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2003/03/31, 05:26 PM
Could you guys take a look at my workout program and let me know what you think? I am female.
My major goals are to:
1. Drop body fat from 22.5% to 18%
2. Lose 3 ½ inches from my waist
3. Lose 4 inches from my hips
4. KEEP MY CHEST!! :)
5. I’m basically going for a long lean look with some definition but I don’t want to get bulky.
Here is my workout schedule:
Monday: chest, shoulders, tri’s, 40 minutes cardio & abs
Tuesday: Quads, Hamstrings, abductors, adductors, back, bi’s & forearms
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Chest, shoulders, tri’s, 40 minutes cardio & abs
Friday: cardio & abs
Saturday: quads, hamstrings, abductors, adductors, back, bi’s & forearms
Sunday: Rest
I’m starting this program today so I’m not sure if doing legs & back, bi’s and forearms on one day is too much. I read an article that suggested doing each body part only once a week but that just doesn’t seem like enough to me. What do you think?
When lifting, I will be doing 3 sets with reps @ 10, 8, 6 to failure. Is this going to bulk me up too much? I’ve heard women really can’t bulk because we don’t have much testosterone, is this true?
Here are the exercises I’m doing:
LEGS:
Squats
Leg Extensions
Lying leg curls
Adductor machine
Abductor machine
Walking lunges with weights
CHEST:
Barbell flat bench press
Barbell incline bench press
Dumbbell Flys (1 set of 10 to failure)
Incline Dumbbell Flys (1 set of 10 to failure)
SHOULDERS;
Seated dumbbell press
Standing lateral raises
TRICEPS:
Tricep cable press downs
Dumbbell kickbacks
BACK:
Lat Machine Pull downs
One arm dumbbell rows
Bent over dumbbell laterals
BICEPS:
Standing Barbell Curls
Concentration Curls
FOREARMS
Barbell Wrist Curls
Reverse Barbell Wrist Curls
Thanks so much for your help & suggestions!!
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2003/03/31, 05:44 PM
Ok boy for a new person you have done some great research. Your workouts look good. But, I aggree with your statement that you should only workout one body part per week. However, if you have never lifted like this before this workout might not be a bad idea to get into the routine. Once you have like amonth in you might want to change it. I personally thin doing chest shoulders and tris in one day will kill ya!!! The reason is that those three bodyparts use the others to a lesser degree. a better workout might be:
Mon-chest/tris cardio and abs ok
Tue back/ biceps, here do forearms and abs
Wed cardio/rest up to you
Thur-legs(quads hams etc)cardio if you can do it after leg day
Fri cardio/abs
sat/sun calf work abs or rest days up to you
the reason is that you body if worked hard enough needs 48-72 hours to heal and rest up. You make muscle while you rest not during the actual workout. When i started I used a total body workout 3 times a week for months, it was not till I made a split (like I just did) that I saw results. As for you bulking, it is true that a very small % of women build muscle easily, most can not with out extra testosterone. That said you rep scheme is great for building mass and strength. Do not be afraid of the heavy weights, most likely you will not bulk like you are afraid of. The added benefit og going heavy as you can is that muscle replaces fat faster and muscle take less room than fat so while you may in fact gain weight you will lower bodyfat and loose inches. Your exercise list is great but I might aswitch bent over dumbbell laterals to shoulder day as that is what it hits the most your rear delt, and add bent over barbell rows and deadlifts for back. Deadlifts, are not stiff legged deadlifts(which target the hamstrings). No deadlifts are the second hardest exercise next to squats and are the 2nd best exercise. I suggest them as you have no lower back exercise at all. In addition to this you need to eat more protein and drink a lot of water. For the protein you need from .5-1.5 grams per lb of body weight per day, so if you weigh 135 and go by 1 gram you need 135 per day split by 6 small meals that makes like 22 grams or so per meal very doable. Hope this helps out!!!!
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IF YOU CAN STILL ITCH YOUR NOSE AFTER ARM DAY, GO DO ANOTHER SET!!!
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2003/03/31, 05:47 PM
looks pretty good to me...
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2003/03/31, 06:14 PM
Your Tuesdays and Saturdays are pretty full! You may think about splitting some of that up. Mutt had some good ideas for you.
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The one goal you will NEVER achieve is the one you never attempt.
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2003/03/31, 08:41 PM
A woman's perspective and some reiterating of what Mutt/bb1fit said -
You're going to be really tired on Tues/Sat. I agree that you may consider splitting some of that up into two workouts.
Don't worry about bulking up! If you're in that very small group of women who does "bulk" - you'll know it right away. Lift heavy!
If you are going to do chest/tri/shoulders in the same day, you might want to throw some dips in there - you're working all those muscles anyway :)
Do you have someone working out with you? With an agressive schedule like this, I'd sure want someone else at the gym with me - not to mention a spotter for when I'm fatigued at the end of my sets.
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2003/03/31, 08:43 PM
Oh yeah, and and good luck keeping your chest ;o)
-Krb
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2003/04/01, 06:05 PM
If you're actually a beginner, resistance training four days a week is overkill. If you're going to use splits cut it back.
Second, I think that full body routines provide a better fat burning experience as opposed to splits. The more muscles you use, the more calories you'll burn. If you do use splits, however, you should change the ones you've got. Generally, I recognize the body in four different sections: the core (abs and lower back), chest and other extensors, lats/rhomboids (back) and other flexors, and legs. The legs could be divided into extensors and flexors as well, but they are more difficult to isolate in proper workouts, specifically for beginning trainees. So if you're going to break things up into two distinct days, I'd do the chest and back on one day (with a little direct arm work), and legs on another. You could work shoulders in in the former and core in on the latter. However, pairing the back and legs insures that one group will lag behind and you'll end up with a chest favoring imbalance. The results of that are slouching and forward leaning shoulders. You certainly don't want that.
Since you are concentrating on losing fat, you want to concentrate on big muscle groups with compound motions. Working your forearms is unnecessary at your training level (I know highly advanced guys that have never done forearm work), unless your grip is holding your back on other exercises. The calories that you'll burn doing wrist curls won't even be noticeable. And when's the last time you looked at your forearms in shame (okay, okay, I do it all the time)?
When you say 'to failure' you should establish what you want from that. Most people take the concept to mean concentric failure, or in other words when you can't lift the weight any more. I generally use technique failure, or when your form begins to break down. Some go so far as to use tempo failure - when you can no longer lift the weight at the predesignated speed. I think going to concentric failure, particularly on pyramid sets is overrated, but does make some sense for a fat loss program. Personally, though, I'd leave a couple reps in the can after the first set to make sure you can go heavier in the next, again leaving a rep so you can go full out on the final, heaviest set. You'll allow yourself to do more total work in most instances and see better strength gains since you allow yourself an opportunity to train your central nervous system more completely.
It's definately good that you've limited your isolation movements (like flyes and curls) to only a set or two. Again, since you're on a fat loss program, you're going to want to do the majority of your work with your big muscle groups and maybe train your distal muscles (arms, calves) just to strengthen them. I also don't care much for direct shoulder work, but I know plenty of people that see great results from it. I don't treat my shoulders as an entire group, I currently do two sets for shoulders back to back with two sets for traps at the end of my chest/back workout.
The noticeable absence from your routine is core (abs in particular) work. You'll get lower back work from your compound leg movements (squats, deadlifts) but strengthening your abs are important for injury prevention and, of course, appearance. Make sure to add that in.
Also, make sure to keep your routines fairly short. Try not to weight train for over one hour. You're probably going to want to keep your total sets per workout not too much more than 25. And don't try to do too much too soon. If you've never trained before, you're not going to want to lift more than two or three times per week. Your muscles need time to rest and adapt, particularly when they're not used to being heavily taxed. Easing into it is equally important for your joint health.
Whew! Okay, I think I'm finished. A lot of this is just general information and not commentary on your routine. I hope I didn't make it too hard to digest. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
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"Don't follow leaders and watch your parking meters!"
-- Bob Dylan
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