What is the Best Weightlifting Routine for Women?
Aug 30, 2024 mindpumpYou’re a woman looking to build your dream body, and so you’ve come to me… a guy with small glutes and big traps, the exact opposite physique most women want. I am the last person you’d want to recreate the plot of Freaky Friday with, which is to say, you don’t want my body; you want YOURS.
Seems like that should go without saying. Yet, many male fitness coaches continue to train women exactly how they train themselves. While it’s true that the fundamentals of muscle growth are the same across genders, there are a few differences that should be acknowledged. Here is everything your weightlifting routine should incorporate as a woman:
Focus on Major Muscle Groups with Compound Movements
Compound movements work multiple muscle groups at once, making them efficient for building strength and muscle in less time. Key compound exercises include: squats, deadlifts, presses, and pulls.
These exercises should be the backbone of any weightlifting routine because they provide the most bang for your buck in terms of muscle growth, strength gains, metabolism, and mobility.
Add Isolation Lifts After Compound Movements
After your main lifts, use isolation exercises to target specific muscles and safely add volume without overtraining. Examples of isolation exercises are: bicep curls, triceps press-downs, lateral raises, and glute kickbacks.
This helps you work on individual muscles more intensely while keeping overall stress and fatigue in check. While compound movements are great, at some point in your session, you’ll be too tired to train them with high effort, and that’s when isolation work comes in.
Progressive Overload
Progressive overload means gradually increasing the weight, frequency, or number of reps in your training routine. This keeps your muscles challenged and growing over time. Consistently pushing your limits leads to steady improvement in strength and muscle mass.
Pain Free Training
Your routine should be free of pain. If an exercise hurts, tweak the form, reduce the weight, or try a different exercise. Pain free training is key for sticking with your routine and avoiding injury. No exercise has enough benefits to be worth pain.
Fits Your Lifestyle
An effective routine should fit easily into your life. It needs to be realistic in terms of time and effort. If it’s too demanding, you’re more likely to give up. Find a balance that you can maintain regularly.
Enjoyable Workouts
Enjoying your workouts is essential for sticking with them long-term. Even if a method is the best for building muscle, it won’t matter if you hate it and quit. Choose exercises and rest periods that you like. If you hate resting for three minutes between sets, find a routine with shorter rest periods. Because the best routine isn’t the one that produces the best results in a research paper; it’s the one you will actually do in real life.
Focus on Your Goals
Tailor your routine to emphasize the muscle groups you care about most. Women often have different goals than men, so don’t just copy a routine designed for someone looking to build huge biceps. Adjust your program to target the muscles you want to develop while keeping everything balanced.
Use Cardio for Heart Health
Cardio should be part of your routine, not just to burn calories but to improve heart health. Activities like running, cycling, or swimming are great for this. Good cardiovascular health supports better performance and recovery in weightlifting.
Allow for Recovery
Recovery is why we build muscle. Make sure your program includes enough rest days and ensure that you’re getting enough sleep. Overtraining can lead to burnout and injury, so listen to your body and give it the rest it needs.
Eat Enough
Your training efforts will only be as good as your diet. Eating enough protein, carbs, and fats is essential for fueling your workouts and helping you recover. Without enough food, you won’t have the energy to train hard, and your progress will stall.
Check all these boxes and you’ll be golden.
