Hello! I completely forgot about women! Very few articles have yet been written for the fair sex, and they also need specific knowledge to progress. And they differ from male theory and practice. Today I want to correct this omission a little. I want to consider in great detail the RIGHT workouts for girls, I will give a working version of the training program.

I worked out in different gyms. There are quite a lot of women where I train now. There are very thin, there are very full, young and already aged. Someone trains with a coach, someone on their own. As a man, I will say that it is very unusual to watch a woman exercising. Why? I do not even know...

There is something in this. In my rocking chair, the vast majority of visitors are guys. They are rough in nature, doing strength exercises to develop even more strength and create an even more brutal image. But when tender girls lift weights and they do it with their characteristic softness, there really is something in it. Their goal is not brutality, but to emphasize their natural femininity.

No normal girl comes to the gym to work out like a man. Many girls still think that the gym will turn them into men. On this occasion, I advise you to read an article about strength training.

The workout program for girls in the gym is an important thing, and I, as promised, will give it to you. But let's first look at the theoretical aspects of the specifics of women's training.

By the way, there are excellent articles on the topic and If you are a beginner girl, you should find this useful.

I would like to say right away that the ideas of many girls about what an effective workout should be like are TOTALLY WRONG! They still think that jumping rope, twisting a hoop and running on a newfangled treadmill will make them happy.

Or, for example, they think that having bought some kind of belt, a secret fat burning cream or a vibrating device, they will burn fat without much effort. It would seem that it is already clear to everyone that this is nonsense, that it does not work - but then why is it still selling well? Great marketing does not sleep! The profits of sales of useless sports goods are growing, but the figure of many remains unchanged.

As a result, women get bored with all this and they give up even trying to change themselves. “Looks like this is not mine”, “probably I just have such a physique”, “nothing helps” etc. But the girl never even approached 50% of effective training.

The most effective workout is the one in which you REALLY INVOLVE your muscles and FEEL THEIR WORK! This is very easy to do in the gym - everything is provided for this, but it is much more difficult at home. Therefore, in this article we will talk ONLY ABOUT TRAINING IN THE GALL. At home, everything is much more complicated.

A real female workout and the one that you are doing now - perhaps 2 completely different things!

And you know - our bodies are almost the same in their basic functions. Any body reacts to training, to a lack of calories, to the intake of certain nutrients.

I'm not talking about exceptional cases, I'm talking about general standards for all people.

• It DOES NOT happen that you train a muscle correctly, and it remains in the same state.
• There is NO way that you can eat fewer calories than you expend and still not lose weight.

Our body is a work of art of the great mathematician, where everything is very natural! We are created with automatic processes sewn into us that occur without our knowledge. We just need to learn how to know how our body works and use it to achieve our goals (gain muscle mass, burn fat, etc.)

Why do you need a gym

When it comes to women's training, I'm sure that many girls immediately imagine themselves training in the style of aerobics. We wave our arms, legs, run, jump, etc.

This is all great, but the “simulator” has at least 3 main advantages over aerobics:

1. The gym will help you individually pump up your legs, arms, buttocks. That is, this is a MORE POINT BODY CHANGES. This does not mean that in the gym you need to download only what you want - the whole body is also worked out there. But no one canceled the emphasis on different muscle groups if necessary. In the gym, this is very easy to do, in aerobics it is not.
2. After training in the gym, your metabolism accelerates for the whole 24 hours, and even the next day it works faster than usual. Aerobic exercise gives such an effect only for 4-5 hours. The difference is more than obvious.
3. It is the gym that will help you build muscle, which later will themselves absorb a large number of calories even in a calm state, when you sleep, for example. Aerobics does not provide muscle growth.

Key features of the female body

The main difference between a man and a woman is that a woman has the ability to give birth. This is the reason for a whole complex of smaller differences at all levels of physiology and biochemistry.

1. The female body more easily accumulates nutrients "in reserve", so girls gain weight more easily. In this regard, you need to closely monitor the consumption of carbohydrates. It is better to use less than more of them.
2. In women, the level of anabolic hormones (testosterone) is significantly lower. Lower level of adrenaline. It all affects the workout itself. Achieving muscle failure is many times more difficult for women than for men (when a muscle is so tired that it can no longer contract). Physically, a woman will be able to complete a few more repetitions, but is unlikely to do so. The brain will give the command to stop the exercise. And the men, gritting their teeth, puffing, quacking, barking, will perform a couple more repetitions. This is the difference! Therefore, it is better for a woman to do many reps (12-15) and many sets (4-5), instead of working with heavy weights of 6-10 reps in 3 sets.
3. In the female body, there are fewer myofibrils (the fibers of our muscles). For this reason, 6-10 reps "to the blackout" workout doesn't work as well for women as it does for men. In general, men have 45% of the muscles in the body of the total mass, while women have only 35%.
4. There are fewer muscles in the upper part of the female body, more in the lower part. Legs in women are stronger, due to their ability to bear and give birth to children. Leg training for women is easier than for men (muscles respond better to the load). That's why you need to monitor the growth of the lower body.
5. Pain during menstruation is another important feature. In the area of ​​the lower press, women have a weaker neuro-muscular connection. This is done, probably in order to slightly reduce pain in the abdomen. For this reason, it is more problematic for girls to pump up the lower press.
6. Women's metabolism is significantly slower than men's. This also affects the ability to store fat in the body and is associated with less muscle. Even in a calm state, a man spends more energy than a woman. In a woman's body, fat is approximately 28%, while in men it is 18%.
7. The female body stores faster - energy for muscle work. Glycogen is the first to be burned during exercise. This is another factor in favor of the faster accumulation of fat in the female body. At the same time, the girl will burn this fat more easily. It's much harder for a man to do this. That's why cardio workout for women works more cool.

Some girls, as I heard, are very worried about their genetics. Like, if "nature did not reward"- does it make sense to bathe in the gym? There is only a grain of truth in this. Yes, you will not do incredible things with your body with just one workout and nutrition, when it comes to breast shape and size, overall body structure, etc.

You will not fix the problem of bad hair, skin, unsightly features, etc. All of this has little to do with sports.

But 100% you can influence the improvement of your curly data. At least try. If you train correctly for at least a year, if you don’t eat anything, you can appreciate the difference. Be sure to take before and after photos.

Testosterone and muscle growth

Still, I want to add a few words for women who think that strength training can turn them into men. I am sure that in our time of development of fitness and bodybuilding, in the age of information availability on this subject, there are already much fewer women who think wrongly. But I'll repeat...

The main idea is that a woman will NEVER be able to build the same muscles as a man for one simple reason - she has very little testosterone in her body for this. And this hormone is just responsible for increasing muscle mass.

If in numbers, then the norm of testosterone in the blood for men is 200-1200 ng/dl (nanogram/deciliter), while in women 15-70. Do you feel the difference? In this scenario, even the most non-testosterone man (200) is superior to the most testosterone woman (70) almost 3 times. And if we take the average values ​​(700 and 42), then the difference will be 16 times.

With such differences, women simply do not have a chance to gain masculine muscles by natural methods. We don't even speak for pharmacology.

Menstruation and exercise

• Minuses. This phase is characterized by a decline in muscle strength in women, increased heart rate and respiration. Speed ​​and motor reactions worsen.
• Pros. Increasing ability for short-term work. In the body of a woman, special hormones are secreted, which are called "relaxing". They give higher mobility in the joints and overall flexibility.

Workout: stretching exercises and stretching. The load on the abdominals and legs can be eliminated, as it will be almost useless.

Food: the calorie content of the food consumed can be increased, drink more liquid for its faster removal.

2) FOLLICULAR PHASE (8-14 days of the cycle).

Period information: gradually increases the level of estrogen (female sex hormones) in the blood.

• Pros. Coordination increases, the functioning of the nervous system and the cardiovascular system improves, and working capacity increases.

Workout: strength training at maximum values, training for endurance and speed.

Food: calories can be reduced if you do not exercise.

3) OVULATION AND LUTEAL PHASE (15-28 days of the cycle).

Period information: estrogen levels are still high against the background of increasing progesterone (a steroid sex hormone that affects the menstrual cycle).

• Minuses. Increased appetite. The body prepares for the expected pregnancy and stores fat in reserve.
• Pros. Forces are restored very quickly.

Workout: fat burning workouts for weight loss and cardio.

Food: the main thing is not to overeat.

Women's Training Principles

For quite a long time, among the same clever bloggers like me, there was a categorical opinion that women's training should be very different from men's. But then more detailed studies were carried out and information began to flow into the network that women's training should not be very different from men's.

This once again confirms the conventionality of all these studies in bodybuilding and in general in any field. It is quite possible that much of what is so categorically spoken about today will be challenged and substantiated in time. So...

The basic rules for ladies are almost the same as for guys, namely:

• Training in the range of 4-6 reps to increase strength, and 7-12 to build volume (muscle hypertrophy). Anything over 12 is already an endurance workout for the cardiovascular system.
• But there is one "but". In the female body, there are many type 1 muscle fibers (small fibers that grow hard and only respond to high reps, aerobic endurance loads). Such fibers have low fatigue, which may be why women are more resilient. Given this fact, women still need to aim for 8-15 reps per set. But, this does not mean that 4-6 repetitions cannot be applied. In a woman, there are also fast muscle fibers that contract quickly, have great strength, but quickly get tired. Conclusion: we focus on slow fibers (8-15 repetitions), but do not forget about fast fibers (4-6 repetitions).
• You need to pull relatively heavy weights.
• As I said above, training to failure is not for girls. However, many cool bodybuilders of the past doubted its necessity for men. And today the debate about the need for it does not subside. For example, scientist Mikel Izcuerdo discovered that after failure training, the analobic growth factors IGF-1 sharply increase and decrease. It was also noticed that cells experience such an acute lack of energy that protein synthesis is disrupted in them, which means growth slows down. In other words, we simply deplete our body and in the long run, by abusing “refusal”, we ourselves can slow down our progress.
• Work in basic exercises (well, or similar to them). For example, if you can't squat, do leg presses. No straightening of the legs was even close in this case.
• Do not stay in the hall for more than 1 hour, maximum 1.15.
• Work out the whole body. Your desire to pump up there a little bit and here a little bit is quite understandable. But you need to understand that the whole body needs to be worked out. Over time, you can focus on any part of the body, but not pump it exclusively. And remember that working the whole body in basic exercises is much more effective at burning calories and managing weight than focusing on just one part of the body.
• Focus on your lower body. Women's training should be 50% leg exercises. 20% can be allocated for working out the back, 10% for the arms, 10% for the shoulders, 10% for the chest.
• For a beginner girl, it is necessary to work out the entire body in one workout. Only after a while you can switch to split programs (train different muscle groups separately, or separately the upper body, separately the bottom).

Work program options

It's time to move on to practice. Below I will give a training plan in the gym for women of varying degrees of difficulty. And we will try to take into account everything that we talked about above, to transfer all the basic theoretical principles to real training. You can practice 3 times a week.

For beginner girls (1-2 weeks after menstruation)

Program Notes: So, when your periods are over, you can train to the fullest. Your body is now ready for such loads. As you can see, this women's workout program will allow you to pump your WHOLE BODY in one visit to the gym.

It is desirable to conduct it in 1 hour, no more. Rest between sets for the first time up to 1.5 minutes. Then you can reduce the rest to 50 seconds. Remember, the less rest, the higher the intensity and the faster the result! But it's also not worth it to drive the heart. If you feel that your breathing has not yet recovered, it is better to rest a little more.

There is only one exercise for the buttocks and legs - squats. It is the most effective method of building legs in general. If desired or a real need, you can also add exercises for the buttocks to the program. My

As you can see, there are no specific chest exercises in this program. To pump the breast, it is enough to give it only a small load, since there are practically no muscles in the woman's breasts. I wrote about this topic in Be sure to read!

The narrow bench press that is in this program engages the muscles under the mammary gland and thereby tones the chest. More specialized exercises, like the classic barbell press or dumbbell press, can shrink the mammary gland a little, and it affects the volume of the entire chest. For girls with large breasts, this is not scary, but if a girl, on the contrary, thinks about how to increase her breasts day and night, it will not do her any good.

I also want to mention that training girls should strive to learn how to fully pull themselves up, do push-ups on the uneven bars, from the floor, etc. These exercises are great for building the upper body.

But at the initial stage, you may not be able to do these exercises. Then replace them with lighter ones:

• Replace classic pull-ups with a vertical block pull to the chest or pull-ups in a gravitron (a special simulator for lightweight pull-ups). If there is none, tires will help. You wind it on the horizontal bar and pull yourself up with it. It will lift you up a little in the active phase of the upward movement.
• Replace push-ups from the floor with push-ups from the knees or wide push-ups from the bench.
• If the problem is with the bars, use the same training rubber or gravitron.
• If squats are a problem, do leg presses in a machine, etc.

In the picture below, I showed you what a gravitron looks like (on the left). Please note that it can be pulled up and push-ups on the uneven bars. On the right you see the use of training rubber:

TRAINING RUBBER AND EXPANDERS (Aliexpress.com)

ELASTIC RUBBER AND SPANDERS (Sportmaster.ru)

That is, always try to find an alternative! Customize the program for yourself, because unique programs do not exist! This is just the backbone. For some, it will fit as is, but for others it will have to be modified. Someone needs mass, and someone wants to work on relief, etc.

For experienced girls (1-2 weeks after menstruation)

When the introductory program becomes too easy for you, you can move on to the next level.

Program Notes: What have we done here? We took the previous program as a basis and simply added additional exercises that you will perform in a SUPERSET, that is, without rest. For example, you squatted and immediately performed deadlift on straight legs. Rest and complete the rest of the approaches.

Rest between sets, try to keep 1 minute. If it's hard - 1.5 minutes. But you should not rest anymore, as the efficiency is greatly reduced. The blood must boil!

Light program (3-4 week cycle)

Program Notes: The program excludes the load on the press and legs. The number of approaches and repetitions is reduced. This means that you need to choose the right weight to stretch up to 20 times in the approach.

Cardio can be done either by brisk walking or slow running. The heart rate (HR), or our pulse, should be in the region of 120 beats per minute, since this frequency is most favorable for fat burning.

This is a program that you will practice for some time before and possibly during your period. Watch your feelings and if it’s very hard, it’s better to rest more.

Nutritionally, don't eat too many carbs. At 3-4 weeks of the cycle, any carbohydrates (fast and slow) are more easily stored in fat.

Rules for the nutrition of a sports girl

As for nutrition, there are 2 main goals that you should always remember (this also applies to men):

1. It is important to calculate the number of calories consumed and find out how much is needed for the normal functioning of the body. I wrote about how to determine the minimum required number of calories in
2. In addition to calories, it is extremely important to focus on the percentage of BJU (proteins-fats-carbohydrates).

Focusing solely on counting calories is WRONG. It is more important to monitor the quality of food and the content of BJU in it.

It is impossible not to voice the wrong psychology of many women. “If I went to the gym, then now I can afford to eat anything!” In fact, sometimes it’s necessary to pamper yourself a little. This will make it easier to tolerate food restrictions.

But this shouldn't be the rule. Self-control in relation to food, especially fast carbohydrates, should just become the norm of life. They are deposited on the sides and buttocks according to the female type. This is due to the presence in the female body of such sex hormones as estrogen and progestogens.

And finally, basic tips for exercising women:

1. WATER. Drink a lot! Don't be thirsty. If you want to drink, then you should have done it 5 minutes ago - this is what athletes often say.
2. LOW GI FOODS. This refers to the low glycemic index of foods. A high GI food promotes the accumulation of fat during its digestion. You can find tables of these products on the Internet.
3. INSULIN. It is desirable to monitor its level not only for diabetics, but for all athletes. A stable blood sugar level is a signal for building lean muscle mass.
4. PROTEIN. Women, like men, need 1.8 - 2 grams of protein. per kg. body weight. It should not be more, otherwise problems with the kidneys and liver are possible. You can use additional protein mixtures as an addition to the main diet.
5. ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS. These are fish oil, omega-3-6-9 fatty acids, linseed oil, etc. I advise you to drink in capsules - very convenient. Personally, I drink at least 2 capsules of quality fish oil every day!

OMEGA AND FISH OIL (iHerb.com)

This concludes this article on women's training in the gym. I'm sure it will be useful to you. Don't be afraid to go to the gym, dear girls - it's not scary! Everything will work out for you! If you have any questions - write in the comments, share this article, or eagerly read it yourself))) And I have everything ...

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