Gym Workouts For Women

When you go to any gym, you will notice two things: women are working out or not working out. The fact that so many different people are working out in one place at the same time leads to the conclusion that working out can not be that complicated after all.

All that it takes is that you go to the gym and start exercising. Everything else will happen on its own. This claim is so far from the truth, and each and everyone that has worked out at the gym for some time will know that.

Gym workouts for women are different from woman to woman.

We are all different, so it is only natural that different things work for each of us. We all have different needs and expectations when it comes to working out in the gym and the results we want to achieve.

All of us know what we want to do with our bodies, and most of that is achievable with the right training at the gym. However, making a program that will help you to get to your goals is a different thing.

To make a good workout program knowing what you want to achieve and how you want to look is not enough; you need to know some basic principals of gym workouts.

woman performing planks exercise in her local gym

Make It Simple

The first decision you need to make is how to separate muscle groups in your workouts.

Your workout can vary from training where you are doing all bigger muscle groups to training where you are doing only calves and forearms. Some people like doing one training using just “pushers” such as triceps, deltoid, pectoralis, and other training with using just “pullers” such as lats and biceps.

Frequency

How often should you train each muscle group? The answer depends on many factors, and the first one is how you divided muscle groups for your workouts.

If you are doing circular training, you should have a day of rest after each training day, and a number of trainings should not be more than three to four days a week. The higher the intensity of this kind of training, the more rest you will need for your body to recover, so sometimes one day will not be enough.

Rest days should be spent actively doing some form of cardio training; it can be running, swimming walking whatever you enjoy doing.

Choice of Exercises

Once you determined how to separate the training of the muscle groups and how often to do your workouts, you come to the point where you need to choose which exercises you will be doing.

When choosing the exercises, make sure that the choice is various. For a start, it will be enough that you chose two different exercises for each muscle group and to make sure you do all muscle groups with no exceptions.

You should always train big muscle groups before small ones. This is a rule you should stick to.

woman performing dumbbell rows with personal trainer in her local gym

Volume Of The Workouts

The volume of the workout means the amount of work put in at one training. The general rule is the more repetitions you do with lower weights, the more you influence muscle stamina, and vice versa, a low number of repetitions with bigger weights influences the strength of the muscles.

In the beginning, one set of exercises will be enough for you to progress. The more experienced you get, you will need more sets. Of course, there is no need to do more than three to five sets per exercise. Anything more than that can be too much.

In case you think your training is too easy and you are already doing the recommended number of sets, you might want to consider adding more weights to those sets. Break time between these sets should be between 60 to 180 seconds, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be shorter.

Intensity

If you are a beginner, the form in which you do your exercises is much more important than the weight you are lifting. However, as you become more experienced, intensity starts to be an essential part of the training.

If you chose to do biceps workouts in ten to 12 repetitions, you should select the exercises that will cause your muscles to collapse in that number of repetitions. This means you should choose the exercise and the number of repetitions that will be large enough so you can not continue after you have done that certain number.

As soon as you adapt so you can do more than 12 repetitions it is time for you to increase weight. Sometimes even the change of pace in which you do the exercise can stimulate the muscle enough without the need to increase the weight.

Change the program of your training every two months. Differently divide muscle groups, change the exercises, change the frequency. Try and remember all the changes you are making because that will help later on to determine what kind of training works the best for you and gives you the best results.

Split Training

While doing split training you usually focus on one or two muscle groups. Possible splits of muscle groups are almost endless.

Advantages

Because you are training just one or two sections of a muscle group you can focus on those muscles and train them to the point of total exhaustion. This kind of program is great for gaining strength and muscle mass and also you have large flexibility when it comes to the weekly schedule.

Disadvantages

Doing this kind of workout the time you spend in the gym will be much longer and also there is a possibility that you give advantage to isolating exercises opposed to basic ones which is not good.

Full Body Workouts

During full body workouts, you will train all big muscle groups on one training. Even tho the time spent at the gym can vary depending on the number of series and repetitions expect it to usually last for about an hour or more.

Advantages

This training is great for beginners and it will give them the best possible progress no matter if it is mass and strength or stamina workouts.

Disadvantages

This is not suitable for people with experience in training they can have problems training each muscle group with high enough intensity in just one training.

Circular Training

Circular training is basically switching the exercises one after the other without almost no rest in between.

Advantages

This kind of training is great for increasing muscle stamina and burning fat. The duration of the training is also shorter so it is suitable for people with less time on their hands.