In this workout guide, ladies, we will present to you a couple of workout regimens for the upper and lower body, which will help you carve that perfect butt and flat stomach you’ve been craving for so badly.
You will notice that the emphasis in those workouts, is placed on the lower body (thighs, hamstrings, glutes, calves, lower back), meaning that those workouts will be more frequent, bigger in volume and slightly denser.
This is simply because women tend to focus on the lower portion of the body (thighs, glutes, hams, etc.) while men usually tend to focus on the upper body (Arms, chest, back, etc.)
Beginner workout split
This workout split is made for women who have little to none sports background, and are ready to begin improving their physical qualities.
Goal: Learn exercises, develop basic physical qualities- Strength, strength endurance, cardio endurance
Difficulty: Beginners
Frequency: Every other day, 3 to 4 times a week
Type: Full body workout
Exercises: Mostly basic, compound exercises
Rest times between sets: 60-90 seconds
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full body | Cardio, stretching | Full body | Rest, stretching | Full body | Rest, stretching | Cardio, stretching |
Warm up
Warming up before the workout is a must. Your warm up is about 10-15 minutes in duration, and consists of stretching and light cardio like walking, jogging or rope jumping. Once you get into the workout itself, you have two warm up sets on the first one or two basic exercises.
| Full Body Workout | ||
|---|---|---|
| Upper Body | ||
| Optional muscle group. Worry not, girls, you won’t get huge chest muscles, you’ll just tone them and get stronger on the pushing movements. | ||
| Body Part | Exercise | Repetitions |
| Chest | Incline dumbbell bench press | Set 1 and 2- Warm up sets, 15 and 12 repetitions with a light weight, respectively. |
| Set 3- 10 repetitions; This is working set number 1, use a significantly higher weight that will challenge you, but won’t make you reach failure by the end of the set | ||
| Set 4- 8 repetitions; Second and last working set, weight used can remain the same as in set 3, or higher. | ||
| Back | Vertical lat pulldowns (Warm up sets) | Set 1- 15 repetitions |
| Set 2- 12 repetitions | ||
| Vertical lat pulldowns (Working sets) | Set 3- 10 repetitions | |
| Set 4- 8 repetitions | ||
| Set 5- 8 repetitions | ||
| Shoulders | Dumbbell shoulder presses | Set 1- 12 repetitions |
| Set 2- 10 repetitions | ||
| Set 3- 10 repetitions | ||
| Biceps | Standing dumbbell curls | 3 sets of 12 repetitions |
| Triceps | Rope push-downs | 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions |
| Lower Body | ||
| Thighs | Body-weight squats | 4 sets of 15 repetitions |
| Walking lunges | 3 sets of 15 repetitions per leg | |
| Glutes & hamstrings | Glute kickbacks | 5 sets of 15 repetitions per leg |
| Laying hamstring curls | 3 sets of 12 repetitions, strong contraction of the glutes | |
| Calves | Standing calf raises | 5 sets of 15 repetitions |
| Cardio | In case you don’t know how to do your cardio, read our Cardio for Beginners article. | |
Intermediate workout splits
If you’re at the point where the first split seems easy, you can transition to this intermediate upper/lower body split.
Goal: Learn more exercises, put emphasis on certain body parts
Difficulty: Intermediate
Frequency: Two days on, one day off, 4 times a week, two cardio sessions and stretching on rest days.
Type: Full body workout
Exercises: Mostly basic, compound exercises, some isolated movements
Rest times between sets: 40-50 seconds
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upper body | Lower body | Rest, cardio | Upper body | Lower body | Rest, stretching | Rest, cardio, stretching |
| Full Body Workout | ||
|---|---|---|
| Upper Body | ||
| Body Part | Exercise | Repetitions |
| Chest | Incline dumbbell bench press | Set 1- 15 repetitions |
| Set 2- 12 repetitions | ||
| Set 3- 10 repetitions | ||
| Set 4- 8 repetitions | ||
| Set 5- 8 repetitions | ||
| Incline dumbbell flys | 3 sets of 12 repetitions, focus on stretching throughout the movement. | |
| Back | Lat pull-downs | Set 1- 15 repetitions |
| Set 2- 12 repetitions | ||
| Set 3- 12 repetitions | ||
| Set 4- 10 repetitions | ||
| Set 5- 10 repetitions | ||
| Dumbbell rows | 3 sets of 10 repetitions | |
| Shoulders | Dumbbell shoulder presses | 3 sets of 10 |
| Dumbbell lateral raises | 3 sets of 12 | |
| Biceps | Incline bench dumbbell curls | 4 sets of 12 |
| Triceps | Bench dips | 4 sets of 12 |
| For this exercise, you can either place your legs on the ground, or on another bench so you can use your full body weight. | ||
| Lower Body | ||
| Thighs | Body-weight squats | 3 sets of 15 repetitions |
| Barbell squats | 3 sets of 12 repetitions | |
| Leg press | 2 sets of 15 repetitions | |
| Glutes & hamstrings | Glute kickbacks | 3 sets of 15 repetitions per side |
| Hip thrusts | 4 sets of 15 repetitions | |
| Romanian deadlifts (barbell) | 2 sets of 10 repetitions | |
| Laying hamstring curls | 3 sets of 12 repetitions | |
| Lower back | Lower back hyper-extensions | 4 sets of 15 repetitions |
| Keep in mind that for women, training the lower back is mandatory, simply because it’s naturally a weaker body part for females. | ||
| Calves | Leg press calf raises | 3 sets of 15 repetitions |
| Seated calf raises | 3 sets of 15 or more repetitions | |
Exercises that can be used as a substitute to other exercises
Chest : Pec deck, flat bench presses
Back : Cable rows, back rows machine, narrow grip lat pull-downs
Shoulders : Presses/lateral raises on a machine
Biceps : Preacher curls with a dumbbell or a machine, e-z bar curls
Triceps : Overhead dumbbell presses, dumbbell kickbacks
Thighs : Hack squats, leg extensions, Bulgarian split squats
Hamstrings : Standing, seated hamstring curls
Glutes : Squats done with a glute contraction at the end of the movement, cable kickbacks, laying hamstring curl hip thrust, lunges done with a glute kickback after each rep
Lower back: Good mornings
Abdominal workouts
Usually, if you’re looking to flatten your belly, or even get some definition there, the correct answer is a proper diet. However, if you have that in check, you can do abdominal workouts to further develop your core in terms of definition and strength.The correct abdominal exercises are the fundamentals you want to look for, if your goal is developing your mid-section. The usual crunches are far from enough when it comes to proper development of that certain area.
Keep in mind- The core is the stabilizer for most of your exercises and gets worked on indirectly, which makes it unnecessary to train your abs every single day, expecting to see more results.
Below, we will present to you a series of exercises, that are far more effective than the standard, boring crunches.
Goal: Tone the abdominal muscles, gain core strength
Frequency: Twice a week, preferably on rest days or lower body days
Rest times between sets: 50-60 seconds
The exercises
Using these 6 exercises, you will tighten up your mid-section and also cure the lower back pain that you might be having.
Important note: Quality over quantity.
Doing a thousand crunches a day will be a waste of time. Abdominal workouts don’t require intensity and strength training, but rather a moderate pace and well controlled contraction of the core musculature.Using full range of motion and moderate pace for any abdominal exercise, will lead to a significant fatigue even 30 seconds into the exercise.
Each of the exercises is done for 40-60 seconds, and can be repeated 2 to 3 times if your physical capabilities allow it. Do the exercises, in the order given below.
1.Plank
Lay on the ground and lift your body up, standing on your elbows and toes. Hold for as long as possible (Usually, failure is reached at the 40-60 second mark)
2. Plank hip twists
Take the same plank position, standing on your elbows and toes. Tighten your abdominal muscles and alternate between twisting your hips to the left and the right. The twists must be as controlled as possible.
3.Flutter kicks
Lay down on your back, so that your lower back is on the ground. Straighten your legs and lift them off of the floor (5-6 inches), start doing a fluttering up and down motion with your legs (alternating from left to right leg), while keeping your core tight and legs straight.
4.Laying leg raises
This is one of the simplest abdominal exercises, however, we put it at number 4 so you can feel the significant fatigue, just a couple of exercises into the circuit.
To do this exercise, all you have to do is lay down on your back, lift your head off of the floor and then lift your legs together (Legs should be straight) up until a 90-degree angle, after which, you slowly get them down to the initial position, keeping constant tension on the abdominal muscles.
5. Mountain climbers
To complete this exercise, you have to lie down in a plank position, but instead of standing on your elbows, you will stand on your palms. (Push-up position, in a sense)
Keep the arms straight and get your right knee as close as possible to the right arm, then get back to the initial position of that leg and complete the same movement on the left side, with the left leg.
6.Side plank
Lay down to the side, lift the body so that you’re standing on one of your elbows and the side of your leg. Lift your arm to a 90-degree angle and slowly move your thighs closer to the ground, without touching it. After that, get the thighs to their initial position by contracting the core musculature.
Once you’re done, repeat on the other side. Again, we have to mention that when it comes to a flat belly and/or defined abdominal musculature, it’s about your diet. The workouts just help you raise your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) and add details to the abdominals, here and there.
If you’re having trouble with your workouts and nutrition, feel free to get in touch with us, for personal, in-depth training and nutrition regimens, using our Individual online coaching page!
