Women! We have now you covered should you’re in search of an easy yet effective training program! We’re laying out a four-day workout plan designed specifically for girls! It’s designed to supply proper training that gives real results while touching on what women prefer to see of their training. In other words, it’s not your run-of-the-mill, coloured dumbbell workout. That is the actual deal to construct a powerful yet feminine body!
Why Women Need To Lift Weights
Fortunately, lifting weights has turn out to be more accepted by women over time For a lot too long, the industry has pushed subpar training based on outdated beliefs. Well, times are a-changin’!
We now know that there is no real difference within the optimal training of a person and a girl. Major differences do exist between men and girls, but when taking a look at how our bodies behave to external stimuli, you will find more in common than differences.
In point of fact, the essential differences present in training have more to do with personal goals or outcomes, akin to wanting to construct curves relatively than increase bench press. With all that in mind, listed below are some reasons women have to lift weights!
Lifting Weights Construct Curves!
You don’t construct curves by losing a few pounds, which so many ladies have been attempting to do for thus long. Following programs which have them performing;
- Aerobic exercise
- Cardio
- Lift light weights
Now, all of those may be good and do have a purpose, especially cardio. Nevertheless, none of them construct muscle! They can assist burn some fat and shed weight, but that doesn’t suggest you’ll need curves underneath.
Quite the opposite, lifting weights can construct the muscle and your body. Subsequently, if you lose fat, you’ll have nice, healthy muscles underneath!
Lifting Weights Can “Tone” Your Body
One other issue with only using cardio is that it may well create the infamous “skinny fat” look. Individuals are so focused on losing a few pounds that once they do, they notice they’ll shed weight, but they still look soft. Again, that is as a result of what we just spoke about above –
Now, the word “toned” is a little bit of a sticky point for some people as technically, “toning” a muscle isn’t a thing – you may’t lift weights in a certain manner to “tone” them. Reasonably, “toned” refers back to the appearance of a slimmer body that is hard; in point of fact, this just means there’s low body fat with minimal muscle growth. Nevertheless, the secret’s “some” muscle growth.
This is very true for the upper body. Women don’t need a ton of muscle of their upper body to capture that toned look, which might be reflected within the 4-day training program. With that in mind, you do not need lots of muscle mass for a toned look, but you do need some.
Strengthen Bones & Improve Joint Health
Lifting weights not only builds and strengthens muscles but in addition strengthens bones and improves joint health. Bones can actually increase in density and strength in a really similar manner as muscles, stressing the muscle time and again with barely heavier loads.
For this to occur, you have to partake in load-bearing activity akin to the squat1. The load of a squat places greater force directly down into the bone, which could cause it to bend barely. This causes little micro holes, that are then filled in and provide you with stronger bones!
Mitigate Breast Cancer Risk
It’s estimated that 1 out of each 8 women will develop breast cancer sooner or later of their life2. Thankfully, there was lots of research over time, which has greatly mitigated the danger in addition to the severity of the final result.
Nevertheless, you’ve got 100% control over one major factor: physical activity. Recent research has shown that ladies who engage in additional physical activities are inclined to be at a lesser risk of developing breast cancer3. Now, this does seem to incorporate physical activity typically, not only resistance training.
Nevertheless, resistance training does play a job. Researchers have used a progressive resistance training program and located that it may well improve recovery after cancer treatment!
Your 4-Day Workout
So now let’s get into your workout program. We’re going to first briefly go over the final layout after which provide you with this system.
Lower Body, Core & Conditioning Focused
This program will utilize a full-body workout, working every muscle. Nevertheless, it’s going to , core and overall conditioning.
Generally speaking, women are inclined to be more concerned with their lower body and core. Relating to the upper body, women are inclined to prefer a “toned” look (we all know “toned” isn’t a thing on the physiological level,, so we’re using it for descriptive purposes). Subsequently, upper body training will primarily give attention to the fundamentals. Nevertheless, this doesn’t suggest it’ll be easy!
Upper/Lower Split
Considering what we just said, you may be using an upper/lower split. Should you’re pondering that this is able to make a 50/50 split, we’ll mix cardio and core along with your upper body training.
Upper Training
Your upper body training will consist of 4 exercises every day using 2 supersets. Each superset will pair a back exercise with a pushing exercise (chest, shoulders). Whenever you perform them, you may rest for 45 seconds in between each exercise, akin to:
- Exercise 1
- Rest 45 seconds
- Exercise 2
- Rest 45 seconds
- Exercise 1
- And so forth….
You’ll also run one circuit of three smaller exercises. For this, you’ll rest 20-30 seconds between each exercise.
This may minimize the time spent on training the upper body while also providing an awesome and effective workout. Further, this may provide more time to be spent on conditioning and core.
Lower Training
In your lower body training days, you may follow a bit more of a conventional training program using standard rep schemes specializing in compound leg exercises. With that said, there might be an emphasis on the posterior.
Session 1
| Exercise | Sets and Reps |
|---|---|
| Barbell Deadlift | 4 X 6 |
| Bulgarian Split Squat | 3 X 8-10 |
| Hip Thrust | 3 X 10-12 |
| Goblet Squat w/ Band | 3 X 12-15 |
| Step-Ups | 50 |
| Cable Kickback x Cable Hip Adduction | 3 X 8-10 |
Session 2
| Exercise | Sets and Reps |
|---|---|
| Bench Press x Bent Over Row | 4 X 6-8 |
| Lat-Pulldown x Dumbbell Shoulder Press | 3 X 8-10 |
| Face Pull x Lateral Raise x Tri Kickback | 3 X 8-12 |
| Back Extension x Reverse Decline Sit-Up | 3 X 10-12 |
| Cable Woodchop | 3 X 8-12/Each Side |
| Stairclimber | 5:00 (Climb as high as possible) |
Session 3
| Exercise | Sets and Reps |
|---|---|
| Back Squat | 4 X 6 |
| Hip Thrust | 4 X 6-8 |
| Sumo Deadlift | 3 X 8-10 |
| Leg Press | 4 X 8-12 (2 sets wide/2 sets narrow) |
| 4-Way Lunge | 10 X 1/leg* |
| Cable Kickback x Cable Hip Adduction | 3 X 8-10 (each) |
*: One “set” comprises 4 reps (forward, reverse, side, curtsy). Alternate legs for each set and do 10 sets per leg. This implies each leg will do 40 reps.
Session 4
| Exercise | Sets and Reps |
|---|---|
| Chin-Up x Incline Dumbbell Press | 4 X 6-8 (Each) |
| Seated Cable Row x Shoulder Press | 3 X 8-10 (Each) |
| Rope Upright Row x Cable OH Ext. x Hammer Curl | 3 X 8-13 (All) |
| Hanging Knee Raise or Captain’s Chair x Pallof Press | 3 X Failure + 5/side |
| Barbell Rollout | 5 X Fail |
| Assault Bike Intervals | :40/:20 X 5 |
Additional Conditioning
We’re going to also provide some additional conditioning which you can use if desired when you’ve got time. You could possibly add these to the tip of any program.
- Incline Treadmill Interval :30/:30 (Alternate between incline or speed)
- Sled Push & Pull Complete 5-10 trips (Back & Forth)
- Running Intervals :20/:40 5-10mins.
- Jump Rope 5 X “000”*
*: Select a number that’s appropriate to your skill & fitness i.e. 5 X 50skips
Progressing On This Program
To progress on this program, you’ll use the essential methods of progressive overload. This implies you may simply increase the load and reps over time while specializing in the primary lifts.
You will see that the exercises have a rep range, akin to 3-6X8. This implies you may do 3 sets of 6-8 reps. Once you may do 3 sets of 8 reps, you may increase the load and return to six reps.
Whenever you see “Failure” which means each set might be performed until failure.
Nutrition To Maximize Your Training
Understanding is awesome, but to harness its full advantages, you have to eat properly. Healthy eating doesn’t must be overly complicated. Follow these guidelines to profit from this workout.
Full Body Composition
You may follow these guidelines should you’re at a comparatively healthy weight and wish to lose fat while maximizing muscle mass. To be clear, performing a body recap remains to be somewhat experimental and requires greater attention to detail. The thought is to get into a minimal caloric deficit while eating a really high protein weight loss program4.
We won’t provide you with an actual number, but we might start with 2.5g per kilogram of body weight or about 1.2g per pound. It’s best to also maintain a small deficit of 200 calories. This might be enough to supply fat loss but not an excessive amount of so you may’t gain muscle. Theoretically.
- Calories: 200 calorie deficit
- Protein: 2.5g/kg (1.2g/lb)
- Fat: 30% total calories
- Carbs: Fill in the remainder
- Opened up your protein into 4-5 servings throughout the day
- Should you train fast, devour EAA during, and eat right after
Losing Fat
Losing fat is analogous to the above, but you’ll have a rather higher caloric deficit of 300-500 and might eat less protein. Nevertheless, it should still be high at about 1.8-2.0g/kg. Nevertheless, bear in mind that more protein may end up in higher results.
Gaining Muscle
Gaining muscle is the simplest nutrition-wise for most individuals. You simply have to consider eating a whole-food weight loss program and getting in a 300-calorie surplus. So far as protein is worried, you’ve got a bigger range and will go all the way down to 1.6g/kg.
Check Out SET FOR SET’s Meal Plans
Show Up 4 Days A Week & Train!
Above, we laid out a highly effective four-day workout plan designed to deal with much of the nuance in a girl’s training program. Remember, training may be very just like men’s, so this is not a subpar workout program; it’s just designed to fulfill your needs. What which means is you may still have to train hard to get the outcomes you would like, so now it’s as much as you to indicate up!
Related:
References:
- Hong, A. R., & Kim, S. W. (2018). Effects of Resistance Exercise on Bone Health. Endocrinology and Metabolism, 33(4), 435. https://doi.org/10.3803/enm.2018.33.4.435
- American Cancer Society. (2023, January 12). Breast Cancer Statistics | How Common Is Breast Cancer? American Cancer Society. https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/breast-cancer/about/how-common-is-breast-cancer.html
- Lynch, B. M., Neilson, H. K., & Friedenreich, C. M. (2010). Physical Activity and Breast Cancer Prevention. Physical Activity and Cancer, 186, 13–42. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04231-7_2
- Barakat, C., Pearson, J., Escalante, G., Campbell, B., & De Souza, E. O. (2020). Body Recomposition. Strength & Conditioning Journal, Publish Ahead of Print(5). https://doi.org/10.1519/SSC.0000000000000584
