Ladies, Let's Take Over the Weight Room
There should be very little difference in how men and women train. What I've noticed is that men dominate the weights, and women are more involved and tuned in to group classes or minimal weight training. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy a great spin class once in a while, but my passion is really in the weight room.
Squats, dead lifts, bench press, and lots of sweaty hard weight lifting sessions is the key to blasting fat and building lean muscle mass. It takes work, dedication and focus to really build muscle. Ladies, muscles are needed to obtain curves and to help with posture as well as tighten your skin. Add in a healthy diet and you will look leaner without having to add in hours of cardio.
So, if your goal is to build muscle, lose fat, increase strength or performance, improve your health, and just look great in your swimsuit, or all of the above, to this I would say to the ladies- let's take over the weight room!
Gym Workout:
Smith Machine Step Up With a Reverse Lunge (4 sets of 12 reps per leg) Place a stepper under the Smith Machine and load up the weight on the bar. As you step up, bring opposite knee up to your waist. Bring that foot down in to a back lunge. This counts as one rep for that leg.
As you step up on stepper, bring foot in the lunge position up to a high knee to complete the rep.
Superset: Goblet Squats (4 sets of 10 reps) Make sure kettle bell is against chest and squat low. Elbows fit inside knees, keep torso upright.
Try to keep the kettle bell against torso as you go down to a sumo squat
Dead lift with Barbell (4 sets of 15 reps) If this bar is heavy, use a reverse grip to hold bar with added weight. Bring bar down to ground and keep abs tight as you bring the bar up to your hips. As you get stronger, you will be able to add in more weight.
Squeeze bootie on the way up and keep back flat and head up.
Superset: Walking Lunges With A Weighted Plate Overhead (Reps 20 Steps total) Keep torso upright, and weighted plate over head as you lunge walk forward.
Barbell Chest Press (4 sets of 12 reps) Place weights on bar, if not strong yet, just press the bar. Make sure back is flat against bench and that it doesn't arch. Keep abs strong and tight.
Make sure back is flat against bench, and abs are tight as you perform the chest press.
Superset: Decline Push Up (4 sets of 10 reps) Use the bench to perform a decline push up.
Great superset after the chest press. These are just a few of my favorite workouts.