Female 20 Workout Routines?

[paws59]

I just started going to the gym this year and I have absolutely no idea what I am doing in there. There is a lot of fancy equipment and if you can name it, this gym has it. I hear of people talking about leg day and arm days and ive googled some but it all seems awkward. I end up running track, going on the elliptical, or bike for 45 minutes but I would love to have an actual routine and work some muscles I have never worked before. What are some of your routines?

Thanks! 

[weightsovrdates]

When I first started I went through exactly what you went through, now I'm one of those people doing leg days arm days ect.

I originally used a website called bodybuilding.com and used some of their workouts to start me off but they were very complicated and did a lot of work on muscles that were for aesthetic purposes. So I did some research and looked at compound movements (use more than one muscle at a time (squats, deadlifts, bench press)) I picked 3 - 4 of those compound movements that suited either upper body or lower body then did a core day on a day where I did cardio.

So upper body:

• Bench Press
• Standing Cable flies
• Tricep Dips
• Pull Ups (assisted) or lat pull down (they have a similar movement)

Lower Body

• Leg Press or light squats
• Lunges
• Glute Raises
• Deadlifts (a bit more advanced in my opinion)

It also depends on your goals really for me I wanted to get strong and fit but I've always found a good way to start is by doing 3 sets of 12 reps at a moderately hard weight (meaning you can perform the activity properly with a fair bit of effort) some people may have different ideas or recommendations, this is based purely off my experiences.

My other cardinal rule for gyms is do what you enjoy, I enjoy lifting weights so I do that three times a week and will put cardio in once or twice a week for say 30 minutes.

Your best bet is to speak to one of the instructors as they can generally put together a small plan for you and to teach you how to use the equipment, plus they can suggest exercises that suit your level of ability.

I hope that helps!

[Tunty]

Thanks a lot, this really help me!

[slysam]

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@paws59 wrote:

I just started going to the gym this year and I have absolutely no idea what I am doing in there. There is a lot of fancy equipment and if you can name it, this gym has it. I hear of people talking about leg day and arm days and ive googled some but it all seems awkward. I end up running track, going on the elliptical, or bike for 45 minutes but I would love to have an actual routine and work some muscles I have never worked before. What are some of your routines?

Thanks! 

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I've done different things. I have never done a "split" weight lifting program like you mentioned (where you do one area one day i.e. a chest day and a legs day, etc.) I have done upper/lower body splits (mentioned by another). I usually do full body strenght workouts. With strength workouts, you usually allow your worked muscles to recover for 48 hours before strength training them again. You can do cardio, walking or maybe yoga on your recovery day (though some vigorous yoga is really like a bodyweight strenght training practice so it may depend on the practice and how conditioned you are for it). A lot of strenght and conditioning trainers and fat loss "gurus" recommend full body strenght workouts that use exercises that use a lot if muscle groups at once. Part of the reason is they feel this improves functional strength (the body moves as a unit) and it has a higher calorie burn and afterburn effect. With full body workouts you usually do them three times a week. I think upper/lower splits are similar but you do them 4 or 6 times a week (2-3 times each mucle group). Body part splits are good for building strength especially if you have some areas that need more work than others, but I think people usually exercise 3-5 days a week (each part once a week). I think for a beginner either full body or a split of upper/lower is probably a good place to start. Right now I am doing a program from a book called "Strong Curves", it is a 12 week progressive full body program that emphasizes the lower body.

One nice resource for beginners (or anyone) is the "Women's Health Big Book of Exercises" or the "Men's Health Big Book of...". (They are basically the same book, just one has a female model and the other male. The women's health has a couple routines for women like a prenatal routine, the men's probably has a couple different routines. But many of the routines and the exercises are the same in either book).  These books have an encyclopedia of exercises and a number of routines by well known trainers who write for Women's or Men's Health magazine. I like kindle versions of strenght training books as I have the free kindle app on my phone and it makes it easier to follow in the gym. They also have an app with all the exercises and most of the routines that will time and log workouts for you, I just find it sometimes crashes.

Another good, (free) resource is sparkpeople.com, on their app and website they have a number of strength training exercises, a log, and the log will estimate a calorie burn for the workout. I've been using the log this week along with my heart rate monitor and was surprised how close the hrm and this tracker are for my workouts. The site/app has a lot going on food tracking, community, etc so you might need to look for the "Track fitness" section of the app. I think it will generate a program for you on the website if you want too. 

[Hats26]

@paws59 have you been given an induction or anything? I would have thought a member of the gym staff would have talked to you about a program? I use kettlebells & viprs as alternate curcuits when I am in the gym. I also run different distances to help my running confidence/speed & strenthen my arches & improve my breathing.

[Nicomachea]

Others have already touched on some very good ideas, with asking the gym staff for guidance being the best. Perhaps also invest in a personal trainer for just a few sessions to get things started.

That said, I'm a 20-something woman and have been lifting for years. Here are my personal opinions (along with some science):

• I suggest that all people new to lifting start with full-body workouts and not split. You need a strength base before pushing particular muscle groups as hard as a split will. Gains come very quickly at first, so enjoy that!
• Once you've seen gains and have been at it a couple/few months, you can start thinking about splits depending how often you go to the gym. If you're only going a couple times a week, stick with full-body routines. If you're going more often, you can split.
• My go-to split is three-pronged: back/biceps, shoulders/triceps/chest, and legs. At the moment I have a fourth split, namely core/abs. I generally do eight or nine exercises a day, three sets, and superset (don't take rest breaks). For instance, yesterday for legs, my first superset involved squats, adductions/outer hip lifts, and one kind of calf raise. I then repeated that two more times. I followed that with two other leg-specific superset combos for a total of nine distinct exercises with three sets each.
• Lift heavy. Since you're just starting, go with a weight that you can lift 10-12 times per set. Eventually, once you've established a strength base, your repititions per set can drop to as low as six. My body responds best to eight to ten reps per set.
• You asked about specific routines. Here are the exercises I commonly do for each of my splits (I generally spend about 30 minutes lifting and then 20 minutes doing high-intensity cardio of varying types) (all these exercises can be Googled -- it sounds complicated, but I promise it's not!!)

:       - Legs: Squats (regular, sumo, reverse, Bulgarian split), lunges, calf raises (with toes pointed in, neutrally, and out), abduction, adduction, weighted knee raises, leg extensions, leg curls, hip raises

        -Back/biceps: Wide-grip lateral pull-downs, close-grip lateral pull-downs, inverted grip lateral pull-downs, seated row, bent-over row, preacher curls, hammer curls, standard curls, pull-ups

        - Shoulders/triceps/chest: Military/overhead press, shoulder extensions, V-lifts, tricep kickbacks, shrugs, push-ups (standard and wall using a large gym ball), flys, bench press, upright rows

I throw other things in there, but those are standard ones for me. I use primarily dumbbells. You can look up the proper form for all these exercises online -- there are videos -- but there's just no substitute for a personal trainer who can really teach you proper form. Avoiding injury will be worth the cost!