female question

[Jaiman]

You know how ladys want to get "toned", what rep ranges would be best for not getting bulky as they say..

She currently has a program of
bosu ball squats
lunges with DB
assisted chins
DB bench (with legs up coz she told me to)
Lat pulldown
pushups (knees)
crunches
plank

Alternated cardio:
Rowing machine
running
cross trainer


I think the program is total crap.. It was made by a young PT at the gym. everything is 2x15, and crunches are 2x25
So, her goals are, to lose flabbyness. Diet is clean but not enough protein

Hope the girls here can give some input to what has work for you! :)

[MissFit]

You should know better than to even ask this Jaiman.
Tell her to train like you do. Same reps, same sets - heavy.
Unless she's a genetic freak or on gear she wont get bulky.

That's a shit program. That's not a even a program - that's nothing more than bullshit taken from some womens fitness mag.

[Sim882]

should train same as guy except perhaps if her only goal is to cut, the weights program could be made more cardioesque by something like antagonist supersets. I'm not saying it should be like this - calorie counting is obviously the more important mechanism to lose bf%. I'd get any female wanting to shape up doing sprint intervals for cardio (awesome glute/hamstring workout).

perhaps no explosive shrugs for a girl? that would be the about the only difference weight selection wise...and a thousand hip thrust sets lol

You should know better than to even ask this Jaiman.
Tell her to train like you do. Same reps, same sets - heavy.
Unless she's a genetic freak or on gear she wont get bulky.

That's a shit program. That's not a even a program - that's nothing more than bullshit taken from some womens fitness mag.

[MissFit]

"and a thousand hip thrust sets lol"

You are a dirty, dirty man.....

[Sim882]

1/2 joking, 1/2 serious. Girls can (very rarely) get too big thighs, shoudlers for the tastes of the "average guy"....But most girls if they achieve low bf% have very tiny glutes that IMO look too flat...the "glute guy" himself (Bret Contreras) says its almost impossible for a natty woman to have glutes too big

"and a thousand hip thrust sets lol"

You are a dirty, dirty man.....

[Gav]

Why stop at 1000? Saves doing cardio on the treadmill

[Sim882]

lol - yep squat, deadlift power clean or hip thrusts sets all with short rest breaks save doing the treadmill

complexes are awesome cardio and substittue for the treadmill. I was doing one from t-nation late last year (power clean, front squat, push press, bb row, SLDL, conventional deads - all about 5-8 reps performed consecutively) and I'd say the HR almost got as high as sprint intervals. Maybe requires too much core strength for a noob, but definitely something that burns cals and would cause to a noob at least some hypertrophy.

[Beeman]

my missus program is the same as mine except as someone as aid above she doesnt do shrugs.

[MO]

"I don't want to get big, i just wanna be toned"

"I don't want to go too heavy and turn into a man"

Well bloody said, missfit.
It's just so so hard for a woman to put on muscle. They seem to think that it will just happen over night - like they can grow faster than us men.
Female clients of mine are trained just like my male clients, the only differance is they cannot handle the same weights and cannot come close to the rate of muscle growth with their lack of testosterone and over flow of estrogen getting in the way of that look.

Females should just train their arses off for that 'toned' look. That look alone will take forever with the rate they put on muscle.
If they really wanted to look 'manly muscle' i doubt they would ever get to that point anyway....probably years and years of constant weight training on a high protien diet.

Take a look at the figure girls - very minimal muscle, great to the public female eye. What they dont know is how long it even took for THAT amount of muscle!

[Jaiman]

Thanks ladys and gents.
Its a facepalm moment when they say "I don't want to get bulky" thinking its an overnight thing..

[Zam]

You should know better than to even ask this Jaiman.
Tell her to train like you do. Same reps, same sets - heavy.
Unless she's a genetic freak or on gear she wont get bulky.

That's a shit program. That's not a even a program - that's nothing more than bullshit taken from some womens fitness mag.

Awesome reply, nuff said.

[scottie2301]

Thanks ladys and gents.
Its a facepalm moment when they say "I don't want to get bulky" thinking its an overnight thing..

The problem I have found when training females is that no matter how hard you try you just can't get that stereotypical view out of most women's heads of getting big and bulky when lifting weights... IMO you need to disguise the staple compound lifts that we know work all too well as something more 'female friendly', without taking away from the exercise's effectivness...
If you just go and throw a female into squats, deadlifts, bench press, military press, & pul-ups it is very likely that she will dislike it and give up before she even see's a shred of results...

It's all well and good to say that yes they need to do these certain exercises, but its very much a different action trying to get them to stick with it when they have such a strong stereotype in their heads...

[Agent 00D]

If you just go and throw a female into squats, deadlifts, bench press, military press, & pul-ups it is very likely that she will dislike it and give up before she even see's a shred of results...

It's all well and good to say that yes they need to do these certain exercises, but its very much a different action trying to get them to stick with it when they have such a strong stereotype in their heads...

Could not agree more!!!!!!!!!! There's nothing worse than trying to do the stuff you dislike and then having to give up cause u either hate it so much or you just can't do it. Nobody likes to look stupid.