Training girlfriend - opinions...

[He-man]

So I have decided to help my girlfriend get into better shape. She is active, but she is going to try to incorporate lifting. I want her to start off somewhat slow to get her body used to lifting, and let her enjoy it.

I have decided to give it a go for 3 months. My plan is to go 6 weeks on, 1 week off, then change the rep range and go for another 6 weeks before we start gauging real results.

She would just like to lose about 15 lbs and she can lose weight, but can't keep it off doing cardio. We have had the talk about diet and I am excited about this just as she is.

So let me break it down. I want to keep the sessions around 30 minutes and we are starting out only 2 days a week, again i want to ease her into it.

day 1
Squats 3 x 12
60 sec.
Bench Press 3 x 12
60 sec.
Leg Curls 3 x 12
60 sec.
Body Rows 3 x 12
60 sec.
Calve Raises 3 x 12
60 sec.

day 2

jogging

day 3

Jump roping

Day 4

Deadlifts 3 x 12
60 sec.
Push-ups3 x 12
60 sec.
Lunges 3 x 12
60 sec.
Rows 3 x 12
60 sec.
Leg Extensions 3 x 12
60 sec.
Abs 3 x 12

Day 5

Bicycling

Day 6-7 OFF

After 6 weeks I am going to change up the exercises and rep ranges. Since she is a newbie I can see her gaining fast at first if she sticks to it. A lot of these exercises she is just starting with the bar and I'm not trying to make a man out of her. I would appreciate any suggestions, I know no one likes leg extensions, but as i said as a beginner I want her to enjoy these total body workouts and look forward to the session. Thanks.

[Lisa~]

I like that you're having her do the big lifts and twice a week initially is going to be fine. Go ahead and move to 3x/week as soon as she wants to though; there's no magic in waiting if she feels she is ready.

I also hope that some of that jogging, jump rope and cycling is going to be HIIT style. Not all of it if HIIT is new to her, but some of it at least. Moving toward more HIIT in the weeks to come.

You're right that nobody likes leg extensions. I don't either. You've got a lot of exercises in this plan, so I would like to suggest just a couple of changes.

In Day 2 you use a deadlift and a single leg quad dominanct exercise, the lunge. I don't think the leg extensions are even necessary after that. I'd just drop them altogether.

In Day 1, why not use the same idea, squats and later a hip dominant unilateral leg exercise instead of the leg curls. You could choose single leg back extensions, single leg glute bridges, single leg RDLs or King deads for example. I think she'd enjoy the balance aspect of the single leg RDL; she might really like that exercise.

So you can see your plan like this:
Day 1
Bilateral quad dominant (squat)
Horizontal push (bench)
Unilateral hip dominant (1-Leg RDL)
Horizontal pull (horizontal row)

I'd ditch the calf work. If she's jogging I bet her calves are fine. I would add core stability work like planks right here.

Day 2
Bilateral hip dominant (deads, and I think RDLs are easier to teach than conventional deads btw)
Why not choose a vertical push here instead of another horizontal one? I think push press is fun, but it could be a db overhead press or something.
Unilateral quad dominant (lunge)
How about a vertical pull here? Band assisted pullup maybe?
Ditch the leg extension
Do the core work, different choices than day one's.

How does that sound?

[He-man]

Sounds good thanks for the reply. Appreciate your educated input!!

[JoshDunn]

(I hit edit and most of deleted my post.)

Try alternating sets; ie squats x12, rest 60, shoulder presses x12, rest 60, repeat

This allows for more weight to be used as you take longer before you get back to the same exercise. Makes life fun as well.

[Lisa~]

You're welcome.

If you rewrite it, let us see the new plan.

[Lisa~]

I like Josh's idea of alternating sets too. See if she would have more fun doing it as straight sets or alternating sets. Let her try it both ways and pick what she likes.

[gobbla]

*just for my own education*

Any advantages to doing a circuit w\ no rest?

So you can see your plan like this:
Day 1
Bilateral quad dominant (squat)
Horizontal push (bench)
Unilateral hip dominant (1-Leg RDL)
Horizontal pull (horizontal row)

I'd ditch the calf work. If she's jogging I bet her calves are fine. I would add core stability work like planks right here.

Day 2
Bilateral hip dominant (deads, and I think RDLs are easier to teach than conventional deads btw)
Why not choose a vertical push here instead of another horizontal one? I think push press is fun, but it could be a db overhead press or something.
Unilateral quad dominant (lunge)
How about a vertical pull here? Band assisted pullup maybe?
Ditch the leg extension
Do the core work, different choices than day one's.

Say you did something like suggested 3-4 circuits 3x a week.

[Lisa~]

You know gobbla, for someone who's a beginner I don't think it's going to matter that much. If she likes doing it as a circuit, then I'd want her to enjoy the program, do it as a circuit. I personally hate circuits so I didn't think of it. :p

I think if she had no preference then I would choose not to make a circuit. I probably wouldn't even do the alternating sets at first. My initial focus would be to teach technique. Often on the first day with a new client, we only manage to get a couple of sets of each lift done. I'm teaching the lift and at first that is time consuming. How soon we move forward from there depends totally on how fast the clients learns to lift with good form.

[Alcoholiday]

i have advice... don't train her! haha

every time i train one of my friends that's a girl, it never works out.

[Frank.S]

Alcoholiday..

Thats just because you have her do 2 sets of 100 "Good Mornings" suppersetted with SLDLs..

while you do some forearm isolation work behind her.

hahaha.


In all honesty.. I dont think a females workout plan should differ all that much from a males. Maybe keep the reps 'slightly' higher.

[Alcoholiday]

Originally Posted by Frank.S

Alcoholiday..

Thats just because you have her do 2 sets of 100 "Good Mornings" suppersetted with SLDLs..

while you do some forearm isolation work behind her.

hahaha.


In all honesty.. I dont think a females workout plan should differ all that much from a males. Maybe keep the reps 'slightly' higher.

actually, i spot her to make sure her form is correct.

[RobLL]

My wife said she would lift if we could do it at home. Beings she has never lifted before I thought we could do NROL Break in and Fat Loss, using a lot of just body weight and maybe 3 sets of dumbbells, 3,5,8 pounds, going light if there is any question. Esp. on FL. Any feed back appreciated. Rob

ps. my credibility is very high right now, my low carb meals have resulted in weight loss and trim figure.

[Lisa~]

You can certainly do NROL programs at home. There have been a couple of threads in the NROL forum about exercise substitutions for home workouts. You might have to get some bigger DBs though! Even for a female beginning lifter, I don't think 8's are going to be enough weight.

[TrainingGirl]

Originally Posted by Alcoholiday

i have advice... don't train her! haha

every time i train one of my friends that's a girl, it never works out.

And I try to train my husband and he gets all pissy. Although I think that had more to do with the fact I could lift more


Rob, I agree with Lisa on having her use heavier db's. Not a tremendous weight, but something that will challenge her once she has the form down.

[ryan122185]

Lisa pretty much said everything I would say. I would recommend doing full squats.

[Ogedei]

Ok, My turn!

Lifting has been pretty much taken care of, my only comment would be something we see Alwyn say all the time. No one benches until they can do 10 or so proper pushups, on that vein I might switch the bench out with push-ups and not have that item both days.

I am assuming she is doing the jogging and cycling because she enjoys those things. You might want to look into some kind of HIIT on one of those days as well/or instead.

On weights I would say the same thing as a guy, challenging enough to complete the prescribed sets. This may be lighter than you, but heavy is relative.

Ie my heavy is light to Eric Cressey, and his heavy is immovable to me

Og.

P.S. I like push presses as well, also you could look at cuban presses, cause they are EVIL!

[Cynic]

Originally Posted by Lisa~

You can certainly do NROL programs at home. There have been a couple of threads in the NROL forum about exercise substitutions for home workouts. You might have to get some bigger DBs though! Even for a female beginning lifter, I don't think 8's are going to be enough weight.

Yeah, look at "Play It Again Sports." They usually have std DB bars and tons of plates for them laying around.

At the one I go to, they're pretty cheap and it looks like you could put five 10lb plates on each side, for a whopping 100lbs+/DB.

Don't forget to get 5 and 2.5lb plates for increments and perhaps some platemates for smaller increments.

[Cynic]

Originally Posted by Ogedei

Ie my heavy is light to Eric Cressey, and his heavy is immovable to me

Think "Indominable spirit...indominable spirit."