Leading a healthy lifestyle has recently become fashionable, so every day the number of sports complexes and fitness centers is growing. The good news is that there are much more female representatives in such institutions. However, quite often, spending a lot of time in training, girls do not achieve the expected result. This occurs due to the wrong selection of a set of physical exercises. Consider how the physiological characteristics of women influence the selection of certain sports exercises and what types of training are available.

Subtleties of female physiology

The specifics of sports in women is determined by the physiological characteristics of the female body, which, of course, differ from men. The first distinguishing feature of a woman's body is a low level of the hormone testosterone.(with the exception of some women, in whom it is above the norm).

Testosterone is a male hormone that is “responsible” for facial hair, lowering the timbre of the voice, the degree of human aggression and, most importantly in this situation, testosterone is responsible for muscle growth. In the body of a woman, this hormone is produced by the ovaries and adrenal glands in a small amount, which makes it much harder for girls to achieve an increase in muscle mass.

The second difference is that the structure of female muscles is not the same as that of males: in women, there are fewer muscle fibers, due to which the muscles contract and stretch. That's why girls' muscles aren't as prone to hypertrophy when strength training with a small amount of rotation per mass gain.

The third feature - the metabolic processes in women are slower. This also applies to the metabolism of carbohydrates, due to which an excess of these substances is often formed in the female body, which eventually turn into fat.

Important!Muscle tissue stores carbohydratesin the form of glycogen: the more of this substance in the muscles, the faster they take shape. If you are taking in the right carbohydrates, this should be taken into account when planning your workouts, as strength exercises in this case will give the best effect.

Do women need barbell and dumbbell exercises

If a girl wants to have a toned body, the list of exercises must include strength exercises with various kinds of weighting agents and their correctly selected weight.
Here are the main reasons that determine the need for weight training for girls:

1. Passive calorie burning occurs: muscles stimulate metabolic processes in the body, which implies fat loss without much energy expenditure. Saving energy, in turn, helps to preserve the muscles, since the more they are developed, the more energy is required to maintain them.
2. Bones are strengthened: if the weight of the barbell or dumbbells for work is chosen correctly, classes contribute to the compaction of bone tissue with a gentle load on the joints.
3. Yoga, Pilates, or cardio alone will not achieve the same results as weight training.

Women who visit the gym often neglect the warm-up, which is a big mistake. A couple of intense exercises without weights help warm up the muscles, joints and ligaments, prepare them for the main part of the workout and prevent injuries during the main exercises.
In order to warm up, you can squat, bend over, jump rope or stretch. If the goal of your training is not to lose weight, you can replace the warm-up with intense cardio (about 20 minutes).

Important!When exercising in the gym, it is also important to monitor the menstrual cycle. In the first days after menstruation, the girl's body is full of strength, so you can do more work, train more intensively. You need to start reducing the load before the onset of menstruation, during the same period you should not do loads on the lower body, and in the first days of menstruation it is better to completely abandon classes.

Types of training for girls in the gym

In trying to lose weight for the bathing season, girls often make the same mistake: doing cardio, missing weight exercises, which should be an integral part of the exercise plan. Consider how strength training differs from cardio and how important both types of exercise are for the body.

Strength exercises are exercises with additional weight in the form of a barbell, dumbbells, etc. The purpose of their implementation is to develop muscles. Increased calorie consumption after such classes persists for another day. With a healthy diet and a daily routine that includes rest, weight training starts and accelerates the processes of creating new substances, cells and tissues in the human body, i.e., the processes of anabolism.
Benefits of weight training:

• speed up metabolism, the process of losing weight almost does not stop if training is regular;
• contribute to an increase in the density, volume and relief of the muscles of the body, as a result of which the process of fat burning is accelerated;
• energize and increase the body's ability to work.

The basic rules that are important to follow when performing strength exercises:

1. It is better to work with a trainer who will correctly select the weight and type of exercise that is acceptable for you, depending on the individual characteristics of your body.
2. It is important to correctly calculate your strength and not overstrain.
3. Proper breathing plays an important role in strength training (you need to inhale when relaxing, and exhale when stressing).
4. In one workout, you need to train one muscle group, but once a week you need to do a load on the whole body.
5. The best time to perform this type of exercise is in the morning, because it is during this period that the metabolic process is activated.

Cardio is exercise on a treadmill, exercise bike, elliptical, etc. The purpose of cardio is to improve the functioning of the cardiovascular system. Increased calorie consumption stops within 60 minutes after exercise.
Benefits of cardio training:

• accelerate metabolic processes;
• stimulate the burning of subcutaneous fat, the loss of excess calories occurs faster;
• contribute to the development and improvement of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems.

Did you know?Doing sports doubles a woman's sexual arousal. This is due to the fact that during sports, the blood supply to the whole body improves.

Rules that are important to follow when performing a female complex of cardio exercises:

1. Start your cardio session with a warm-up: thanks to this, blood circulation is accelerated and the body is prepared for stress.
2. The best time to do this is after strength training. If this is an independent workout only for cardio, it is better to do it in the evening or in the morning.
3. In terms of time, cardio exercises should not take more than 45 minutes at a time. If you want to do more, divide the session into two: half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening.
4. If your goal is to lose weight, an interval session is the best option.

Effective Exercises

Due to the presence in modern gyms of a large number of various simulators, different approaches to training specialists, each of which offers its own base of exercises, today you can get confused when choosing the most effective ones. However, there is a set of exercises that many trainers advise to perform in order to achieve the desired results.

We swing legs and buttocks

Preparing for the summer, girls most of all want to pump up their legs and buttocks. This zone in most women is “problematic”, since it is genetically laid down that fat in females is deposited in the lower body. The most effective exercises that can help deal with this are the following:

On the back

The back consists of large (or major) and small (or accessory) muscles. During the exercise, most of the load goes to the large muscles, and the small ones develop after them. For example, along with the trapezius muscles, the muscles of the shoulder blades also develop.

Thus, in order to pump up your back, it is necessary to focus on the main muscles, this can be done using the following exercises:

On hand

As a rule, not all girls want to have too inflated arms. However, it is possible and even necessary to make them taut and embossed, for which it is necessary to do the following exercises:

On shoulders

Shoulders are also a part of the body that women are afraid to pump so that they are not wider than the hips. Strengthening the muscles of the shoulders with the help of the exercises below will not spoil the female figure, but will only benefit her:

On the chest

Is it possible to pump up the chest in the gym? This question is often asked by women to coaches. To answer it, you need to understand the anatomy of the female body. Most of the volume of the female breast is made up of adipose tissue and the mammary gland, which, of course, cannot be increased by even the most intense workouts in the gym. However, under the mammary gland is the pectoral muscle, pumping which, you can slightly increase the volume of the chest.

The following exercises will help you achieve this:

Abs workout

Since the abs are involved in most basic exercises, they swing even when you don't swing them on purpose. If a girl needs to focus on this part of the body, you can do:

It is important to remember that the press must be downloaded at the end of the workout.

Proper nutrition

Whatever goals a woman would pursue when visiting a gym, proper nutrition is a very important and necessary part of the training program.

Important!If you want to lose weight, you need to achieve a calorie deficit, which does not involve starvation, which many women drive themselves to.

So, the basic "laws" of proper nutrition:

1. It is necessary to eat food in small parts 5-6 times a day.
2. It is important to control the process of feeding fats and carbohydrates into the body. If you reduce the consumption of foods that contain carbohydrates, the body will begin to use the fats that were previously stored in it as an energy source. But since the body needs carbohydrates, you need to eat cereals, vegetables and fruits (that is, foods that contain complex carbohydrates), but give up foods containing fast carbohydrates, such as pastries.
3. Eat more protein. It is more difficult for the body to digest this element than other substances, so this process takes more energy and calories.
4. It is necessary to help the body burn fat, the best way to do this is to eat foods rich in vitamin C, low-fat dairy products, and drink plenty of water (about 3 liters per day).

Sample programs for women

To achieve the desired effect, it is important to follow a specific training scheme, which depends on the purpose of the training: losing weight or gaining muscle mass. Below are examples of workout programs that girls can use.

Program type	Day	Exercises	Notes
Weekly weight loss program	1	Cardio (about half an hour), warm-up (10 minutes). Hyperextension. Squat with a barbell (first set with an empty bar) or in the Smith machine. Lunges "scissors" with dumbbells (you can use "pancakes"). Breeding legs in the simulator. Reduction of legs in the simulator. Bending the legs in the simulator, lying on the stomach. Seated leg extension. Thrust of the horizontal block on the shoulders. Traction of the horizontal block to the chest. Twisting on the press in an inclination. Cardio (10-15 minutes). Stretching (5 minutes).	The program is designed to visit the hall 3 times a week. Each exercise (except cardio, stretching) must be performed 15-18 times. Number of approaches: 3-4. Respite between exercises: a minute and a half. Rest between sets: 40 seconds.
	2	Any cardio up to 30 minutes. Hyperextension. Squat with dumbbells. Lunges with "pancakes" (or dumbbells). Leg press lying on a vertical platform. Breeding hands with dumbbells while standing. Dumbbell press with support on the bench. Push-ups in graviton. Leg raises are vertical. Cardio (10 minutes). Stretching (5 minutes).
	3	Cardio (up to 30 minutes). Hyperextension with weights. Plie squat with dumbbells. Reverse lunges on the Smith machine. Romanian deadlift. Lifting dumbbells for biceps. The pull of the upper block to the chest. Pull-ups with a wide grip. Hanging leg pull-ups. Twisting on the press. Cardio (15 minutes). Stretching (5 minutes).
Weekly muscle building program	1	Hyperextension. Twisting on the press. Barbell squat. Lunges with dumbbells. Push-ups with a wide grip. Reduction and breeding of hands in the simulator "butterfly". Dumbbell press with each hand alternately. Thrust of the upper block behind the head. Stretching.	Approaches: 3-4. Reps per set: 6-12. The mass of weighting agents must be determined with the trainer. Rest between sets: 2 minutes. Rest between exercises: 1 minute.
	2	Hyperextension. Raise the legs to the chest. Deadlift. Lunges with dumbbells (or in the Smith machine). Bench press. Breeding dumbbells to the sides. Push-ups or pull-ups with a wide grip. Stretching.
	3	Squats with dumbbells. Lunges "scissors" with dumbbells. Bench press standing from the chest. Pull bar to the chin. Horizontal pull. Upper block pull with a narrow grip. Pullover with dumbbells. Stretching.

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For the purpose of losing weight, you can also choose a circuit training, which involves the continuous execution of the following exercises at a fast pace:

• traction of the upper block for the shoulders;
• leg extension on the simulator;
• pull of the lower block to the belt in a sitting position, with a narrow grip;
• squat "scissors";
• extension of the arms for triceps;
• lifting dumbbells alternately for biceps with supination;
• twisting on the press.

After you do all of the above exercises once, you need to go around them a second and third time in a circle, increasing the repetitions of each exercise to a maximum of 20 times.

Did you know?One hour of running can replace 15 minutes of jumping rope. The fact is that according to biomechanics, running is a series of jumps after the push of one leg. When jumping with a rope, you use both legs, respectively, at the same time, the muscles of the lower leg of both legs contract, and circular movements are made in the joints of the shoulders.

Rules for training in the gym

In order for the classes to be effective and lead to the desired result, girls must adhere to the following rules:

1. Together with the trainer, draw up a lesson plan and do not break it, visit the gym according to the system, several times a week.
2. Be sure to do a warm-up before class.
3. When performing exercises, stick to a single slow pace (do not slowly rise and quickly fall down) and the order of exercises.
4. Be sure to follow a proper diet.
5. Drink more water: for one training session, you need to drink one liter of regular non-carbonated water.
6. Since different trainers adhere to different training systems, it is better to go to the same specialist for the first six months so that the body does not have stress or overwork from changing systems.
7. Krepatura after class is normal, but it should not be manifested by severe pain in the muscles. The maximum is a mild muscle ache, in which you can exercise without much effort. In no case should you train, overcoming severe pain.
8. The first classes in the gym should last about an hour and be repeated 2-3 times a week. Increase the duration and frequency of training should not be earlier than after 3 months of systematic training.

When to expect the first results

With a properly drawn up training plan, its responsible implementation, and provided that you follow your diet, you can expect visible results from training in 8 weeks. However, it is important for girls to prepare themselves for the fact that over such a period of time the body adapts to the loads, gets used to the compiled regimen, and progress stops. Most experienced professionals recommend changing the lesson plan every few months.

Sport should be an integral part of the life of every girl who strives to have not only a good figure, but also excellent health. This is possible only if the lesson plan in the gym is drawn up correctly and in accordance with the physiological characteristics of the female body.