Posted by Fitocracy on Jun 10, 2013

Kellie Davis is a freelance writer and blogger turned fitness coach living in Northern California. She published short fiction and essays in anthologies and literary magazines before starting a full time career as a health and fitness writer. She currently works as a contributing author to several online fitness publications and corporate wellness blogs, and is the owner of MotherFitness, co-owner of GetGlutes, and co-author of Strong Curves. In addition to writing, Davis helps women all over the world achieve optimum health as a fitness and nutrition coach. Visit Kellie on her Blog, Workout Site, or on Fitocracy. For more, check out her book, Strong Curves: A Woman’s Guide to Building a Better Butt and Body.

I can see you from the corner of my eye as you glide along the elliptical trainer. You’re curious, no doubt. But something prevents you from wandering out of the cardio section into the weight room.

It’s not your place—a woman’s world, I mean. Sweat pools left behind on benches and racks stacked with bending bars loaded to the max. Tinny cords of Metallica spill from headphones, only to be chorused over by grunts and howls of red-faced men followed by clanks of heavy iron.

Though that space on the other side of the gym seems all too foreign, it somehow appeals to you. Mottled in the wash of heightened testosterone, you see me—and women like me—with quiet persistence moving bars loaded with twice our bodyweight.

You think that could never be you, but your mind plays funny tricks. I know this all too well, because I stood in your place not long ago. I was the woman peering from the aerobic room windows, eyes fixed on those strong ladies who seemed to know exactly what to do in the weight room. I wanted to be out there, not hiding in the back of a choreographed class. Out there, doing what seemed impossible.

Four years ago I wandered into my local gym with a desire to get in shape. Bodyweight lunges killed me and I ran out of breath after a 20-minute workout. I made an effort to show up twice a week to a fitness class. After I spent some time getting to know the other women in the room, I learned a valuable lesson.

Some women were in their third or fourth year of the class, while others where fairly new. The longtime attendees didn’t look that much more in shape than did the ladies who’d only been going for a few short months.

I knew that if I wanted to get in the best shape possible I had to change things up. I couldn’t show up to endless aerobic classes week in and week out expecting better results. The routines grew tiresome. We did the same movements to different songs, and sometimes the music didn’t even change. I craved more than what the instructor had to offer.

After gaining some footing in the fitness room, I ventured out on the open range. Surrounded by plates, dumbbells, and machines, my heart suddenly began palpitating. Intimidated but determined, I made the effort to show up everyday, work hard, and try new things.

I didn’t know how to bench-press, squat with a barbell, nor had I ever heard of a deadlift. Two years later I maxed my deadlift at 275 pounds. This happened not because I suddenly figured it all out in one day. It happened through persistence, a whole lot of trial and error, and consistent progressions over the course of many months. I started at the bottom, plain and simple. There were no shortcuts, no magic bullets, and I am by no means a genetic freak with superior strength.

The key is to start is with your own bodyweight. Master basic movement patterns, get in tune with how your muscles activate, and gain a good understanding on how your body works.

We are often so eager to go big or go home. Resistance training doesn’t work like that. Quality precedes quantity, and weightlifting is no exception to that rule. I want you to go into your new fitness journey with confidence, so I put together this guide to help you get off to the right start.

Keep It Simple

Learn to thrive on simplicity. You can get the same results without complicated exercises or routines. Focus on getting stronger and improving your form with each workout; everything else will just fall into place.

If you are completely new to this type of training, start with bodyweight. Master the movements using your own body before you add load. You will be surprised at how adding load changes the way you move. The more ingrained these movement patterns are before adding weight, the more successful your transition will be.

Once you grasp movements like squats, hip hinges, glute bridges, push-ups, and lunges with bodyweight, you can then begin to add load. I recommend starting with dumbbells over barbells, as they are easier to maneuver, load, and unload.

Take your time transitioning to barbells. If you feel limited with what you can do when using dumbbells, you can also add resistance with bands, machine weights, and other items like medicines balls, suspension trainers, and kettlebells.

Focus on Movements, Not Muscles

You may feel inclined to go for exercises that seem easy to master like biceps curls, triceps kickbacks, and side lateral raises. However, to make the most efficient use of your time and energy, it’s better to structure your workouts using movements that require multiple joints (or more than one body part). When setting up your program, focus primarily on exercises that use whole-body compound movement. These movements will increase strength, tax your metabolism, and improve motor control far greater than exercises that only require using single joints (technically speaking, there is no such exercise that completely isolates a single muscle. The difference is that isolation exercises are single-joint movements, whereas compound exercises are multi-joint movements).

When choosing exercises for your routine, keep in mind that when multiple joints move, bigger things happen. Compound movements recruit larger muscles groups, expend more energy (calorie burning), and are metabolically efficient—meaning you get a lot more work done in less time.

Compound Movements

Upper Body Lower Body Push-up Deadlifts Chin-up Squats Bench press Lunges Overhead press Snatch Row Clean Dip

Primary and Accessory Movements

When setting up a workout, compound exercises will be your primary movements. These should be your main focus, and will make up the bulk of your exercise routine.

A simple routine that consists of push-ups, hip hinges, and squats is efficient enough to help increase strength, improve body composition, and improve your overall movement quality.

However, you may find that as you progress with your basic movements, certain nagging issues—like poor low back strength or weak glutes—will prevent you from progressing past those coveted beginner gains.

This is when accessory movements come in handy. Accessory movements assist you in overcoming weaknesses, complementing main movements, or putting more emphasis on a particular muscle group.

The list of accessory movements is vast (and even includes all the compound movements) and can get overwhelming. Don’t focus so much on filling in space, but really using these exercises to enhance your program. This is a bit tricky to figure out, and that’s why sticking to the basics is really key for beginners.

Push and Pull Balance

The list of compound movements above can further be divided into four subcategories.

Upper Body Push Push-up variations Bench press variations Overhead press variations Dips Lower Body Push Squats Lunges Leg press Upper Body Pull Chin-up variations Row variations Cleans Lower Body Pull Deadlift variations Snatch

There’s no hard and fast rule when it comes to balancing push and pull exercises. It varies for individuals and depends on your training goals. As a whole, you want to have a greater ratio of pulling to pushing exercises in your routine.

Training Frequency

We are a society of instant gratification, and you may want to reach your fitness goals like yesterday. Often, this translates to performing endless bouts of exercises multiple times per week. If this idea is stuck in your head, get it out quick. Hammering your muscles endlessly will leave you overly sore and low on energy.

Make it a goal to exercise more efficiently rather than for longer periods of time. Compound movements and supersets are a great way to burn fat, build muscle, and improve strength in relatively short amount of time.

Plan to strength train 2-4 times per week for 30-60 minutes in the beginning. Space your workouts apart to give you enough recovery time so your muscles are primed and ready to go each time you set foot in the weight room. Rest and recovery is just as (if not more) important as the exercises you perform.

As you progress, you will be able to increase the frequency and duration of your workouts. So start off moderately and ramp it up as you grow stronger and become able to handle heavier and heavier workloads.

Sets, Reps, and Rest

Your sets, reps, and rest time will vary depending on your program. Here is a good rule to follow:

Primary exercises (the first 1-3 exercises in your program)

Warm-up: 1-3 warm-up sets of 1-3 reps to get your muscles primed for the workload

Working sets: 1-3 working sets depending on your experience and goals

Reps: 4-8 per set (the lighter the weight, the higher the reps)

Accessory exercises (the exercises that complement your program)

Working sets: 1-3 depending on your experience and rep range

Reps: 6-20, depending on your sets

** For accessory movements:

3 sets, 6-8 reps

2 sets, 9-12 reps

1 set, 12-20 reps

Resting between sets will help your body prefer for continued workload. Certain methods like supersets or circuits require that you perform multiple exercise sets without rest.

However, standard sets allow a short rest period between lifts. For women, an optimal rest time between sets is 45-90 seconds (depending on how heavy you lift). The less intense your lift, the less time you need to rest. You may find as you progress to heavier lifts (reaching max effort with 1-3 reps per set), you will need to rest more between sets to properly recover.

Choosing the Right Weight

Warm-up sets will help you determine your range. You want a weight that you can lift for a given number of reps- no more, no less. When you’re new to resistance training, this decision isn’t always so simple. A quick strength test before you begin exercises is a great way to determine how much you should be lifting.

As a new lifter, you likely won’t test your 1-rep max anytime soon, so a 10-rep max is a good place to start. This is a great tool to use for compound lifts, as it will also help determine what weight you need to use for your accessory lifts.

The goal is to find a weight you perform for 10 reps for each exercise. If you can’t reach 10 reps, then you need to go lighter. If you go beyond 10 reps, then go heavier.

Then take this information to determine what weight to use for the reps prescribed in your workout. For instance, if you squat 40 pounds for 10 reps and need to squat 6-8 reps per set, just take 60-80% of your 10-rep weight. This will put you at a weight of 25-32 pounds (round down to 30) for your set.

Once you determine the right weight to use for each exercise, set a goal to increase this weight or number of reps as you progress. This is called progressive overload. The idea is to introduce new stimuli each week so your body is forced to push beyond adaptations. Multiple means of progressively overloading exist, but for those new to strength training, these two (increasing weight or number of reps) prove most effective.

Putting It All Together

To help you get started, I’ve put together a two-phase workout system. The first phase will introduce you to resistance training with bodyweight. Though it seems rudimentary, you’d be surprised at how hard your body works with only the resistance of your own weight.

Phase One

Perform each workout once or twice a week for 4-6 consecutive weeks.

*Note: exercises with a letter value are performed as supersets. This means you perform those two exercises consecutively before taking a short rest.

Workout A

1a. Glute Bridge (log as Full Bridge): 3 sets, 10-15 reps

1b. Kneeling Push-Up: 3 sets, 5-10 reps

2a. Bodyweight Squat (log as body weight squat): 3 sets, 12-15 reps

2b. Bodyweight Inverted Row: 3 sets, 5-8 reps

3. Reverse hyperextension: 3 sets, 10-12 reps

4. Side-lying clamshell: 2 sets, 12-15 reps each side

5. Dead bug: 2 sets, 12-15 reps each side

Workout B

1a. Bodyweight hip thrust (log as Barbell Hip Thrust with 0 lbs): 3 sets, 10-15 reps

1b. Negative Chin-Up (log as Chin-Up): 3 sets, 2 reps slow and controlled

2. Dowel hip hinge: 2 sets, 15-20 reps

3a. Push-up: 3 sets, 5-10 reps

3b. Reverse lunge with knee lift (log as bodyweight reverse lunge): 3 sets, 8-12 reps each side

4. Quadruped hip extension into fire hydrant (log as fire hydrants): 3 sets, 8-12 reps each side

5. Front plank (log as plank): 2 sets, hold 30-60 seconds

Phase Two

The second phase introduces you to resistance training using bodyweight, dumbbells, and bands. Let these routines serve as a guide to getting you under the bar. Perform each workout once or twice a week for 4-6 consecutive weeks.

*Note: exercises with a letter value are performed as supersets. This means you perform those two exercises consecutively before taking a short rest.

Workout A

1a. Romanian Dumbbell Deadlift: 3 sets, 10-15 reps

1b. Dumbbell Floor Press: 3 sets, 8-12 reps

2a. Feet-elevated glute bridge (log as full bridge): 3 sets, 15-20 reps

2b. One-arm dumbbell row: 3 sets, 8-12 reps each side

3. Walking Lunge: 3 sets, 6-10 steps each side

4. Cable Hip Abduction: 2 sets, 12-15 reps each side

5. Plank: 2 sets, 10 reps each side

Workout B

1. Shoulders-elevated single leg hip thrust: 3 sets, 8-12 reps each side

2a. Band Standing Row: 3 sets, 10-12 reps

2b. Dumbbell Goblet Squat: 3 sets, 10-15 reps

3a. Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 3 sets, 8-10 reps each side

3b. Dumbbell Step-Up: 3 sets, 8-10 reps each side

4. Cable Pull-Through: 2 sets, 12-15 reps

5. Side Plank: 2 sets, 10 reps each side