Workout for a girl?

[IronFist]

Geez I've only helped guys design workout programs for so long I forgot how to help girls.

This girl that I work with is pretty average but wants to lose a little weight and "tone up." She said she used to be a twig and could eat whatever she wanted without gaining weight but she's 28 now and her metabolism has slowed down a bit. She likes candy, so I think in her case just cutting that out will make a big difference.

Anyway, she said she has 3-4 days to work out per week. She wants to lift weights (w00t!) and do cardio. I was thinking the each body part once per week is a bad idea in this case (soreness and all), so I was thinking about a whole body workout 3 times per week (like HST style) with a little cardio afterward and then one day of only cardio per week.

I was thinking I would do the HST starting with sets of 15 and only take it down to 10 (and not down to 5) and then see where's shes at after that first month. Do you think 2 weight workouts per week and then two full cardio days would be better? So it would be like:

MWF:
Squat (rock on!) - 2 x 15
Bench - 2 x 15
Tris - 2 x 15
Back (rows or something) - 2 x 15
Bis - 2 x 15
Calves - 2 x 15
(1:00 rest between sets)
A little cardio

Sat:
Cardio

She "works out" now but has no structure to her workouts. Do you think that volume up there is too much for a semi-n00b chick? I do that all the time and have no soreness at all the next day, but after I thought about it it seems like it would be way too high of volume. When I help people make workouts I always have a tendency to under-volume everything because I don't want people to overtrain or burn out. People always do more than what I say and they're fine. So I'm probably just being paranoid and that's fine. What do you think?

If anyone has any alternate suggestions let me know. Muscle development is important to her. She doesn't just want to lose weight but she also wants to have muscular curves (the healthy way, not the female-BB way).

So those of you with experience training females let me know.

Of course she would be a perfect candidate for KBs, and she trains at my old gym which actually has KBs, but I don't train there anymore so I can't go there and show her how to use them. Oh well.

[Chief Fox]

I like what you have but here's a couple suggestions anyway.

I like to mix stuff up a lot. For me, doing the same routine all the time gets boring so you could have her do three week cycles. What I mean is, this week have her do squats, next week have her do lunges, the week after have her do leg press, maybe a week off and then back to squats. Do this for all the muscle groups. Or you could have her mix it up during the same week. Monday = squats, Wednesday = Lunges, Friday = Leg press. Another thing you could do is have one workout where she does body weight exercises only. Maybe with a weight vest. Spring time is coming so she could even eventually do this one outside.

One more thing, how about a yoga class.

That's it. These are just suggestions so take it for what it's worth.

Good luck.

[Toby]

Originally posted by Chief Fox
I like to mix stuff up a lot. For me, doing the same routine all the time gets boring ...I'm the opposite. Must have something to do with my obsessive-compulsive disorder ;). BUT, Chief Fox's idea has some merit in prolonging your business. This is a client you're talking about, right? So, it's in both your interests to keep mixing it up. She gets exposed to a variety of exercises she might not've done before and you get repeat business and to see what she does/doesn't like and eventually tailor the program to her preferences.

[MoreMisfortune]

Originally posted by IronFist
She said she used to be a twig and could eat whatever she wanted without gaining weight but she's 28 now and her metabolism has slowed down a bit.

thank you jesus
and may your holy punishment come to ALL mesos and ectos.
JUSTICE!
the RIGHTEOUS path
you will see what it feels like and you will feel what it feels like

ive been foreseeing

[IronFist]

She's not a client. I don't work at a gym anymore. She's a co-worker and a friend.

[Toby]

Sorry. When you said:
Originally posted by IronFist
This girl that I work withI thought you meant a PT client. I wasn't sure if you were still doing PT or not.

In that case, you want to do the opposite of what I said and give her an easy low-maintenance workout. I like your workout for her, although I'd want to make sure she was doing the exercises properly (esp. squat and bench but to a lesser extent the others). So you might have to do a bit of coaching initially, but then she'd be good to go by herself.

[fa_jing]

I would recommend you have her warm up with the exercise bike or elliptical trainer prior to workouts, until she builds up a base level of conditioning.

There are some interesting splits I've been reading about in Pavel's new book. I'll make a post tomorrow.

[Ford Prefect]

Honestly, I start all newbs on BWE's to build base levels of strength. This is usually more important for women since many can't even perform 5 standard push-ups, a chin-up, or many other typical BWE exercises. I have my wife on a hybrid program of Scrapper's, Stew Smith's, and my own inception mixed in with KB's. She's 1 month in of solid training right now, but I'd say it will be another 4 months before I start adding weights as resistance. She's made some great progress already though.

[Pork Chop]

Originally posted by MoreMisfortune
thank you jesus
and may your holy punishment come to ALL mesos and ectos.
JUSTICE!
the RIGHTEOUS path
you will see what it feels like and you will feel what it feels like

ive been foreseeing

PREACH ON MY BROTHER!!!!

[Ming Yue]

Originally posted by MoreMisfortune
thank you jesus
and may your holy punishment come to ALL mesos and ectos.
JUSTICE!
the RIGHTEOUS path
you will see what it feels like and you will feel what it feels like

ive been foreseeing

Amen!

That does it, I'm launching a line of WWXD (what would xebby do) tee shirts.

[Chief Fox]

Originally posted by Ford Prefect
Honestly, I start all newbs on BWE's to build base levels of strength. This is usually more important for women since many can't even perform 5 standard push-ups, a chin-up, or many other typical BWE exercises. I have my wife on a hybrid program of Scrapper's, Stew Smith's, and my own inception mixed in with KB's. She's 1 month in of solid training right now, but I'd say it will be another 4 months before I start adding weights as resistance. She's made some great progress already though.

Hey Ford, so what do you have her doing? My wife knows that she needs to workout but she just hates it. I try to encourage her and help but she doesn't like to do the stuff that I do. So if you've got a female friendly workout I'd like to get more info on it if you don't mind. Thanks in advance.

[Ford Prefect]

When she started, she couldn't do real push-ups, could barely do a negative chin-up, and was really weak all around. I had her do 3x/week:

2 sets fo 5-10 push-up negatives
1 set of push-ups from knees to failure

2 sets of 2-4 chin-up negatives
1 set of assisted chin-ups to failure (set oly bar in squat rack so she can use feet to assist her)

Altenate by day: 3x failure KB snatches or c&j's

3 x 25 bootstrappers

Ab work with:
Hanging knee-ups (she couldn't do a foot to bar leg raise)
Dragon Flag negatives
Crunches
V-ups
Ab wheel

She can now do about 12 push-ups (a little over a month later). She still can't do a chin-up, but now she can keep under control doing pull-up negatives. Her routine is combination of a push-up pyramid, pull-up negatives, kb snatches, bw squats, bootstrappers, lunges, jumping rope, and various ab exercises.

All throughout she has been doing 4 days/week of cardio for 30 minutes. This month she's bumped up to at least 40 minutes. This is either bike riding or stair climbing. Since she's never strength trained consistently besides ballet from age 5 - 20, she's basically a newb and has been making real quick progress.

[Chief Fox]

Sorry about the thread hijack IronFist.

Thanks Ford.

[red5angel]

capoeira is awesome for cardio and building a little muscle without getting out of control. :P
One thing about people lookig to get in shape - try to find something fun to do instead of just working out. I think thats why most workout plans fail. Like most diet plans, they suck, it's hard work and no fun. Things like capoeira or adult gymnastics can be a riot and I think people get more then just in shape out of it.

[Ford Prefect]

No prob, Chief. Just get her to a level where she can do the BWE's well, and then build a program off that. Hell, even just give her Scrapper's workout 1. Once she can do that all the way through following all the breaks, then work her into some weights.

Red, I tend to agree. Nothing worth having is easy though, and finding a "fun" activity that people can do regularly enough to get them strong and healthy is really hard. That's why fitness classes are so popular.

On a side note, I've had people do break-dancing as part of routine before. I just segment it into postional holds. The old school rock and top rock look like balance drills with squats when done segmented. The 6-step is a good one too when segmented. Swipes are cool... I'm actually trying to teach myself the flare. That is really hard. It's funny. I've never told anyone what they were actually doing. They all think it's a blend of Yoga and Pilates.

Honestly, I think Sonnon ripped off b-boying to come up with Body Flow and that stuff. Lots of b-boying moves take strength, so Sonnon changed them to be more about structure. It works even if Sonnon is laughing all the way to the bank. Maybe I should come up with some new tae-bo'ish breakdancing for fitness video. 10 minutes of rocking and top rocking down to a 6-step and back up again is enough to make anybody sweat.

[red5angel]

On a side note, I've had people do break-dancing as part of routine before. I just segment it into postional holds. The old school rock and top rock look like balance drills with squats when done segmented. The 6-step is a good one too when segmented. Swipes are cool... I'm actually trying to teach myself the flare. That is really hard. It's funny. I've never told anyone what they were actually doing. They all think it's a blend of Yoga and Pilates.

I break up my capoeira classes into something that is more of a workout then just doing capoeira:

I start by warming up, throwing a few kicks and Ginga to get the blood flowing. Pushups and situps of some sort or another, usually a few short sets of bomber pushups to warm up the shoulders.

I also do this thing we call the scorpion, whe you get into the pushup position, then you twist one leg back and over the other. It's dynamic so you keep moving and don't stop throughout, you go back and forth and it's a great stretch/ab workout.

then we warm up on a few techniques, Lately we've been throwing about 150 kicks, then we do some line drills and then we roda. Afterwards I do more pushups situp type stuff and stretch, then work on some stuff I'm having trouble with or want to improve on.


Apparently in some locations capoeira has become a popular aerobic class type thingy.

[Ford Prefect]

Red,

There is actually a move called "the scorpion" in Sonnon's material. Does yours look like this: (this is the circular scorpion)


http://rmax.tv/images/circularscorpion.ASF

That's a break dance move too... It could be called a scorpion, but I can't recall the name for it. It's almost the exact opposite of a swipe.

Sounds like a fun class.