The weight training for women is something well, not bad! Strength training helps increase lean body mass, which in turn increases metabolism.
When compared to diet alone, strength training has LONG-LASTING RESULTS.
Since you know that lifting weights is going to give you a slim, sexy, and fit body, let’s discuss what you should do in the gym.
Fortunately, there is now more female strength training than ever. The days of aerobics, old-fashioned sweating, and wearing tights are long gone.
Heavy Weight Training for Women
Here’s the main point of this article: training heavy with the right exercises is the right way to strength train and get the best aesthetic results.
Training Strength with The Correct Exercises
The best exercises to use are large, compound movements that recruit a large amount of muscle mass. Here are some examples:
Lower Body
- Barbell squat
- Barbell deadlift
- Dumbbell lunges
- Good Morning
- Split leg squat
Upper Body (Horizontal Push)
- Dumbbell bench press
- Barbell bench press
- Incline press
- Push-ups
Upper Body (Vertical Pressure)
- Military Press
- Dumbbell shoulder press
- Bending handstand on wall
Upper Body (Vertical Pull)
- Supine chin-ups
- Dominated
- Pull to the chest
Upper Body (Horizontal Pull)
- Horizontal dumbbell row
- Seated rowing
- Barbell row
Core Exercises
- Table
- Abs wheel
- Hanging leg raises
If you spent the rest of your strength training career using only the exercises listed above, you will build a slim, sexy body without asking questions.
You would also build a better body at a faster rate than if you used machines and isolation exercises.
Training Strength with The Right Intensity
Most women never use enough weight. Without intensity, you just won’t get a great training effect. So, what is the appropriate intensity?
I can’t give you a number because each person’s strength levels are different. Here’s the best way I can explain it: If you’re going to do a set of eight reps, then that last rep should be difficult and you should be able to complete one more rep (maybe two) but absolutely nothing else.
If you do eight reps in a set of squats, but you know you could have done 12 or more, that’s not intensity. You have to finish your sets knowing that you could have done one absolutely no more than two more reps. It’s that intensity that will challenge your muscles and help you build a slim, fit body.
To lift with even more intensity, simply train in a lower rep range.
- Example: Series of five repetitions. To lift with less intensity, simply train in a higher rep range.
- Example: Sets of 12 repetitions. I will tie all of this together later so that you understand it better.
Train with The Right Divisions
The typical gym trainee should only use one of two training splits: total body workouts (which aren’t a split at all) or upper / lower splits where they train the upper body one day and the lower body. To the next one. These two training splits are the only two that the typical gym beginner needs.
These splits will allow you to train your muscles often enough. In addition, you will stimulate a large amount of muscle mass in each training session so that your metabolism increases for longer. These two splits will help you build a slim, sexy body much faster than any other splits. I will give examples later.
Train Strength with Head
By this statement I mean to use your time wisely. The only time I recommend doing straight sets (meaning you do all of the prescribed sets and reps for one exercise before moving on to the next) is on lower body days.
After a tough series of squats or deadlifts, you won’t feel like doing anything other than resting (or maybe doing some calf raises). For total body exercises or upper / lower splits, you can pair or group exercises together. This will allow you to get more work done in less time; That is always a good thing.
Training Notes for Women
Day three (lower body) and day four (upper body) should consist of different exercises and you may be in a different rep range.
The above workouts are to give you an idea of how to spend your training time wisely.
The exercises used in the examples are large, compound movements that “give you the most gain.” Your training should mimic that setup.
Keep your training simple. Just focus on using the best exercises and train in different rep ranges. Don’t spend all of your time training at a high rep range.
You will greatly benefit your body if you train in a lower rep range as well.
Training and Menstrual Cycle in Women
It is important to note that women of childbearing age present hormonal ups and downs, produced by actions of the central nervous system, the pituitary gland and the female reproductive system. This hormonal cycle can help you train better.
Hormones vary at each moment of the cycle, especially estrogens, which influence the type of energy used by the muscles for movement.
The Follicular Phase
It covers from the first day of menstruation until the 13th, approximately, and is characterized by low levels of estrogens. This favors the use of “fast energy”, that is to say, ATP and muscle glycogen are used. In this phase, estradiol secretion progressively increases until it reaches a peak before ovulation. Also, the weight is less, since less liquid is retained.
Just before the ovulation phase (around day 14) estrogen levels rise and fall to rise again and remain moderately high and stable during the luteal phase.
The Luteal Phase
It covers from day 15 to the first day of menstruation (day 28). When estrogen levels rise, the metabolism turns to fat for energy and muscle glycogen is reserved. Elevated levels of progesterone are found in this phase.
Therefore, at the end of the days of menstruation the woman is full of energy and it will be easier for her to train and perform high intensity series for short times, using muscle glycogen. As you ovulate and on the days of the luteal phase, the higher estrogen levels will make you feel less quick but more comfortable stopping resistance training.
The highest training loads will correspond to the pre- and post-ovulatory periods, the former being the one with the highest load absorption capacity.
The premenstrual week is the poorest in terms of load assimilation. This is due to the presence of a high concentration of progesterone. This hormone is catabolic and is notoriously detrimental to training.
Women tolerate intensity much less than men, this is mainly due to the fact that they have a lower amount of testosterone, which makes it difficult for them to build muscle mass.
However, they are capable of carrying out somewhat higher volumes of work.
Some coaches advise their athletes to have daily urine tests for 56 days. The object is to be able to graph the evolution of the amounts of hormone throughout the activity of the two ovaries.
Determining the highest concentrations of progesterone, to be able to lower the load in those circumstances.
In men, Testosterone increases the blood level, produces and maintains secondary characteristics (facial hair, thick voice, acne, etc.), has an anabolic effect causing an increase in the formation of proteins, especially in the bones and muscles.
Unlike men, women have very little amount of this hormone and while in them the levels remain stable, in women it has peaks that coincide with FSH and LH and remain in the second half of the cycle.
HORMONAL LEVEL
Hormones / Women – Men
- LH (Luteinizing) (1-104 nmol) – (l 2-14 nmol / l)
- FSH (ICSH) (1-26 iu) – (l 1-8 iu / l)
- Progesterone (16-60 nmol – (l 1-5 nmol / l)
- Testosterone (0.5-3.5 nmol) – (l 10-31 nmol / l)
Women Burn More Fat
The female body burns much fatter, especially during high intensity exercise, during the luteral phase (approx. Days 14-28) of the menstrual cycle than it does during the follicular phase (days 1-13).
When we have the period, we will do low intensity exercise (60% to 70% of our maximum pulsations) for 40´ to 50´ per session in the next 13 days.
Around day 14 we will go to high intensity exercise (80% to 90% of our maximum pulsations) during 30 ‘sessions.
In the first 13 days we will do most of the aerobics on the treadmill or stair simulator, and we will move to the stationary bike in the last two weeks. This plan provides enough variety of aerobics and helps to eliminate fat.
Now that you know how to strength train, take this new knowledge to the gym and start building a slim, sexy body.
