing to dislike pull-ups as my mobility now is centered on squat/pull/press and pull-ups irritate my shoulders and hands. BUT my experience with female lifters is that they usually can't do pull-ups, or at least not well and I 100% encourage controlled deficits to build pull-ups instead of bands (depending on where she is in her strength journey)

 

[Resolve10]

I saw this and didn't have time to post thoughts because I am already late getting started on my workout, but if no one else has tackled it later I'll try to post some thoughts when I am free.

My initial thoughts were progress stall could be due to a ton of things without more info, but that it isn't likely too much, if anything you could probably pump the volume/frequency on the shoulders/triceps if that is a goal (with some exercise tweaks probably).

Hope someone else can give you a better response so you don't have to wait though.

 

[GreenMachineX]

What's her biggest goals?
Seeing the db swings on lower day reminds me of one of the hardest parts of xfit programming. I have a lot of kb experience and a worthless piece of paper that says I'm certified to coach kb lol. But in my experience a ton of swings make your shoulders feel like gi joe shoulders with little screws going through them.

Russian style swings (to eye level) are less taxing on the shoulders than American swings that end overhead. In theory of course swings are a posterior movement, but in application they do tax the shoulders. so I'd keep that in mind when programming them.

I'm growing to dislike pull-ups as my mobility now is centered on squat/pull/press and pull-ups irritate my shoulders and hands. BUT my experience with female lifters is that they usually can't do pull-ups, or at least not well and I 100% encourage controlled deficits to build pull-ups instead of bands (depending on where she is in her strength journey)

Biggest goals are the usual improve body composition, get stronger, etc, but she MUST improve on pushups, deadlifts, DB swing (used for medicine ball throw improvement), and sprint/2 mile. I'd like to see her get to a single pullup as well.

 

[Smont]

I treat women's workouts the same as a man's in the beginning, full body, a little extra emphasis on legs tho.

Excpt for my wife, her workouts are very specific.

Washing machine loading for 3 sets of 1 load ea.

Dishwashers with lateral plate raises into the cabinets.

Floor mopping, 3 rooms.

Saturday is laundry folding for forearm and wrist mobility

 

[Dustin07]

I treat women's workouts the same as a man's in the beginning, full body, a little extra emphasis on legs tho.

Excpt for my wife, her workouts are very specific.

Washing machine loading for 3 sets of 1 load ea.

Dishwashers with lateral plate raises into the cabinets.

Floor mopping, 3 rooms.

Saturday is laundry folding for forearm and wrist mobility

 

[Dustin07]

Biggest goals are the usual improve body composition, get stronger, etc, but she MUST improve on pushups, deadlifts, DB swing (used for medicine ball throw improvement), and sprint/2 mile. I'd like to see her get to a single pullup as well.

How old is your wife?
My experience has been that my wife did the best when she went on a cutting diet with me which was HARD core HIIT xfit style programming and a caloric deficit.

She also did very well when I hired my buddy who is a competitive bodybuilder to write her programming and nutrition. the biggest difference between my approach and his, was that his included more carbs, cardio before and post workout, less HIIT (and less risk for injury).

my other experience is that few women are willing to work as hard as me and it makes it extremely difficult to program since my idea of a finished workout is a wheelchair, electrolyte IV, and drowning in a pool of my own sweat.

is the med ball a long distance throw, or like medball squats throwing vertically to a 9ft line?
she has to test on both a short sprint as well as a 2 mile?

for the pull-ups, again, train deficits. at least 3 sets of 3 attempts 3-5 days a week. jumping to pull-up bar with the slowest most controlled descent that she can.

 

[GreenMachineX]

How old is your wife?
My experience has been that my wife did the best when she went on a cutting diet with me which was HARD core HIIT xfit style programming and a caloric deficit.

She also did very well when I hired my buddy who is a competitive bodybuilder to write her programming and nutrition. the biggest difference between my approach and his, was that his included more carbs, cardio before and post workout, less HIIT (and less risk for injury).

my other experience is that few women are willing to work as hard as me and it makes it extremely difficult to program since my idea of a finished workout is a wheelchair, electrolyte IV, and drowning in a pool of my own sweat.

is the med ball a long distance throw, or like medball squats throwing vertically to a 9ft line?
she has to test on both a short sprint as well as a 2 mile?

for the pull-ups, again, train deficits. at least 3 sets of 3 attempts 3-5 days a week. jumping to pull-up bar with the slowest most controlled descent that she can.

She's 41. She tests on both sprint and 2 mile. The medicine ball is an overhead throw, throwing backwards as far as possible...long distance.

I've thought before there's an "effort" component to her stall, but also potentially just struggling with strength progression since she has to workout at 6am with no carbs. At one point, she was squatting 135 for reps, but now is down to 105 for 5, so she's regressing in fact, at least on squat. I'm going with her to workout this week to see if I can see the effort thing in action, but I'm unsure from what I've seen so far.

Gotcha on the pull up negatives. I'll add those in.

 

[Dustin07]

She's 41. She tests on both sprint and 2 mile. The medicine ball is an overhead throw, throwing backwards as far as possible...long distance.

I've thought before there's an "effort" component to her stall, but also potentially just struggling with strength progression since she has to workout at 6am with no carbs. At one point, she was squatting 135 for reps, but now is down to 105 for 5, so she's regressing in fact, at least on squat. I'm going with her to workout this week to see if I can see the effort thing in action, but I'm unsure from what I've seen so far.

Gotcha on the pull up negatives. I'll add those in.

You might throw her on 531 so she has targets to chase/beat?

 

[GreenMachineX]

You might throw her on 531 so she has targets to chase/beat?

We tried the temporarily... she hated the precise loading and unloading she had to do to get to each percentage. I'm also not sure 531 is sufficient for most people. But, I don't know. Maybe that'll be the next thing we try again. We just went over again how to progress sets, then reps, then weight, for example, starting at 3 sets of 8 at 105 of a lift, progressing to 4 of 12 before adding 5-10 pounds to the working weight.

 

[Dustin07]

she hated the precise loading and unloading she had to do to get to each percentage.

I find your challenge highly relatable and may need to refer you to @Smont s training regiment above.

 

[GreenMachineX]

I find your challenge highly relatable and may need to refer you to @Smont s training regiment above.

Well, in that regard, I feel like at her strength level, she should be able to just be progressing week to week with linear progression. She just had a ton of bloodwork done...thyroid, testosterone, dhea, etc. And all were in normal ranges, not optimal but nothing overtly wrong. None of this makes sense.

Edit: I want to be clear that regarding the effort thing, I think the only thing she struggles with giving enough effort might be squat, but everything else from what I've seen is adequate...I think. Obviously I'm not the one working with those weights so I don't know.

 

[Dustin07]

There is a reason women live longer than men.
It might be that a woman thinks that 150lbs is actually 500lbs and a man thinks he can squat 1,000lbs when he a can actually only squat 200. Both of their actions are a direct result of the above thoughts lol.

I coached men and women for a decade and I can tell you that 9 times out of 10 a woman's perceived exertion was just complete hogwash. dudes are blasting blood vessels in their eyes, shitting their pants, getting bloody noses, and sore for a week. the women I trained, even if they were getting PRs weren't even sore the next day, and few sweat lol.

It's really hard to coach "desire"..... someone either has it or they don't, IMO.

I might even be wrong about that, maybe you CAN coach someone to have more drive, but I'm not interested in, personally. I got to a point where I only want to work with people who want to work.

I had one chick who went 9 months straight without a rest period lol. (she wasn't my athlete! I caught this on the tail end of it) I was like no wonder your shoulders are beat up, lol. She was the one I learned the most from in regards to pull-ups, bands, negatives, etc. well, I used her as a case study that is cause after 9 months of no breaks she still couldn't do a pull-up... 2 weeks later she could lol

 

[MrKleen73]

First I would put her pushups first on her Chest focused day, then if you want her benching on top of that go ahead. You want to prioritize these because they are going to be tested and get better with repeat bouts and being fresh is going to get her the best performance benefit. I would also have her do push ups on 2 other days a week at least for frequency even if just 1 AMRAP set. Same with Planks, I would do them as part of the warm up every day.

Also for the test how are they testing, are the planks for time, or are they weighted? Same with farmers carries, do they go by weight, distance carried, both, or just to verify they can hit a minimum requirement and not really performance based? You could easily add 15 minutes of GPP with carries, KB Swings and Planks the like for composition and maybe drop some of the extra accessories so strength and recovery is focused on the main lifts, while benefiting from the GPP as both strengthening and composition benefits.

As for progressing, DL, Bench, Squats and the like I would have her try just working up to top sets over 4-5 working sets rather than just going for overall volume. Not sure what current rep ranges are, or how long they have been at those rep ranges either. if a little while then maybe chenge them either lower reps or lower weight slightly and add a couple reps and work back up.

Also, how long since a deload if they do tend to work hard the stall could have to do with that.

 

[GreenMachineX]

There is a reason women live longer than men.
It might be that a woman thinks that 150lbs is actually 500lbs and a man thinks he can squat 1,000lbs when he a can actually only squat 200. Both of their actions are a direct result of the above thoughts lol.

I coached men and women for a decade and I can tell you that 9 times out of 10 a woman's perceived exertion was just complete hogwash. dudes are blasting blood vessels in their eyes, shitting their pants, getting bloody noses, and sore for a week. the women I trained, even if they were getting PRs weren't even sore the next day, and few sweat lol.

It's really hard to coach "desire"..... someone either has it or they don't, IMO.

I might even be wrong about that, maybe you CAN coach someone to have more drive, but I'm not interested in, personally. I got to a point where I only want to work with people who want to work.

I had one chick who went 9 months straight without a rest period lol. (she wasn't my athlete! I caught this on the tail end of it) I was like no wonder your shoulders are beat up, lol. She was the one I learned the most from in regards to pull-ups, bands, negatives, etc. well, I used her as a case study that is cause after 9 months of no breaks she still couldn't do a pull-up... 2 weeks later she could lol

I hear ya. So, do you think the issue is not getting within 2-3 RIR?

 

[Dustin07]

I hear ya. So, do you think the issue is not getting within 2-3 RIR?

I think without seeing her lift and really knowing her nutrition it would be a shot in the dark for me to speculate. I know you have a good grasp on where nutrition and training "should" be though so I'd sorta defer that one back to you. I get a knee jerk reaction though when someone says they want to accomplish something and then complain about the process:

she hated the precise loading and unloading she had to do to get to each percentage.

It's not a dig at your wife, or any other wife, but a common thing I hear and one of the reasons I nope out of training my wife and encourage her to spend all of our money on whatever fitness outlet makes her happy that doesn't include me coaching her

 

[GreenMachineX]

First I would put her pushups first on her Chest focused day, then if you want her benching on top of that go ahead. You want to prioritize these because they are going to be tested and get better with repeat bouts and being fresh is going to get her the best performance benefit. I would also have her do push ups on 2 other days a week at least for frequency even if just 1 AMRAP set. Same with Planks, I would do them as part of the warm up every day.

Also for the test how are they testing, are the planks for time, or are they weighted? Same with farmers carries, do they go by weight, distance carried, both, or just to verify they can hit a minimum requirement and not really performance based? You could easily add 15 minutes of GPP with carries, KB Swings and Planks the like for composition and maybe drop some of the extra accessories so strength and recovery is focused on the main lifts, while benefiting from the GPP as both strengthening and composition benefits.

As for progressing, DL, Bench, Squats and the like I would have her try just working up to top sets over 4-5 working sets rather than just going for overall volume. Not sure what current rep ranges are, or how long they have been at those rep ranges either. if a little while then maybe chenge them either lower reps or lower weight slightly and add a couple reps and work back up.

Also, how long since a deload if they do tend to work hard the stall could have to do with that.

Good calls all around. She had to take off for a month for gallbladder surgery and took a few weeks building back up, so she shouldn't need a deload yet I don't think.

The planks are for time, the farmers walks is in combination with sprints for time with a drag too which I didn't list but should've. The weight and distance used on those doesn't change. Saturdays will have her do an event day of all that I think.

So at least 1 amrap set of pushups and planks 3 days per week if I understood correctly?

 

[MrKleen73]

Yes Sir I would. She can stop one rep before failure on the AMRAP if she can figure out when that is. Just want volume, frequent practice and a challenge doesn't have to be complete failure. Like if she gets to failure just stop without trying to press through so it doesn't thit the CNS that hard.

The planks can be daily or 3 times a week. She is not going to overtrain on planks. She will just build endurance.

 

[MrKleen73]

By the way, my wife is also recovering from Gallbladder surgery. We had her 2 week follow up yesterday. They just released her to start walking for exercise and doing light activity but to hold off a little more before really pushing anything.

 

[GreenMachineX]

It's not a dig at your wife, or any other wife, but a common thing I hear and one of the reasons I nope out of training my wife and encourage her to spend all of our money on whatever fitness outlet makes her happy that doesn't include me coaching her

By the way, what is your wife doing now for fitness? I can't find the other thread you started for her.

 

[Dustin07]

By the way, what is your wife doing now for fitness? I can't find the other thread you started for her.

Right now xfit 3-4 times per week just getting the body back into routine until we wrap up a crazy busy travel period (she's traveling like 2 of the next three weekends

Then she will move to 4 times a week likely joining me once a week on the weekends at my gym for regular lifting.

She's liking it and getting back into a groove. She has a natural ability for crazy high capacity of work even if she's not super strong so xfit is a great fit for her. Plus she needs that "class" atmosphere that bores the hell out of me lol

 

[GreenMachineX]

Right now xfit 3-4 times per week just getting the body back into routine until we wrap up a crazy busy travel period (she's traveling like 2 of the next three weekends

Then she will move to 4 times a week likely joining me once a week on the weekends at my gym for regular lifting.

She's liking it and getting back into a groove. She has a natural ability for crazy high capacity of work even if she's not super strong so xfit is a great fit for her. Plus she needs that "class" atmosphere that bores the hell out of me lol

She was stalled too, correct? Any progress there?

I'm adding last set amraps to my wife's training and taking complete control over sets, reps, and weights used now that she has started writing everything down again. Kind of the opposite approach you took

 

[Dustin07]

She was stalled too, correct? Any progress there?

na, but she's put things on cruise control a bit. the other day she made a comment about how much better I am at measuring food and eating 'intentionally' for my goals than her lately. I think she's seeing the last 6-7 months of consistent progress in my endeavors and it's starting to reinvigorate her. I told her that I might try a mini cut in May, not enough of a cut to sacrifice strength, but a tightening of nutrition and she wants to join me I think.

I'm adding last set amraps to my wife's training and taking complete control over sets, reps, and weights used now that she has started writing everything down again. Kind of the opposite approach you took

I had a lot of luck doing that for my wife a few years back when we were prepping for a vacation but that's a headache i'm not interested in signing up for again, I'd gladly pay a trainer to handle the complaining for me lol.

 

[GreenMachineX]

To update here: my wife saw my TRT doc and based on her labwork, prescribed topical testosterone and armour, and phentermine to use while those "kick in" to get her weight loss going. I'm excited for her, and I know she is too since it's so frustrating to put so much work into something and still back slide.

 

[MrKleen73]

To update here: my wife saw my TRT doc and based on her labwork, prescribed topical testosterone and armour, and phentermine to use while those "kick in" to get her weight loss going. I'm excited for her, and I know she is too since it's so frustrating to put so much work into something and still back slide.

That's great news!

 

[Dustin07]

To update here: my wife saw my TRT doc and based on her labwork, prescribed topical testosterone and armour, and phentermine to use while those "kick in" to get her weight loss going. I'm excited for her, and I know she is too since it's so frustrating to put so much work into something and still back slide.

I just saw this thread pop up in the feed again, it's been a while... did she have some success?

 

[GreenMachineX]

I just saw this thread pop up in the feed again, it's been a while... did she have some success?

Temporarily, yes. She did great on the physical fitness test for her job, but since then just hasn't been fully bought in and now struggling with a similar shoulder problem that I went through a few years ago. She just had some up labs to make sure the thyroid and testosterone levels are up to par. Just waiting for the next appointment next week to go over that.

Edit: thyroid labs are in and no difference from the armour. Still waiting on testosterone results.

 

[Robert johnson]

what should i do for my physical health doctor suggest me not to eat fast food

 

[MrKleen73]

what should i do for my physical health doctor suggest me not to eat fast food

Start with that and add exercise. Any exercise you enjoy. Lifting, biking, running, tennis, yoga. It just depends on your interest and goals. Mostly enjoy whatever it is so you can be consistent with it.

 

[lamarclark09]

For me, doing a workout can lead to excessive benefits if they can be done correctly. Fitness is mandatory either in the form of mental peace or physical one. So I really appreciate the one who shows their interest in being healthy and active by doing some workouts.

 

[sammpedd88]

For me, doing a workout can lead to excessive benefits if they can be done correctly. Fitness is mandatory either in the form of mental peace or physical one. So I really appreciate the one who shows their interest in being healthy and active by doing some workouts.

Are you a robot?

 

[kalineiskali]

If she's been working out for years but not seeing progress, it could be a good time to mix things up. Sometimes our bodies get used to the same routine. Try changing exercises or adding a bit more challenge. Also, recovery and eating well play a significant role. When I hit a plateau, tweaking my routine and focusing on getting enough sleep and good food helps greatly. I also joined the Hitsona group lately, and that helps me too. So, try it and let us know the results!