Hey Ladies - help wanted

Hello Ladies of ASF, I am trying to help design a workout for a beginner lady friend of mine who is looking to lean out and tone muscle. She is fairly new to the idea of incorporating weight training to her routines but I have her convinced to give it a shot. I would love to hear (or read ) your workout regiments. She is in her early 40’s, haven’t asked her weight but at around 5’2” I’d say she is around 115lbs - 120lbs. I see women of all ages at my gym doing all compound lifts on what seems to be a 3 day split hitting full body workouts each of the three days. Example: day 1,3,5 they are hitting quads, glutes, lats, and core. Cardio on days 2 and 4. Is like to see what your workouts consist of on a weekly basis for ideas in helping her find what works for her. Thank you for your time.

maybe if I show you a picture of my beautiful puppy, then you will share your workout plans with me?

Cute pup I dont think anyone was ignoring you, just not too many of us gals around these days

Hers really doesnt need to be all that much different than yours, just lighter weight
Whenever Ive had to take some time away from lifting I usually start back splitting upper body and lower until I get past the soreness, then its on to my regular split.
I do
Shoulders/Abs
Back/Bi
Legs
Chest/Tri's
Cardio changes depending on what Im trying to accomplish and I do it after I lift (EXCEPT for leg day )
Lifting is THE best thing she can do to get "shapely" and the muscle that she puts on from it will then help burn off fat.
You may need to help her get past a fear of the free weight area of the gym, A lot of gals wont do it for fear of looking stupid, so she may need some guidance.
On leg day I squat, Deadlift, sled, etc.
Chest is different variations of bench and cables
Back is rowing, cable rows, lat pull downs
Arms, dumbells and barbells........... you get the idea. She should be doing what you do but probably just doesnt know how. Please please PLEASE.... remind her that lifting weights will NOT make her look like Arnold It takes a SHITLOAD of gear to get beastly, just lifting wont do that, but it will reshape her body in ways that may surprise her. She may also want to stay away from the scale for a while and trust her eyes and the mirror.
Good luck to her !!!!

Hi cute puppy!

Oh, hey Milford. Didn't see you there.

Okay so if she's new to this stuff, you're going to want to keep things simple at the beginning. When I first started, I wasn't doing splits. Instead, I was doing circuits of a few simple exercises that were mostly chosen for simplicity, breadth, and equipment availability: pushups, squats, bicep curls, lat pulldowns, dumbbell presses, skullcrushers, and hanging leg raises. These are all pretty accessible for a beginner, and combined they give you a bit of everything.

Currently I do 3x per week. I mix things up a bit, but in general it looks something like this:

Day 1 - pull-ups, dips, military press, skullcrushers, DB press, triceps kickbacks, face pulls, triceps cable pushdown

Day 2 - standing DB curls, bent-over DB row, hammer curls, DB fly (usually 21s because I hate myself), pec fly, cable row, lat pulls, and I'll often finish with an easy bar curl dropset.

Day 3 - deadlift, squat or linear leg press (depending on which is available), then i run through all the leg machines (curl, extension, outer thigh, inner thigh, glute extension), and finish off with back extensions and the funky ab machine just for fun.

At home on non-gym days I do pushups, lunges, and pelvic dips as the spirit takes me.

It's a totally made-up and probably not very efficient program but I like it and it make my muscles hurt in the good way.

Instagram is full of insta chicks doing different lifts you might check them out..

If I was training a normal gal that wasnt really into all this yet I would focus on the core, but and legs.. Compound movements Like squats, lunges, and dead lifts(straight leg). For weights.. I would also incorporate things from aerobics like weighted step ups side step up.. also stairs and good mornings

Any way if she is new she probably wont want to do a lot of barbell or dumbell stuff and likely more concerned with tone and shape than anything else.

Mrsrobinson said:

Please please PLEASE.... remind her that lifting weights will NOT make her look like Arnold It takes a SHITLOAD of gear to get beastly, just lifting wont do that, but it will reshape her body in ways that may surprise her. She may also want to stay away from the scale for a while and trust her eyes and the mirror.
Good luck to her !!!!

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Seriously, I have been TRYING to get huge scary biceps. Sadface.

Hard Puff said:

Seriously, I have been TRYING to get huge scary biceps. Sadface.

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LOL, Me too....WTH???? And right now im cutting...the more weight I lose the scrawnier my arms look..Crap, I just...cant...win

Thanks ladies. I appreciate it, was always wondering why the chics at my gym do very little isolation workouts and hit everything in one workout 3x a week. Thought there was a secret lady thing I wasn’t aware of. Don’t get me wrong, these women are fit. The one can deadlift more than me, not just because of my lower back issues either, even tho that’s a great excuse. Appreciate the workout ideas. It will help me focus on a workout plan through the mindset of a woman.

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks ladies. I appreciate it, was always wondering why the chics at my gym do very little isolation workouts and hit everything in one workout 3x a week. Thought there was a secret lady thing I wasn’t aware of. Don’t get me wrong, these women are fit. The one can deadlift more than me, not just because of my lower back issues either, even tho that’s a great excuse. Appreciate the workout ideas. It will help me focus on a workout plan through the mindset of a woman.

Skinny guy- isn’t instagram some social media platform? I had to ease myself into the idea of this anonymous forum. I’m too afraid of social media. I appreciate the insight on the compound movement workouts.

Hard Puff said:

Hi cute puppy!

Oh, hey Milford. Didn't see you there.

Okay so if she's new to this stuff, you're going to want to keep things simple at the beginning. When I first started, I wasn't doing splits. Instead, I was doing circuits of a few simple exercises that were mostly chosen for simplicity, breadth, and equipment availability: pushups, squats, bicep curls, lat pulldowns, dumbbell presses, skullcrushers, and hanging leg raises. These are all pretty accessible for a beginner, and combined they give you a bit of everything.

Currently I do 3x per week. I mix things up a bit, but in general it looks something like this:

Day 1 - pull-ups, dips, military press, skullcrushers, DB press, triceps kickbacks, face pulls, triceps cable pushdown

Day 2 - standing DB curls, bent-over DB row, hammer curls, DB fly (usually 21s because I hate myself), pec fly, cable row, lat pulls, and I'll often finish with an easy bar curl dropset.

Day 3 - deadlift, squat or linear leg press (depending on which is available), then i run through all the leg machines (curl, extension, outer thigh, inner thigh, glute extension), and finish off with back extensions and the funky ab machine just for fun.

At home on non-gym days I do pushups, lunges, and pelvic dips as the spirit takes me.

It's a totally made-up and probably not very efficient program but I like it and it make my muscles hurt in the good way.

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Damnnnn you are in raw cooking job and a girl??, I swear u have more test in your bloods than me lol

xeaven said:

Damnnnn you are in raw cooking job and a girl??, I swear u have more test in your bloods than me lol

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man I barely even cook dinner, let alone raws. I’m an actual legitimately employed lab scientist. But yeah, probably more test than you

Lol- marine biologist right?

Milford King said:

Lol- marine biologist right?

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not even close.

I thought all chick biologists were marine biologists bro. Flipper, Shamu and shit.

CoachCabo said:

I thought all chick biologists were marine biologists bro. Flipper, Shamu and shit.

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You know my pipettor functions quite nicely as a shiv, right?

Haha. Seriously apologize if that was offensive. Stereotypes. Chick scientists are mermaids.

My attending an undergrad A&P of Marine Mammals class at age 30 was where I got my disdain for chick biologists. Except for Hard Puff, of course.

1. A huge proportion of molecular biologists and microbiologists are women. It’s academia, so it fluctuates from year to year, but my lab is typically about 60% female. Even our bioinformaticians (biologists who mostly work with big data on computers) are about half women.

2. We’re not generally that easily offended.

3. Coach, that was like 400 years ago.

I get it now. Your avi isn’t a sea creature, it’s a virus!!! Or bacterium? You, hard puff, are an asset to society. Rock on sister! P.S. I also work in a lab whereas the ratio of women to men is 2:1. No offense to the dudes but women are generally better to work with, unless of course there is a group of “alpha” females on the same project. At that point suicide contemplation is increased dramatically among the men.

Milford King said:

I get it now. Your avi isn’t a sea creature, it’s a virus!!! Or bacterium? You, hard puff, are an asset to society. Rock on sister! P.S. I also work in a lab whereas the ratio of women to men is 2:1. No offense to the dudes but women are generally better to work with, unless of course there is a group of “alpha” females on the same project. At that point suicide contemplation is increased dramatically among the men.

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It’s a tardigrade egg. I just think they’re cool.

Women tend to be more cooperative and tidier in the lab. Plenty of exceptions, of course, but on average things usually run more smoothly with a good mix. A lot of dudes seem to have something to prove and fuck shit up by trying to figure everything out on their own. That’s fine if you’re on the bleeding edge, but if you’re learning the basics, those are all solved problems, and everyone will be a lot better off if you just fucking ask for help.

Hard Puff said:

It’s a tardigrade egg. I just think they’re cool.

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Well dang, that blew my theory as to what it was. I assumed with a nick like "Hard Puff" it was an atom of your preferred thing to smoke...

The name hard puff is what made me believe she was a marine biologist. Thought it was some type of sea creature, lol. There was an article regarding polyketides found on the ocean floor and there use in medical R and D that was showing real promise in combating cancer, a picture of this microscopic bacteria looked similar to hard puffs avatar pic. And i assumed that this chic, who I knew was involved in the sciences, was a marine biologist. This assumption came from this idea that I have had that most marine biologist are female. I really don’t know why I make the assumption. Either way, smart chics are sexy! Lol.......I just looked up tardigrades - they are indeed water dwelling creatures. Damn, I’m good!

That is a fine looking pup you got there. I wrote a workout plans for my girlfriend who is in a similar situation and also has some past injuries I tried to factor in. But first, here’s a couple of pics of my pup. As you can see, he is being overrun by kittens in one of them. Further proof that pit bulls are in great pets and gentle, doofy bundles of love as long as you treat them right. Check the pics out while I step off my soap box lol.




Here is is the plan I put together for my girl. It’s nothing fancy or complex, but it should help build a solid foundation and, so far, has yielded pretty good results for my girl. Her goals are to lose fat, especially stubborn fat that is harder and harder to get rid of as we age, build lean, but not bulky muscle, tone and tighten her arms, back, butt, and quads, and hamstrings. Pretty broad goals, but also fairly common ones.

The workouts can be very intense if you push yourself. If your friend, who you said is a beginner, is really grinding hard, she can cut back on some of the lifts. For example, squats and deadlifts in the same day are a lot for even advanced lifters if they are going all out. However, if the weights are light and she is learning the from, this should be fine. But the point is, adjustments can be made.
3 days a week

ill list it like this:
lift (#of sets, # of reps per set)
or for a superset, it’ll look like:

lift ss/ lift (#of sets, reps for lift 1 / reps for lift 2)

day 1:
front dumbbell squat (4, 12-15)
stiff leg dead lift (4, 8-12)
hip thrust (3, 15-20)
seated overhead dumbbell press (3, 12-15)
assisted chin-ups (or regular chins) (3, 8-12)
Assisted dips (or reg dips) (3, 12-15)
hanging leg raises (3, 15)

rowing machine (as hard as possible) (5, 30-40 seconds)
Optional: treadmill (20 min or 2 miles)

Day 2:
squats (4, 12-15)
deadlifts (4, 8-12)
medicine ball squat to overhead throw (4, 12-15)
lat pull downs (3, 10-12)
cable crossovers ss/ push-ups (3, 15/10)
burpees ss/ med ball slams (3, 10/12)
plank (2, 90 sec)
sprints (5-8, 30 sec)
optional: elliptical (20 min)

day 3:
gobblet squat (4, /10-12)
RDLs (4, 8-12)
machine shoulder press (3, 12-15)
cable rows (4, 10-12)
incline machine press (2, 20)
cable tricep press down (2, 20-25)
cable bicep curl (3, 12-15)
kettle ball swings (4, 10)
lying leg raises (3, 15)
stairmaster (20-30 min)

Thanks boss, pit bulls were originally bred as “nanny” dogs. There intended use is to look after the kiddos. Misuse by scumbag people turned these dogs into feared and hated viscous fighter dogs. This is the plight of humankind brother, nothing wrong with animals, until human intervention. End of rant - thanks for the workout plan. This is a good friend of mine at work. She is 45 and pre menopausal. She is in good shape but asked me to help her get into a routine at the gym. So far she is loving it. Works hard. And seems to be relieving symptoms of menopause. I will run your plan by her. Thanks again.