Hello and welcome to Part 2 of Female Weight Lifting Routines.

In Part 1, we had a look at what a weight lifting routine is and I provided answers to some commonly asked questions.

Now it’s time to ‘get down and get jiggy with it’…

Here I will give you a complete workout routine for each of three goals:

• Losing Body Fat and Developing Muscle
• Strength Training
• Body Sculpting

 Losing Body Fat and Developing Muscle 

Warm-up

Kettle Bell/Dumbbell Swings 2 x 15 – 20

Upper Body Workout

Incline dumbbell press 3 x 12

Flat dumbbell flyes 2 x 12

Pull-downs – wide grip 3 x 12

Seated cable row 2 x 12

Dumbbell overhead press 3 x 12

Dumbbell side lateral raise 2 x 12

Barbell curl 3 x 12

Close grip bench press 3 x 12

Lower Body Workout

Barbell Back Squats 3 x 10

Forward walking lunges 2 x 8 steps each leg

Romanian dead-lift 3 x 10

Hyper Extensions 2 x 10

Standing calf raise 3 x 12

Abdominal Workout

Bicycle crunch 2 x 15 each side

Pelvic floor raise 2 x 15

Plank 2 x 30 seconds

 

Workout Schedule: 

Week 1

Monday:

• Warm-up
• Upper Body Workout

Tuesday:

• Active rest i.e. 40 minute brisk walk

Wednesday:

• Warm-up
• Lower Body Workout
• Abdominal workout

Thursday:

• Active rest i.e. 40 minute brisk walk

 Friday:

• Warm-up
• Upper Body Workout

 Saturday: Active rest i.e. 40 minute brisk walk

 Sunday: Active rest i.e. 40 minute brisk walk

 

Then on week two, begin Monday with Lower Body Workout so it looks like this:

 

Week 2

Monday: Warm-up + Lower Body Workout

Tuesday: Active Rest

Wednesday: Warm-up + Upper Body Workout

Thursday:  Active Rest

Friday: Warm-up + Lower Body Workout

Saturday: Active rest

Sunday: Active rest

 

Cycle week 1 and week 2.

 

Strength Training  

For our strength training routine we will focus on just four compound lifts.

Compound lifts are lifts that incorporate multiple joints and work a larger muscle area along with various smaller muscle groups.

Compound lifts will help you develop over-all strength and conditioning much faster.

For a Strength Training routine, we will be keeping the reps a bit lower – in this case, we will be working with five sets of five reps each.

Strength Training – Compound Lifts:   

Barbell Back Squat 5 x 5

Dead-lift 5 x 5

Bent-over Barbell Row 5 x 5

Barbell Bench-press 5 x 5

We will also include some higher repetition additional exercises to ensure a good blood flow and muscle pump to the target areas.

For this workout, we are not isolating smaller muscle areas like arms and shoulders as these muscles will receive enough stimulation during the compound lifts.

Workout Schedule  

Monday:

Barbell Back Squat 5 x 5

Leg Press 2 x 8 – 10

Barbell Bench-press 5 x 5

Incline Dumbbell Press 2 x 8 – 10

Tuesday: Active Rest

Wednesday:

Dead-lift 5 x 5

Bent-over Barbell Row 5 x 5

Pull-downs 2 x 8 -10

Thursday: Active Rest

Friday:

Barbell Back Squat 5 x5

Leg Press 2 x 8 – 10

Barbell Bench-press 5 x 5

Incline Dumbbell Press 2 x 8 – 10

Saturday: Active rest

Sunday: Active rest 

The individual workouts may not look much on paper; however they are very taxing on the body as you will find out.

You need to go heavy on these and increase the weights incrementally the next workout after all reps on each set have been reached on a particular exercise.

Example: if you are doing Barbell Back Squats, with just the Olympic Bar (20 kg), and on your last set get your 5 reps – then when you next do Barbell Back Squats, your starting weight would be, say, 23 kg (Olympic Bar + 1.5 kg each side).

Rest for at least 90 seconds, and up to 2 minutes, between sets to gain adequate strength back to fulfil the following sets.

Important: If you are not familiar with doing the compound lifts required in the Strength Training workout, please seek the advice and assistance of a qualified trainer/gym instructor before commencing.

 

Body Sculpting  

Okay, what we are going to do here is combine several factors from both the above workouts Losing Body Fat and Developing Muscle and Strength Training, whilst also adding in some additional auxiliary exercises along with additional cardio.

Basically, body sculpting is just that – adding detail and shape.

I love how Arnold Schwarzenegger described it in the film ‘Pumping Iron’ when he made reference to a sculptor working on a statue “You don’t really see a muscle as a part of you, in a way. You see it as a thing. You look at it as a thing and you say well this thing has to be built a little longer, the bicep has to be longer; or the triceps has to be thicker here in the elbow area. And you look at it and it doesn’t even seem to belong to you. Like a sculpture. Then after looking at it a sculptor goes in with his thing and works a little bit, and you do maybe then some extra forced reps to get this lower part out. You form it. Just like a sculpture.”

Adding Shape and Definition to Muscles: 

So…you have worked hard at toning your body and increasing your strength, now you’re looking to bring out some definition through a bit of muscle separation – hey, you’re on your way, getting and feeling better and better, and you’re proud of your efforts – so you should be 🙂

This is where auxiliary, or isolation exercises and additional cardio come in.

What are Isolation Exercises  

A bit further back in the article we had a look at compound lifts.  Remember, they are exercises that work larger muscles and a number of other smaller muscle groups, such as the Barbell Back Squat.

Well…for bringing out muscle definition, we will be incorporating isolation or ‘auxiliary’ exercises into our workouts.  These are exercises which primarily put the focus on one particular muscle, usually a smaller muscle such as the biceps or triceps in the upper arm.

Example of Isolation Exercises:  

  

Arms –

• Concentration curls
• Hammer curls
• Reverse curls
• Triceps Rope Push-downs
• Dumbbell kick-backs

Shoulders/Delts –

• Side lateral raises
• Front raises
• Rear delt flyes

Legs –

• Leg extensions
• Toes pointed leg curls

 

What are Supersets?  

Supersets are when we combine two exercises back to back.

There are several benefits of including supersets in your workout, such as – more work covered in shorter time, increased time under tension for the target muscle, more calories burned.

A superset may be used as two exercises for the one muscle i.e. Leg Press/Leg Extension.  Or, can be very effectively worked with antagonist pairings i.e. Barbell Curls/Close Grip Bench (working biceps and triceps)

How to Perform Supersets  

Quite simply, you perform one exercise then move directly onto the next without a rest break.

Therefore for Superset 1, in the body sculpting workout I have outlined below, you would first do one set of 8 – 10 repetitions for Incline Dumbbell Press then move directly into position for Flat Dumbbell Flyes and do 10 – 12 repetitions then rest for 40 – 60 seconds and repeat until completing the required number of sets. 

Body Sculpting Workout  

Monday: Chest and Delts

Warm-up – Clean & Press or Kettle Bell Swings 2 x 15

Superset 1

1. Incline Dumbbell Press 3 x 8 – 10
2. Flat Flyes 3 x 10 – 12

Upright Machine Flyes or

Cable Crossovers 2 x 15

Superset 2

1. Seated Dumbbell Press 3 x 8 – 10
2. Dumbbell Upright Row 3 x 8 – 10

Cable Side Lateral Raises 2 x 12 – 15

Abs/Cardio

1. Jump Rope x 20 skips
2. Bicycle Crunch x 12 to each side

Alternate between the two, without rest, for a total of three sets

 

Tuesday: Back and Calves

Uni-lateral Pull-ups

(assisted if required) 3 x 8 – 10

Wide-grip Pull-downs 2 x 8 – 10

Seated Cable Rows 2 x 12

Bent-over Cable Laterals 1 x 15

 

Leg Press Calf Raises 3 x 15 – 20

Seated Calf Raises 2 x 12 – 15

Abs/Cardio

1. Jump Rope x 20 skips
2. Plank x 30 seconds

Alternate between the two exercises, with no rest, for a total of three sets.

Wednesday: Interval Cardio

Treadmill x 12 minutes

(Medium paced for 2 minutes, as a warm-up.  Then as fast as you can for 30 – 40 seconds then medium paced for 60 – 90 seconds, fast as you can for 30 – 40 seconds then medium paced for 60 – 90 seconds.  Continue that cycle then do an additional five minute medium paced walk to come down)

 

Thursday: Arms 

Superset 1

1. Barbell Curl 3 x 8 – 10
2. Close Grip Bench Press 3 x 8 – 10

Superset 2

1. Dumbbell Preacher Curls 2 x 12
2. Overhead Dumbbell Extension 2 x 12

Superset 3

1. Rope Curls 1 x 15
2. Rope Press-downs 1 x 15 – 20

Abs/Cardio

1. Jump Rope x 20 skips
2. Bicycle Crunch x 12 to each side

Alternate between the two for a total of three sets

 

Friday: Legs

Leg Extensions 3 x 12

Barbell Back Squat or Leg Press 3 x 8

Walking Lunges 2 x 20 steps (10 each leg)

Seated or Laying Leg Curls 3 x 12

45 degree Hyper Extension 2 x 10 – 12

Abs/Cardio

1. Jump Rope x 20 skips
2. Plank x 30 seconds

Alternate between the two exercises for a total of three sets

 

Saturday: Active Rest

Sunday: Active Rest

 

Conclusion 

Whew!

There you have it, three completely different Female Weight Lifting Routines – each serving a different purpose, though intrinsically linked, and depending upon the over-all objective of the individual.

You can use either of these workouts…

• Losing Body Fat and Developing Muscle
• Strength Training
• Body Sculpting

…depending on where you’re at right now and then move on to another, when your original goal is met.

I hope this article has been helpful for you.

If you have any questions or relevant information you wish to share, please leave a comment in the box below or contact me directly support@superyou4life.com

If you are unfamiliar with any of the exercises I have included in the above workouts, please seek the guidance of a qualified trainer or gym instructor.  Also most, if not all, the exercises should be available to view on http://YouTube.com

I recommend you consult your Doctor or other Health Care professional prior commencing this, or any, exercise program.

As a final note, I would suggest you take a look at This Program: ‘Full-Body-Licious’ -Workouts by Flavia Del Monte.   

Or check out what Flavia has to say on: ‘The Truth About Females and Lifting Heavy Weights‘

Flavia Del Monte – is a Registered Nurse, Certified Personal Trainer and Precision Nutritionist.  Flavias goal is helping women say ‘I Love My Body’.

 

*The information and workouts I have presented in this article – Female Weight Lifting Routines – are my own and are not associated with Flavia Del Monte.

 

Blessings Be,

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rich Far

Founder of http://superyou4life.com

Contact: support@superyou4life.com

 

Thank you for reading:

Female Weight Lifting Routines; 3 Body Shaping Workouts