How to train girls. Training program for girls in the gym

Workout for women in the gym It is the most effective system reducing the level of subcutaneous fat and, at the same time, correcting the shape of the gluteal muscles, breasts, as well as the volume of the waist, legs, arms, emphasizing the collarbone and solving other problems that girls set for themselves. The gym is truly the most effective method figure adjustments, however, girls are often afraid that training in gym will make them look like men, although they are not! In order for a woman to be able to pump up huge muscles, she needs testosterone, so you cannot become a “butch” without the use of hormonal drugs. At the same time, girls have problems with hip volume from frequent barbell squats, but this can be avoided and we will tell you how to do it.

The training plan for women may vary and, in principle, there are two main schemes: phased and combined. Phased the training program for women assumes that the girl will first work on her forms and then “dry”, combined offers to lose weight and at the same time work on the quality of muscles. The first scheme is professional and will not suit most girls, since you most likely want to look good not only at competitions, and for this you need to use a combined training scheme. On practice, You will not use any diets, instead you will have to optimize your daily ration in accordance with the principles proper nutrition, at the same time, you will visit the gym and engage in one of the proposed training programs for women.

Optimizing your diet is the most important task, since it is nutrition that is responsible for the level of subcutaneous fat in the body, in addition, the appropriate background of nutrients is also necessary for recovery after training. In other words, if you eat right and don’t exercise, then even though you won’t have luxurious gluteal muscles, toned muscles legs, arms, perhaps the breasts will be less elastic, but, nevertheless, you will look good, you will be slim and attractive. But if you train and don’t watch your diet, then most likely there will be no positive results at all! Therefore, first of all, you must optimize your nutrition, and only then choose the appropriate training program for women. Important to consider That we are not talking about a diet, that is, you will not eat like this periodically, the daily diet in question is a daily diet that you will use to remain attractive every day!

Principles proper nutrition for women

Product quality – this is still the first thing you should take care of to optimize nutrition. Firstly, proteins should be of animal origin, secondly, carbohydrates should be complex, and thirdly, fats should not be completely excluded from the diet. A girl should consume 1-1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of her own weight, since muscle tissue Women have less, but girls have more adipose tissue, so girls should also consume less carbohydrates. Corridor optimal calorie content nutrition for girls ranges from 1200-1800 Kcal, but the calorie balance is a very individual indicator, so we will talk about it in more detail later. Fats in the diet should be 15-20%, but they should be unsaturated, preferably vegetable, or omega-3 type. To preserve the quality of products, they must be steamed, boiled or stewed; frying is strictly prohibited.

Diet – this is the second most important principle of proper nutrition, however, the regime must be followed everywhere, so training for women in the gym is also constant. In this case, we are talking about the fact that you need to eat often and in small portions, you need to eat food at the same time every day. On average, it is advisable to eat 5-6 times a day, which will ensure a constant background of nutrients in the body, and will also avoid an increase in blood sugar levels and the release of insulin. By the way, for this purpose it is also recommended to eat carbohydrates with a low glycemic index or low glycemic load, that is, either the glycemic index should be low or there should not be many carbohydrates in the product. Important eat carbohydrates in the morning, and protein products in the second, and in the late afternoon you should eat dairy products or casein protein, since this type of protein takes longer to digest.

Systematicity - this is not just an important principle, it is a principle without which all other principles of proper nutrition will not work at all. Moreover, we recommend using systematicity, as well as a regimen, in your training program for women in the gym. There are two ways to ensure systematic nutrition: complex and simple. Difficult is to calculate daily, using a food composition table and a kitchen scale, how many food nutrients are contained in foods, and then optimize their value to what you need. Easy is to once calculate how many protein foods you need to eat, and gradually adjust carbohydrates in accordance with your result.

In fact, the complex method also involves adjustments, but it simply allows you to change products daily, which is a plus. True, no one is stopping you, when you get tired of certain carbohydrates, count how many calories you ate, and then change the sources of carbohydrates. On practice, You have chosen a diet, let’s say you eat chicken breast and rice, you weigh 55 kg, and you want to lose weight. Accordingly, brisket contains 26.5g of protein for every 100g, you need to eat about 250g per day, and you eat 300g of rice per day. Moreover, the breast must be weighed when cooked, and the rice when raw; this rule is valid for all sources of protein and carbohydrates. Before you start eating like this, you weigh yourself, then eat these foods for a week, and after a week you weigh yourself again. Now, depending on the result, you need to increase the amount of rice, reduce it, or leave it at the same level. If you have lost 0.5-2 kg, then the amount of rice does not need to be changed; if you have lost more than 2 kg, then the amount of rice must be increased; if you have lost less than 0.5 kg, then the amount of rice must be increased.

Cyclicality– this principle is associated with ovulation, as a result of which it is necessary to apply microperiodization , both in nutrition and in the training system for women. In general, women accumulate more easily subcutaneous fat, but it’s also easier to spend it. This is due to the fact that a woman gives birth to a child, so she needs a supply of nutrients, at the same time, when there are few nutrients, then in order for the child not to receive any injuries, the reserves are spent very easily. And during ovulation, when the chance of getting pregnant is especially high, the body tries to store as many nutrients as possible. Therefore, during ovulation, the intensity of training and calorie intake decreases. As for the training program, this will be discussed below, and as for the calorie intake, it should be reduced by 20%, just eat 20% less carbohydrates.

Conclusion: you need to eat often and in small portions; the diet should consist only of high-quality products with a low glycemic index; Food must be steamed or boiled; sources of protein must be of animal origin, vegetable fats, or, as in the case of omega-3, they can be obtained from northern sea fish; carbohydrates must be complex; The diet should be followed permanently, every day there is the same amount of food nutrients, which is implemented using a table of food composition and weights in the case when you eat different foods, or due to the monotony of the diet; during ovulation, the intensity of training and calorie intake decrease; and further! drink more water, 2.5-3 liters per day, and water at room temperature; it is advisable to drink water evenly, stretching its intake into the body throughout the day; you should not drink during meals.

Menu diet for women

20 minutes before breakfast – a glass of water to which you can add a little honey or soluble vitamins
Breakfast– 100g of oatmeal porridge with milk and a cup of green tea
Lunch – 3 boiled egg whites and a salad of non-starchy vegetables
Dinner– 100g of boiled coarse rice with seaweed or non-starchy vegetables and 100g of salmon or pollock
Afternoon snack– 100g brisket and non-starchy vegetables
Dinner– 150g low-fat cottage cheese and kefir

The menu is average, but you can take it as a basis, gradually adjusting it to suit you. It is important to note that this is a menu for intense training, so during ovulation the amount of carbohydrates is 20% lower. In any case, if you follow such a diet, it will be many times more effective than 99% of all those diets that are replete with the Internet and women's magazines.

Features of training for women

Small muscle volume – this factor is very important to consider, since the fewer muscles, the less attention should be paid to them. That is why girls should perform basic exercises, but since the muscles in a girl’s body are unevenly distributed, the basis of the training should be training exactly that part of the body in which the most muscles are located. In girls, the most muscles are located in the lower part of the body, but this does not mean that it needs to be trained more than the upper part, you will just do 2-3 exercises on the legs, and one on the back, shoulders, arms and chest, although in total the upper part You will train your body more. At the same time, you most likely want to hypertrophy gluteal muscles, therefore, the legs need to be trained not only anaerobically, but also aerobically, so that the leg muscles are elastic and small.

Microperiodization – we already talked about this above, it is connected with ovulation, therefore during the ovulation period girls should do a lower amount of work. Only abdominal training will fundamentally change. In general, at the end of the workout you will perform hanging leg raises in order to load the lower segment of the abs more and pump blood into the abdominal area; thanks to this pumping, fat reduction in this area will occur more intensely, which will have a positive effect on your figure. During ovulation, you stop performing abdominal exercises, and the number of approaches in each exercise is reduced to three; if you performed the exercise in only three approaches, then it means that you no longer need to do it at all.

Training Volume - this rule applies not only to the total time that a girl should spend in the gym, but also to the rest time between approaches during training for women, the total number of exercises and repetitions in each approach. Girls have little testosterone, so refusal approaches are much more difficult for girls to perform; moreover, if you are not a competitive athlete, then you do not need to do this at all. The optimal rest time between sets is 30-60 seconds, and the number of repetitions ranges from 15 to 25 per set. It should also be noted that during training you can and should drink water, and be sure to

This article will talk about how to properly create a training program for girls. Taking into account the physiology and typical goals facing girls who are going to work out in the gym, we will give recommendations on the correct construction of training programs so that the result is quick and safe for health.

How the characteristics of the female body affect training

Gym training for women differs significantly from men's in both intensity and degree of load. Women's motivation is superior to men's, which also determines the achievement of success. The main one distinctive feature The female body in the context of sports is a natural mechanism that accumulates nutrients in the form of fat deposits in reserve.

Metabolic rate

Metabolism in the female body is an order of magnitude lower than in the male body. In practice, this manifests itself in such a way that a man can eat more foods and gain less weight than a woman. The female body converts consumed carbohydrates into fat reserves much more quickly. But the other side of the coin is that these stored fat reserves are much easier to burn than men. Thanks to its natural balance, the female body is like an ultra-perfect energy station. Reserves of fats, energy and carbohydrates are intended for the birth of a child and must ensure its vital functions during pregnancy. Therefore, these substances are very easily transformed into energy. With reasonable physical activity and the absence of excess carbohydrates consumed, glycogen accumulates in the muscles of the female body much more easily than in the male body. the main task so that energy in the form of glycogen accumulates in the muscles, and not in the form of adipose tissue. Therefore, proper training will direct nutrition in the right direction.

Number of muscle fibers

Women have a much smaller number of muscle fibers and structures that produce contraction compared to men. For this reason, exercises with 6-8 repetitions are not suitable for girls. Women have a naturally developed bottom part body - legs and buttocks, and the top lags significantly behind, which is a natural disproportion. Therefore, women are highly predisposed to gaining mass in the lower part of the skeleton. In order to achieve height at the top, you need to exert much more effort when working in the gym.

Amount of hormones

The high concentration of male sex hormones (testosterone and norepinephrine) in men allows them to work aggressively in the gym until failure. Failure is a necessary condition for muscle growth, when muscles are damaged and receive an impetus to grow. Women do not have the opportunity to train like this due to the lack of a high concentration of male hormones. As a result, girls in training stop performing the exercise several repetitions before the onset of muscle failure, which prevents explosive growth muscle mass. For this reason, women should hardly fear that they will become like “men with huge muscles.”

How to take the menstrual cycle into account when creating a program

The menstrual cycle makes important adjustments to the training program in the direction of reducing the load for a certain period. So, in the first two weeks after menstruation, the girl feels high performance and energy. During this period, you can train with maximum intensity. On average, after 14 days ovulation occurs - a physical decline occurs and the female body goes into a state of increased energy conservation. This feature must be taken into account when creating a training program and diet. You need to exclude loads on the abs and lower body from the training. In your diet, you need to reduce the amount of carbohydrates consumed, because at 3-4 weeks of the cycle, calories will be transformed into body fat. You need to remember that in the first 14 days after the cycle, the female body is strong and ready for stress, and in the next 14 days the body is weak and tries to get fat. This periodization in training allows you to make the training program as effective as possible.

Fat Burning Basics

Only long-term, low-intensity exercise can burn fat deposits in the female body. It's about about the duration of the workout for at least half an hour, and preferably 50-80 minutes. At this time, the pulse rises to 110-120 beats/min. This is the optimal cardiac mode for burning fat. Girls should not pursue attempts to work with heavy working weight. They should work in the gym with comfortable weights for a long time. Representatives of the fair sex should train their entire body in one workout due to the impossibility of achieving failure. Therefore, split training is not suitable for them, when only a few muscle groups are worked on each training day.

Before each workout you need to warm up. Make circular swings with bent and straightened arms, rotate your wrists, bend your torso - do joint gymnastics. This will help prepare and warm up your ligaments and joints before starting your workout. It is also recommended to do some dynamic stretching of all major muscles.

Exercises for entry-level girls:

Rest between approaches - up to one minute, between exercises - 2-3 minutes.

1. Twisting the torso on the press 5-6xmax
2. Squats with a barbell 5x15
3. Barbell row to the chin 6x15
4. Close grip bench press 6x15
5. Vertical block pull 5x15

Exercises for girls of average training level

The program will consist of supersets, when two exercises are performed in one approach without rest. Rest between supersets – up to 1 minute, between each complex – 3 minutes.

• Torso twists and leg raises on parallel bars 6xmax
• Barbell squats and deadlift(on straight legs) 5x15
• Barbell row to the chin and dumbbell lateral raises while standing 5x15
• Bench press with a narrow grip and standing barbell curl for biceps 5x15
• Vertical block row on the simulator and bent over barbell row/horizontal block row 5x15

Lightweight program for 3-4 weeks after the cycle

• Rows on a vertical block machine
• Barbell row to the chin
• Close grip bench press
• Cardio (cycling or running exercises) at a slow pace -30-60 min.

During the onset of the menstrual cycle, training should be excluded altogether for several days. For some girls, menstruation lasts longer than average, so the number of rest days in this case needs to be increased.

Advantages of strength training over fitness and aerobics

In carrying out this program, several large target groups are involved. Basic exercises use all the necessary muscles in a large number of repetitions and approaches. The ability of the female body to recover quickly is another important aspect of training. This kind of high volume training... correct key to success.

Aerobics or shaping will not give the much-needed effect for losing weight like the gym. It's all about the intensity of the workout. Aerobic exercise will not provide the opportunity to burn as much energy and body fat as training in the gym. Strength exercises accelerate metabolism, allow you to pay more attention to a specific part of the body and work on it. Aerobic exercise will be beneficial for of cardio-vascular system, will help strengthen ligaments and joints, but nothing more. And also, strength training will help change the shape of your body - achieve the desired volume, for example, in the buttocks, as well as training your shoulders and back, can visually narrow your waist, thereby helping to achieve the hourglass-shaped contour desired by many girls.

Many girls who want to lose weight or gain muscle mass, when they come to the gym, do not understand at all what to do and how. The first thing they need is to create a lesson plan for themselves. Depending on the goals, girls can create a program for 1, 2, 3 or more workouts per week, with different amounts repetitions within the set. How to correctly create a training program for a girl with a huge variety of exercises depends on her personal level of training and initial physical data.

Important! If you have musculoskeletal injuries, you should consult a sports doctor about acceptable and unacceptable exercises before starting exercise.

The first thing you should pay attention to is warming up and stretching before and after training. Warm-up consists of light aerobic exercise (running, jumping), as well as preliminary exercises with a weight less than the “working” one. During training (between approaches), it also doesn’t hurt to stretch, but you don’t need to make “springy movements” - fix the muscles in the required position for at least 30 seconds. This is exactly how much is needed for the brain to transfer to myofibrils ( muscle fibers) a signal that there is no potential threat of injury. Only in this case will the muscles and ligaments be able to “relax”.

A person who has good stretching progresses much better in terms of muscle growth, since its fibers are more elastic and do not resist hypertrophy (increase in their own volume). Good warm-up and stretching before exercise, you significantly reduce the risk of injury during training. You can watch this in more detail in this short video:

How to create a training program for girls

When drawing up a training program, it is necessary to take into account the differences in men's and women's training:

• The peculiarity of girls' metabolism is that by consuming more fatty foods (with fewer carbohydrates), they lose weight faster as a result of training, and they have more strength and endurance.
• Since women have predominantly type 1 muscle fibers, it is quite easy for them to “pull” a large volume of training, that is, a lot of repetitions and repetitions. The state of “overtraining” occurs extremely rarely in them, which allows them to train the same muscle group even 2 times a week.
• It is better for girls to use “explosive” approaches to a minimum (“explosive” can be considered those exercises in which a girl overcomes the maximum or close to it weight).
• Low-intensity cardio (slow running, jumping rope at a slow pace) works better for girls than high-intensity cardio (sprints, etc.).
• While lifting the apparatus, the girl should do repetitions at a slow pace, without the “explosive” positive phase of the movement, as is customary in men’s training.
• Since the average arterial pressure in girls during training is lower than in men, they can withstand stress more easily and experience less burning in their muscles.
• Girls do not need to take long breaks between approaches; 30-60 seconds is enough, since their pulse and breathing are restored faster than in men.
• Women can exercise more often than men. Working out without the use of doping, girls train strength 4-5 times a week instead of the traditional 3 times for men. That is, girls can train 1 muscle group twice a week.

Important! You must give preference exclusively basic movements, such as squats, Romanian deadlift, pull-ups and others. It is multi-joint exercises that involve the maximum number of muscles in the work, causing the best anabolic response of the body, which manifests itself in an increase in muscle, strength, and also a decrease in the amount of fat.

How to train effectively?

The order of exercises in the program should be followed from the most complex and difficult to the easiest movements. In this case, division also occurs according to muscle groups, the largest and most energy-consuming muscles (hamstrings and quadriceps, latissimus muscles back) should be worked out at the beginning of the workout, but smaller groups (shoulders, abs, chest, arms, calves) - closer to the end of the workout.

The normal number of repetitions in one approach for a girl is 6-8 to increase strength, 12-15 for muscle growth and 20-30 for fat burning. The number of approaches within 1 exercise is from 3 to 5. The number of exercises per 1 training day is from 5 to 7. At the same time, you must remember that in order to grow muscle mass, it is necessary to divide the training program into muscle groups so that 2 identical muscle groups were not pumped on adjacent days.

If your first workout is on Monday and you worked your legs, and your second workout is on Tuesday or Wednesday, you should not repeat the same muscle group again. In this case, breaks of 3 or more days are normal for recovery. Therefore, if you trained one muscle group, for example, on Friday, you can also train it on Monday, because between these days there are 3 days of full recovery. If your goal is fat burning, you can work out all muscle groups in one workout and repeat the same cycle several times a week - this will not negatively affect calorie loss.

Training goals and objectives

Training for girls, as well as for men, in each individual case provides for different goals. In most cases, these goals are:

• weight loss;
• muscle growth (work on relief);
• increase in strength indicators;
• increase in endurance indicators;
• treatment and prophylactic purposes.

Many girls combine several goals together, such as fat loss and muscle growth. No matter what they write on the Russian-language Internet, they say that these processes are absolutely opposite and their occurrence cannot be achieved simultaneously (catabolism - the destruction of fat and muscles, anabolism - growth), know that in practice all this is possible!

Motivation to workout

There is no need to deceive yourself in the hope that after reading this section you will be fairly motivated and begin to do something that you have never done before. It will not happen. In training, as in any other serious matter, the mindset for long and hard work is important, as well as a clear understanding of the result and the benefits it gives you:

• beautiful body;
• health;
• physical strength;
• strength of mind;
• attractiveness to the opposite sex.

When you really want something, no one or nothing will stop you on the way to achieving your goal. If your goal is secondary, you do not give it much importance - you will constantly feel lazy about it, you will give up even before you start.

True, there are still exceptions in the gym, and they happen often. During grueling workouts our body receives a fair dose of dopamine and adrenaline, and therefore, after 3-4 weeks a person develops a certain dependence on the gym. Just don’t compare it with drug addiction - after all, our internal secretion of hormones is physiological for us, in contrast to exogenously introduced substances (from outside). A person experiences a similar dependence on receiving various kinds of pleasures - sex, sweets, and so on.

Gym or home workouts – which is better?

The main disadvantage of training at home is the insufficient amount of equipment. Even if you have a barbell and dumbbells, a horizontal bar - this is not enough. In this case, the range of working scales is limited; you cannot dose and adjust the load based on your own needs. If we are talking about training with own weight, then everything is even sadder, since our capabilities are growing, therefore, the load should increase linearly or in waves. How can there be an increase in load if our own weight does not change or changes slightly?

By training at home, very soon the girl reaches the limit in muscle growth!

If your main goal is weight loss, then you can increase the intensity of your workout by adding repetitions per set and reducing the intervals between sets. But for this you still need a barbell, dumbbells and some other equipment (hyperextension bench, racks, etc.) - and not every girl has them at home. Buying this entire set is not a cheap pleasure; sometimes it is cheaper to regularly go to the gym with a subscription for several years in a row.

Training programs for girls

It is very important to do the exercises correct technique and amplitude, for this you can watch a series of special videos on the topic of women's training from a professional. There you will also find examples of performing the exercises described below from the proposed training programs:

But you still can’t do without the help of a competent trainer in setting up the technique, since from the outside an experienced person It's much clearer what you're doing wrong and how you can change it.

For beginners

If you are just starting your gym training (or want to train in light mode), best choice for the first month there will be a cyclic program, which involves repeating the same exercises “in a circle”:

• lifting the legs while hanging on the horizontal bar - to the maximum;
• squats with wide legs – 20 repetitions;
• Pull-downs on the chest – 15 repetitions;
• deadlift on straight legs - 20 repetitions;
• hyperextension – 15 repetitions;
• fly 15 reps;
• dumbbell curls for biceps 15 reps;
• push-ups (traditional or kneeling if difficult) narrow setting triceps – 15 reps;
• jump rope – 90 seconds.

You can repeat these exercises in 1-3 cycles depending on your physical fitness. After a month of training, you can switch to an advanced training program that simultaneously burns fat and leads to muscle growth.

Helpful information! If your goal is weight loss, you can keep the cyclic program on a permanent basis, increasing the number of repetitions in it to 25-30 and reducing the rest between sets (if your physical training allows you to not rest at all between approaches).

For experienced

The training program for “advanced” girls, designed to burn fat and grow muscle mass, is performed on Mon-Wed-Fri or Tue-Thu-Sat; you can also alternate workouts according to the “every other day” principle:

First day (bottom):

• squats with a barbell (bar) 4 sets of 12-15 reps;
• Romanian straight leg deadlift 4 x 12-15;
• leg extensions in the quadriceps machine 3 to 12-15;
• leg curls in the simulator 3 by 12-15;
• lunges with dumbbells 3 x 10 with each leg;
• hyperextension 3 to 15.

Second day (top):

• Bent-over barbell row – 4 to 15;
• bench press (barbell) on a bench with an incline of 20-30% - 4 to 15;
• swing dumbbells to the sides (on the shoulders) while standing 3 to 15;
• press on incline bench– 3 to 15;
• back row through the upper block with a wide grip – 4 to 15;
• anti-hack leg press – 3 to 20;
• hyperextension 3 to 20.

On the third training day, you need to do the same as on the first (remember - girls can train 1 muscle group 2 times a week).

What you shouldn’t forget after training

After training, you should rest mentally and physically so that the body switches to calm and measured work. It's ideal to get some sleep, take a bath (you can visit the sauna), or just relax in any way convenient for you. Perhaps for some this method is yoga, seeing a massage therapist, or listening to your favorite music. As for training, for a gentler release from training stress, you can cool down at the end - for example, running very slowly for 3-5 minutes. This will help bring the work of all body systems in order (primarily the cardiovascular system) and smoothly finish physical exercise.

Nutrition and drinking regimen before and after training

A person needs water (and it doesn’t matter whether it’s a girl or a man) before, during and after training. You need to drink water in small quantities between approaches so as not to cause a feeling of heaviness in the stomach, which will interfere with training process. The total daily amount of water consumption should be at least 2 liters per day.

Nutrition will depend on your goals (the ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates and their amounts will change in each individual case), but the basic rule is not to eat earlier than 2 hours before training and 30 minutes after.

Important nuances of training for girls

You should definitely know general principles training and be able to compose training plan even when you are working with a trainer. Most trainers are simply sales managers who sell on their appearance, ability to communicate with clients and find a common language with them, smile beautifully and be liked by everyone. They do not know how to competently train and lead their students to their goals. You can do absolutely meaningless exercises in incorrect technique, and you won’t hear anything from the trainer other than “okay, 2 more reps and rest for a minute.”

One of the most important recommendations is to never train in the gym while consuming critically low calories. Any diet in which you limit yourself to 1-2 foods and reduce calorie content below 20 kcal per 1 kg of body weight is taboo. And even more so, you shouldn’t expose yourself to physical stress - adherents of kefir, apple, cabbage and other “diets”, in my coaching experience and the experience of my colleagues, have more than once lost consciousness while performing exercises with a barbell.

It’s good if there is a person nearby who will back up and catch the immobilized body at the right moment. But many coaches walk away from their players while they are doing squats or bench presses, especially when the weight on the bar is light. Indeed, an empty bar weighs only 20 kg - it’s not a big deal if it falls on a girl’s chest or face (apparently that’s what they think). If a trainer leaves you without a safety net while performing a potentially dangerous exercise, where you may fall or drop the barbell on yourself, refuse such a “specialist” as soon as possible!

Finally

Many girls already intuitively understand that their training program should be radically different from men’s programs, but social pressure forces them to do the same. Using the tips from this article, you can create a training plan that includes all the features of the female body, its recovery rate and physiological characteristics.

Video: training for girls

Women's workout in the gym

Most of the fair sex visit the gym solely to get rid of excess fat. And at the same time, they completely neglect strength training, for some reason believing that this will deprive them of their femininity and make them masculine.

Indeed, against the background of strength training, the level of testosterone, the male sex hormone, increases in the body of any person. However, in the female body it still will not increase enough to “pump up” the muscles to the size of a man. So girls under no circumstances need to worry about their masculine figure. This is only possible as a result of long-term and intensive use of “chemistry” or hormonal therapy.

And here elastic muscles Not a single girl has ever been harmed in certain parts of the body. And this is exactly what strength training should be aimed at.

General principles of “female” training

It was once believed that “women’s” and “men’s” training should be radically different from each other. Trainers typically recommended that girls use lighter weights for higher reps. Perhaps this is why some girls are disappointed in training: after all, recent studies have shown that there are no fundamental differences in the structure of the muscular system in men and women. Therefore, for both of them, to improve their figure, it makes sense to use training with increased weights. Of course, you need to make adjustments for weight and not blindly copy training programs for men, but adhere to the rules that are common to all:

• work should be carried out with relative large scales;
• if you want to improve strength, then the number of repetitions should not be more than 5. To increase muscle size, 12 to 15 repetitions are required. More than 15 repetitions per set leads to increased endurance;
• power training should not exceed 60 minutes. Optimal – 45;
• More so-called basic exercises should be included in the training program, and isolated ones should be given secondary attention.

Basics of nutrition and diet

Proper nutrition is three-quarters of the key to success. And only a quarter comes directly from training. If you do not adhere to the correct diet, no amount of training will help.

Unfortunately, many ladies, immediately after visiting the gym, allow themselves “one little pie,” thinking that they have already protected themselves in advance from the danger of acquiring fat deposits. However, it is not. In order to completely burn all the kilocalories that “one little cake” gave you, you need to go to the gym again and work out properly. It is not surprising that with this approach, many girls simply become disappointed in training and give up on it.

Diet should not become some kind of temporary restriction, but a normal way of life. And this applies primarily to “fast” carbohydrates. They are the ones “to blame” for excess fatty tissue on the sides and in the buttocks.

Peculiarities sports nutrition for women are:

• The most important thing: strict calorie counting. There should not be too few of them, so as not to start losing muscle mass, but not too much either - otherwise fat deposits are inevitable.
• The diet should have a normal ratio of BJU - proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
• It is important to consume enough water. As some athletes say, if you were thirsty, you should have done it 5 minutes ago. Water washes away excess waste from the body and speeds up metabolic processes.
• You also need to monitor the level of insulin (sugar) in the blood. This is true not only for people with diabetes, but also for any athlete. Stable insulin indicates that muscle mass is being built without fat gain.
• Athletes simply need to consume more protein than other people. Protein is the basis for building muscles. But there shouldn’t be too much of it, otherwise it will inevitably turn into fat. In addition, problems with the kidneys and liver are possible.
• The athlete's body absolutely needs essential fatty acids. They can be obtained either in capsule form from a pharmacy or by drinking a tablespoon of flaxseed or mustard oil in the morning on an empty stomach. In addition, fish oil is beneficial.

Ideal female figure

Workouts to create the ideal female figure

However, not with nutrition alone... Without training, it is impossible to get a firm stomach, thighs, or toned buttocks.

Beginners do common mistake, ignoring basic exercises with free weights, spending all the time on machines. However, this is fundamentally wrong. It is exercises with a barbell and dumbbells that will help strengthen muscles in a short time, and not exercise machines. And the fat will be “burned off” much more intensely.

Below is a sample weekly program for girls new to the gym.

The first day

• squats with a barbell or in a machine – 15 repetitions;
• lunges with dumbbells – 15 times for each leg;
• Bent-over dumbbell rows to the waist – 10-12 times for each arm;
• pull-ups on the crossbar or pull-downs of the upper block behind the head – 12 times;
• bench press from a lying position on an inclined bench – 12 times.

Second day

Day three

• barbell row to the belt – from 10 to 15 times;
• pull-down block to the chest using a narrow grip - from 10 to 12 repetitions;
• Plie squats with dumbbells – 15 reps;
• scissor squats with a barbell – 10 times for each leg;
• twisting or “book” - 20 times.

There are sometimes even more women in gyms than men. However, there is practically no information about competent women's training.

Let's start with female motivation. Women's motivation is much stronger than men's.
“Motivation is the feeling with which a person can achieve the result he needs”

Women very often limit themselves in various delights of life, in particular in nutrition. And this is all in order to be more beautiful.

Why is this happening? In order to be successful in natural selection, one of the main factors is external beauty. From this we can conclude that women’s motivation in terms of improving their appearance is much stronger than men’s.

The main feature of the female body is the accumulation of fat and nutrients in reserve, this is where it differs from men.

The main factors influencing the accumulation of nutrients

1. Amount of hormones

Norepinephrine and testosterone – these two hormones not only form the appropriate physique, these hormones influence the central nervous system. They impart a certain aggressiveness. It is thanks to these two hormones that a man during training can reach physical failure (this is when the muscles can no longer contract in the correct form with the same weight). Failure makes a big difference in bodybuilding. When muscle failure occurs during an exercise, it means that enough energy has been spent and damage has occurred. muscle structures, and therefore they will then grow.

Women cannot train like this; they do not have such a powerful concentration of hormones in order to train so aggressively. A woman almost always stops a couple of reps before failure. It's getting hard for her.

Girls almost always fall short in terms of failure training, which is fundamental for muscle growth. It's those last 2-3 reps that make all the difference.

2. Number of muscle fibers

Men have much larger muscle fibers, the structures that produce muscle contractions, than women. Therefore, for women, strength training in the region of 6–8 repetitions is extremely ineffective.

3. Distribution of muscles in the female body

In women, this distribution has a certain disproportion. Because everyone is the most strong muscles are located in the lower part of the body - in the legs and buttocks, and in many respects are close to male indicators of the legs.

Top female body is very far behind men's indicators. Therefore, a woman can progress very easily in the lower body, because there are more muscles there. And it will be very difficult to add muscle in the upper body. Girls need to work harder to develop their upper body than men.

4. Metabolic rate

In the female body, the metabolic rate is significantly lower than in the male body. This means that every kilogram of a woman's body consumes much less energy than every kilogram of a man's body. That is, a man can eat more food and gain less weight than a woman. This is realized through muscles. Because there are more muscles, and they can burn significantly more calories than women. Even during sleep, muscles consume large amounts of energy.

Many women know that eating sweets, especially at night, is undesirable. Why? Because sweet is fast carbohydrates. The female body converts carbohydrates into fat reserves much more easily than the male body. And only if the amount of fat in the body is excessive. On the other hand, this fat, which accumulates in women, is much easier to use as energy than in men. There are many reasons for this, one of them is the birth of a child. Nature has made sure that the female body works as a perfect energy station. The female body constantly accumulates energy, fats, carbohydrates - so that later these materials can be very easily given as energy.

The female body accumulates glycogen (stores carbohydrates) much better when they are needed, if we compare it with the male body. This is still the same theory of accumulation. When there are no excess carbohydrates from food, the sugary foods you eat are much easier to turn into muscle glycogen than in men. Your goal is to ensure that the carbohydrate you eat is converted into muscle glycogen, and does not go along the fat pathway. Women have a good advantage in this case, because your muscles absorb glycogen much better than the male body. And this can be used in appropriate proper women’s training. There is a right one women's training, which leads to such accumulation.

5. Menstrual cycle

The menstrual cycle imposes a certain cyclicity on physical activity, because a woman in the first two weeks after her menstruation ends feels physically uplifted and highly efficient. She can train quite hard. But, on average, ovulation occurs after 2 weeks. There is a very strong decline and the body switches to maximum energy saving mode. Regardless of whether the egg was fertilized or not. In any case, the first two weeks the body shows high performance, the second two weeks the body shows physical decline. This imposes a number of features, both on nutrition and on women’s training.

Training– should be relieved (second two weeks). As a rule, it is better not to train the lower body and abs at all. The load needs to be reduced.

Nutrition– the amount of carbohydrates (calories) also needs to be reduced, because this is the 3rd – 4th week, and they are most dangerous for your appearance, your body will change.

Conclusion: The female body is “strong” for the first two weeks after the menstrual cycle; during the second two weeks it is “weak” and tries to gain weight. Therefore, it is very important to use sports micro-periodization during women's training. Micro-periodization is when the load is not applied linearly, but you use a certain function with peaks and valleys. Those. The peak should be given in the first two weeks - strength training for girls. The second two weeks need to slow down - you need to rest. Many sports physiologists are confident that sports periodization is the main tool for maximum sports results. Nature itself made sure that the female body used the principles of periodization.

6. Fat burning

Fat burning in the female body occurs from low-intensity, long-term exercise. A load that lasts at least 30 minutes, and preferably 50 - 60 minutes or more, and at the same time raises your pulse (heart rate) somewhere up to 110 - 120 beats per minute. This is a fairly average figure, not to say even low. But it is in this mode that maximum fat burning occurs; it is fat that burns, and not muscle glycogen or some other structures. In this regard, the female body is not very different from the male one. The same principles work in the male body - low-intensity, long-term exercise. Fat burning is one of the main goals of any women's fitness training.

More often than not, the main phobia women have when they go to the gym is that they worry about having too much muscle mass on their body. Those. fear that the muscles will become like those of men. And this is in vain. Because how to achieve large muscles as in men without taking pharmacological drugs - it is impossible.

Differences between muscle shape and muscle size

Shape is the relative arrangement of muscle outlines. Shape is a genetic factor and it is impossible to change the shape of muscles, as it was given to you from childhood by nature and will remain so forever.

A few words about specifics, a specific training program for girls. But before we get to it, let's understand about the split. Training program men usually contains such a thing as “split”.

What is a split? Split is a splitting muscle groups according to various training days. For example, today we train: chest + arms, tomorrow we train: back + shoulders, the day after tomorrow we train legs, etc. Such training is very interesting if you use refusal, and if your training is “strength-based” because such training leads to massive damage to muscle fibers. Accordingly, with this scheme, they need more time to restore their resource so that they can train further again. Therefore, with such training, men train less often - once every 4 days, or once a week.

This is very efficient scheme with “refusal” training, which is why it is not suitable for women. Split is not suitable for a woman; a woman should train her entire body in one workout. Because physiologically she is not able to train to failure and cannot damage her muscle fibers as seriously as a man in training. Accordingly, female fibers very quickly return to their performance after training, and very quickly they can begin to be trained again. If you train them rarely (once a week like men), then it will simply be endless marking time, you will not achieve the desired result.

In physiology this is called loss of acquired performance. First there is injury to the function, then compensation of this function to the initial level, then there is progress, which is called supercompensation. If you do not train again in the supercompensation phase, then the phase of loss of supercompensation will begin (the muscle will return to the levels it had before the training) and there will be no point in such training.

A woman trains her entire body in one workout. Several of the largest muscle groups are selected, for each muscle group one or two are selected basic exercises, and these exercises are performed in a high number of repetitions and sets so that we fulfill the rule of high volume training, since high volume training is truly effective for women.

Training program for girls beginner level

5 – 6 sets for maximum reps

5 sets of 15 reps

5 – 6 sets of 15 reps

Rest between sets 30 – 60 seconds.

6 sets of 15 reps

Rest between sets 60 seconds.

6 sets of 15 reps

Rest between sets 30 – 60 seconds.

This workout will take about 60 minutes. All exercises are multi-joint (several joints are involved at once, several muscle groups in each exercise)

Training program for girls of intermediate level

1. Superset:+ leg raises without pause

6 sets for maximum reps

Rest between exercises in a superset is 0 seconds, after performing a superset 30-60 seconds.

2. Superset: +

3. Superset:+ horizontal block thrust/

5 double sets of 15 reps each

Rest between sets in a superset is 0 seconds, after completing a superset 30 - 60 seconds.

4. Superset: +

5 double sets of 15 reps each

Rest between sets in a superset is 0 seconds, after completing a superset 30 - 60 seconds.

5. Superset: +

5 double sets of 15 reps each

Rest between sets in a superset is 0 seconds, after completing a superset 30 - 60 seconds.

Lightweight training program for girls for 3 – 4 weeks after the menstrual cycle

Rest between sets 60 seconds.

3 – 4 sets of 20 reps with lighter weight

Rest between sets 60 seconds.

3 – 4 sets of 20 reps with lighter weight

Rest between sets 60 seconds.

4. Cardio: or treadmill at a slow pace for 30 – 60 minutes.

You reach a heart rate of about 110 – 120 beats per minute. In this pulse zone, adipose tissue burns as much as possible, and it will burn even better after female strength training, because you will spend part of the muscle glycogen and your body will be forced to switch from carbohydrate metabolism to fat.

You train 2 – 3 times a week.

When the menstrual cycle begins, the load can be eliminated altogether. Don't go to the gym for a few days. But once your period is over and you're full of energy, you do two hard weeks of training.

This scheme will be very effective for your progress in women's fitness, and in order to change your body for the better.

Many people ask how effective such types of sports training for women as aerobics, shaping are in terms of fat burning and figure? The answer is - they are not effective. Why? If you open a directory of human energy consumption, you will easily understand that with an hour of aerobic exercise, the maximum you can burn is 300 kilocalories. Most often, this is much less, because you will not be at a constant pace, you will have some changes aerobic exercise, regime change. But let's say you came, and for an hour you worked out non-stop and spent 300 kilocalories, let's say you go to aerobics 3 times a week. 3*300=900 kilocalories. At best, you will burn 500 kilocalories from fat and 400 from carbohydrates. The body always burns carbohydrates first, not fat, but let's say you actually burned that much fat. Considering that there are 9 kilocalories in one gram of fat, and 4 kilocalories in a gram of carbohydrates, we end up with 50 grams of fat due to a week of intense aerobic work. You can lose a maximum of 50 grams of fat, and only if you strictly monitor your diet.

Therefore, female strength training for fat burning is 10,000 times better than aerobic mode. Why? The gym is much more effective than aerobic exercise or any cardio exercise for a number of reasons:

1. The more efficient your muscles are, the more calories they burn. Even at rest (during sleep).
2. After you have worked out in the gym, fat continues to burn quite intensely for a long time. Metabolism during training in the gym increases for a day.
3. Women's strength training (bodybuilding) allows you to manipulate the body part you need.

These three main advantages are more than enough to unconditionally believe in the superiority strength training, the advantage of the gym over aerobic women's training.

Video about women's training. Training program for girls