Women's Workout Guide by Online Personal Trainer Milos Tanasic
This blog post is your go-to guide for women's training. Whether new to the gym or an experienced athlete, this comprehensive guide will get you on track with a sample workout program designed specifically for women.
I will start by discussing training volume and intensity: how much weight should you be lifting? What rest periods and training frequency should women use for optimal results? I will provide tips to program your training, specifically for lagging body parts.
I will also devote a part of the blog to discussing essential questions related to nutrition and provide guidelines and tips to help you optimize your gym workouts and get the results you want, whether it is fat loss or muscle gain.
Lastly, I will provide some insight into how our team of body transformation experts works with their online personal training clients. I will show you some insight into the app we use and explain what support we provide regarding weekly check-ins and day-to-day communication to ensure our clients reach their fitness goals.
Training volume and intensity
Training volume represents the weight you moved in a session, calculated by multiplying your sets, reps, and weight used. Training intensity refers to the effort you put forth during your workout sessions. It is a subjective measure that can be measured via RPE (rate of perceived exertion). RPE 1/10 is very easy, and RPE 10/10 is MAX effort. To increase the intensity of your workout routine, you can add sets, reps, weights, or time under tension.
There are several keys points women should consider when determining training volume and intensity:
Start with the minimum effective volume and slowly build up as you progress on your fitness journey.
The minimum effective volume is the amount of work women should do to stimulate change in their bodies. That can be anywhere from 2-3 working sets per muscle group (think glutes, quads, and hamstrings as separate muscle groups) up to 6-10 working sets per muscle group for advanced lifters (5+ years of training experience). Some exercises target multiple muscle groups, like squats and deadlifts, so make sure to account for that when planning your gym workout plan.
Apply progressive overload to your training
Progressive overload is when women gradually increase the intensity of their workouts over time. That can be done by increasing weight, reps, sets, exercise duration, or any other measurable metric you use to track your progress.
Listen to your body and adjust your gym routine accordingly.
Women must pay attention to how their bodies respond after each workout to ensure they are on the right track. Waking up the next day after training glutes and not feeling anything is probably an indicator that you can increase training volume and intensity. If you are sore more than 3 days after your workout, it may indicate that you overdid it and might need to scale back a bit on the intensity of your training.
Volume, intensity, and rest recommendations based on your objective
Strength Training Recommendations
If your objective is to get as strong as possible, your training will be focused on low reps and high weight. Most of your training will be in the 3-6 reps range, working with weights 70-90% of your 1 repetition max. Rest periods should be longer (2-3 minutes) to ensure you have enough time to recover between sets to lift heavier weights. You will start with higher volume (more sets and reps) and lower weights (70% @1RM), and as you progress, you will reduce volume as you progress weight and get close to the 90,95 and 100% of your 1 repetition max.
Explanation: 1RM - one repetition max is the maximum amount of weight you can lift in a single repetition.
Summary:
Rep range - 3-6
Weight - 70-90% 1RM
Rest intervals - 2-3 minutes
Volume - higher at the start and lower as you get closer to 1RM
Hypertrophy Training Recommendations
As your training progresses and your body adjusts to the training stimulus (think not feeling sore anymore and finishing the sets with ease), you will add reps or sets to your workout or increase the weight on the bar. If you are trying to optimize muscle building, reps will be mainly in the 8-15 rep range with weights 50-70% of your 1 repetition max. Rest periods between sets will be 1-2 minutes or 45 seconds, depending on the state of your cardiovascular system, which, if at a high level, can drastically reduce the rest periods between sets.
What is muscle hypertrophy?
Muscle Hypertrophy is an increase in muscle size, usually due to increased stress on the muscle fibers. Stress is caused by lifting your body weight or weights during exercise.
Summary:
Rep range - 8-15
Weight - 50-70% 1RM
Rest intervals - 1-2 minutes (or 45 seconds if the cardiovascular system allows for it)
Volume - Increase reps/sets or weight if the body is recovering and you can complete your current sets and reps without breaking form.
Programming your training for lagging body parts
When you have a stubborn muscle that you want to bring up (grow), there are a few things you can do:
Ensure your form is good
Train the lagging muscle more frequently (2-3 times per week)
In your gym workout plan, you can combine a heavy low rep day start of the week with a higher volume, lower weight day mid or end of the week OR
You can perform 3 exercises low 3-6 reps, medium 8-12 reps, and high 15-20 reps in the same workout to give your muscle various stimuli.
Nutrition recommendations based on goal specificity
Optimizing weight gain (muscle gain)
If your objective is to gain weight, but you want to minimize fat gain and optimize muscle growth, you need to adhere to the following guidelines:
Daily 300-500 calorie surplus
You need to calculate your basal metabolic rate, add the calories you burn through activities (walking, exercising, house chores, etc.), and then add a 300-500 calorie surplus.
Ensure an intake of 1.6-2gm of protein daily
The lower your calories, the higher you should be on the protein spectrum. The higher your calories and the larger the surplus, the lower you can be on that spectrum, and vice versa. That is essential, especially when your objective might be to lose weight but preserve muscle tissue.
Frequency of protein servings
Although total daily protein intake is the most important, there are still some benefits for muscle gain and body composition results when you have protein feedings every 3-4 hours.
Optimizing weight loss (losing fat while preserving muscle tissue)
If your objective is weight loss that will promote primarily fat loss and preserve your muscles, then you need to adhere to the following guidelines:
Daily 250-500 calorie deficit depending on the rate at which you want to lose weight
500 calorie daily deficit will result in 300-400gm weight loss per week. Going more aggressively might be challenging and unrealistic for most females, especially petit ones, as their maintenance calories might be very low.
Again you need to calculate your basal metabolic rate (BMR) and do a modest estimation for calories burned through different activities to get how many calories you burn in a day. Then you deduct 250-500 calories to put you in a deficit.
Protein intake between 1.8-2.2gm per kg of bodyweight
As mentioned earlier the higher the deficit you are in the more important it is to keep your protein intake close to the 2-2.2gm per kg mark.
Things to take into consideration when tracking your progress:
menstrual cycle
Based on where you are in the cycle, your weight might fluctuate due to hormonal changes in the body. To avoid frustration, measure every day if possible, and then take a 3-4 week average to assess your progress. Last week before you get your period, you might retain water which can show a 1-2kg increase on the scale, so do not get overwhelmed as it is not fat gain.
individual differences
Minor differences in individuals exist, so the formulas you use to calculate BMR, activity levels, etc., might not be 100% accurate. Still, they are your best bet to start with and then asses as you progress on your journey.
To find out more about essential questions related to nutrition, check the following blogs:
I don't eat anything. Why am I not losing weight? - link
Comprehensive guide to weight loss by online personal trainer Milos Tanasic - link
Low glycemic foods, the healthier option - link
Other fitness, nutrition, and health-related blogs - link
Gym workout routine for women!
Day 1 - Lower Body - Glute and Quad-Focused
A1 - Barbell Back Squat 4x6-8
A2 - Barbell Hip Thrust 3x8-10
A3 - Bulgarian Split Squats 3x10-12
A4 - Reverse Hypers 3x12-15
Day 2 - Upper Body - Back, Shoulders, and Arms
A1 - Close underhand grip lat pull down 4x8-10
A2 - Single arm dumbell row - 3x10-12
A3 - Cable pull down - 2x15
A4 - Crossover Cable Machine - 3x10-12
A5 - Dumbell Lateral Raises - 3x15
Day 3 - Lower Body - Hamstrings, Gluts, and Calves
A1 - Stiff leg deadlift - 4x8
A2 - Leg press 3x10-12
A3 - Curved back hyperextension - 3x12-15
A4 - Leg extension - 3x10-12
A5 - Standing calf raises machine - 3x12
Important notes:
Warm up well before starting the main part of your workout sessions - link
Prioritize good form
A1 & A2 are usually exercises you would load more during your gym workouts (squat, deadlift, leg press), so make sure your breaks are long enough to ensure you are recovered between sets and ready to perform the exercise with high intensity. Recommended 90-120 seconds rest between sets.
A3, A4 onwards are exercises where you focus slightly more on the pump and burn, and breaks can be around 60 seconds.
Enjoy your training sessions.
Online training process with Fortius Dubai
The first thing you do before committing to work with us is a FREE consultation so that we can establish whether our online coaching program is the right fit for you. Once we establish that we are a good fit, we can proceed with the following steps:
Comprehensive nutrition questionnaire
Onboarding zoom call where we explain all the details related to our expectations and requirements so that you can achieve incredible results in the timeframe we have set for you
A follow-up call to provide details regarding app usage and weekly check-ins as well as day-to-day communication so that we can ensure a smooth online personal training journey and get the desired results
Last but not least, we monitor your progress weekly and make changes or adjustments if needed depending on the results you are achieving.
Click here to learn more about our online coaching process and see some of our client's fantastic body transformation stories.
So what are you waiting for?
Take the first step and book your free consultation today!
We are excited to help you achieve success!
Do you want to know if it's possible to transform your body in 4 weeks?
Check our comprehensive blog, which will provide you vital insight into whether a 4 week body transformation is possible and, if yes, whether it is something you should be aiming for with your online personal trainer or perhaps a long-term objective might be more sustainable and might lead to better life-changing results.
Common questions and answers
Can I lose weight and build muscle at the same time?
There are only two situations in which you can manage to do both at the same time:
If you are new to training or
if you had a long break from training
If you are someone with training experience, it is highly unlikely that you can build muscle and lose fat simultaneously, although there are some exceptions. These exceptions are people that have trained the wrong way, are following an ineffective gym workout plan, or have been eating a poor diet with inadequate calorie intake and low nutrient density.
Are gym workouts more effective than home workouts?
Gym workouts are more effective due to the availability of various machines which can target muscle groups with more specificity and better stimulus-to-fatigue ratio. However, you can reach excellent health and a good physique by only utilizing home workout routines with limited to no equipment.
Which application do you use for your online personal training services?
We use the True Coach app, which has fantastic features such as live video streaming between the coach and the client, automatic workout tracking and progress tracking, performance comparison tools, and a customizable nutrition plan.
We hope this guide was practical in providing helpful information about women's workout guide and online coaching process with Fortius Dubai. To get started on your journey, book your free consultation today!
Get your Beach Body Training Guide E-book today!
If you want a comprehensive guide to teach you all you need to know about optimizing your training, check our 77-page beach body e-book.
Our detailed guide includes the following:
exercise library
sample programs for beginners, intermediate and advanced lifters
detailed explanation on optimizing exercise selection
instructions on how to program lagging body parts
tips on establishing the right training volume and intensity and more
Click here to learn more and purchase our e-book, which will benefit beginners, advanced lifters, and trainers!
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Fortius Dubai Services:
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Martial Arts - link
Nutrition Coaching - link
Yoga in Dubai - link
