Girlfriend Starting at the Gym

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
21

[quote]Oleena wrote:
Start her off with 1-3 sets at 10-12 reps for most things, more reps for things like lunges, and use watered-down versions of the big lifts to start her out with. For intance, wall squats with a ball behind her back. Add weight to the hands. Then have her work on single-leg squats, with one foot on the bench behind her. Add weight in the form of dbs as she gains balance.

Have her work at all lifts with dbs until her balance and form improve (if you are starting her off light enough, correcting her form, and adding more weight the second it becomes easy you should notice significant improvement in all movements within two weeks or less).

Shoot for 1-2 exercises per body part and start teaching squatting and deadlifting right away (NOT w/a barbell! Start with the watered down versions I mentioned above. If she is more coordinated than 9/10ths of the people I’ve met, you can go ahead with the barbell, but my guess is she wont be ready).

She should be near or at exhaustion by the last set of each exercise. Let her know that she’s supposed to feel like that, and it wont kill her to miss a rep halfway :slight_smile:

After two weeks of the above or until you can notice a significant improvement in all her movements, ask her what her real goals are for lifting. Make a program based on that.

As for cardio, you can START her with HIT. Just tone it to her scale. The most important thing with cardio is that she does it, so if she feels more willing to step on a machine before her weight lifting, have her do it then.[/quote]

Do you always make your clients do these useless exercises?

22

[quote]waylanderxx wrote:
Oleena wrote:
Start her off with 1-3 sets at 10-12 reps for most things, more reps for things like lunges, and use watered-down versions of the big lifts to start her out with. For intance, wall squats with a ball behind her back. Add weight to the hands. Then have her work on single-leg squats, with one foot on the bench behind her. Add weight in the form of dbs as she gains balance.

Have her work at all lifts with dbs until her balance and form improve (if you are starting her off light enough, correcting her form, and adding more weight the second it becomes easy you should notice significant improvement in all movements within two weeks or less).

Shoot for 1-2 exercises per body part and start teaching squatting and deadlifting right away (NOT w/a barbell! Start with the watered down versions I mentioned above. If she is more coordinated than 9/10ths of the people I’ve met, you can go ahead with the barbell, but my guess is she wont be ready).

She should be near or at exhaustion by the last set of each exercise. Let her know that she’s supposed to feel like that, and it wont kill her to miss a rep halfway :slight_smile:

After two weeks of the above or until you can notice a significant improvement in all her movements, ask her what her real goals are for lifting. Make a program based on that.

As for cardio, you can START her with HIT. Just tone it to her scale. The most important thing with cardio is that she does it, so if she feels more willing to step on a machine before her weight lifting, have her do it then.

Do you always make your clients do these useless exercises?[/quote]

Oleena is right.

Training women for the most part is a nightmare. Getting them to do barbell squats is very difficult and needs a lot of build up. (Unless they are into athletics in the first place)

If you push a woman (i’m using ‘woman’ loosely here, most of the girls I trained have been 18-23) to do deadlifts/squats on their first session, they will not come back for a second time.

Keep in mind im talking about run of the mill girls here, that might just be looking to jump on my cock, or just to look a bit ‘firmer’. NOT athletically determined women who like a challenge.

I myself have been getting my girlfriend training with me on leg day, its awkward.

Squats for instance: She’s too weak to squat the bar first time around, and she feels stupid doing bodyweight squats with tiny plates or just putting her arms out.

Deadlifts are not as bad, but it’s still hard to get her to an olympic bar.

So while I do squats, I have her on the stairmaster (like a treadmill, but with stairs). Then we do leg press together/leg curls/leg extensions etc. etc.

I also highly recommend taking your girlfriend to a place like planet fitness first time around, or another commercial gym.

My girl gets quite intimidated training at my gym (monster gym) for instance.

23

When are you guys going to learn you can’t train your girlfriends? I mean you don’t even know what her goals are (neither does she), but you know what yours are for her.

She needs to come here and ask ‘what should I be doing?’ rather than you. Unless she is THAT interested you’re just going to be banging your head against the wall in 2 weeks when she stops going.

Just my negative and extremely unhelpful opinion of course. :slight_smile:

24

Right now I’m hovering around 215lbs and 7% bf yet my fiance won’t stand to listen that bunz of steel is garbage, that she needs to keep a closer eye on her diet and god forbid maybe lift some weights…you know only for high reps though, she doesn’t want to get too jacked (sarcasm).

25

let me know when she looses the 20 pounds.

26

[quote]debraD wrote:
When are you guys going to learn you can’t train your girlfriends? I mean you don’t even know what her goals are (neither does she), but you know what yours are for her.

She needs to come here and ask ‘what should I be doing?’ rather than you. Unless she is THAT interested you’re just going to be banging your head against the wall in 2 weeks when she stops going.

[/quote]

I would echo what debra is saying here.

27

[quote]LiveFromThe781 wrote:
let me know when she loses the 20 pounds.[/quote]

My bet is she will “lose” it when the next 20 are covering it up.

28

[quote]Goodfellow wrote:
Oleena is right.

Training women for the most part is a nightmare. Getting them to do barbell squats is very difficult and needs a lot of build up. (Unless they are into athletics in the first place)

If you push a woman (i’m using ‘woman’ loosely here, most of the girls I trained have been 18-23) to do deadlifts/squats on their first session, they will not come back for a second time.

Keep in mind im talking about run of the mill girls here, that might just be looking to jump on my cock, or just to look a bit ‘firmer’. NOT athletically determined women who like a challenge.

I myself have been getting my girlfriend training with me on leg day, its awkward.

Squats for instance: She’s too weak to squat the bar first time around, and she feels stupid doing bodyweight squats with tiny plates or just putting her arms out.

Deadlifts are not as bad, but it’s still hard to get her to an olympic bar.

So while I do squats, I have her on the stairmaster (like a treadmill, but with stairs). Then we do leg press together/leg curls/leg extensions etc. etc.

I also highly recommend taking your girlfriend to a place like planet fitness first time around, or another commercial gym.

My girl gets quite intimidated training at my gym (monster gym) for instance.

[/quote]

Well I don’t really hang out with these out of shape women, nor do I care to so I can’t really offer anything there.

The ones that I know whom lift actually push themselves and some of them even do back and front squats! Amazing huh? lol

But I understand what you mean, I’ve taken a girl to workout a few times and usually I get pissed off b/c I’m trying to have an intense session and she is asking me a bunch of questions and talking about life lol. So moral of the story don’t train with your girlfriends.

One girl I was talking to asked to hang out with me while I was working out, I told her I don’t go there to socialize, and that pretty much ended things haha

29

I like to noticably stare at dudes girls when they bring them to the gym, all creepy like ya know.

30

[quote]chillain wrote:
Might be easier to just find another girlfriend.

[/quote]

x2

31

does gf know you’re telling the interwebz you think she needs to lose 20 lbs?

32

I’d just buy NROL4W and be done with it. Even though you’ve had the experience and know everything in there, she won’t listen to you.

If it’s in a book, it’s the word of God itself. NROL4W is a much better source of advice than Cosmo and O, which is her probably her current source of info.

33

[quote]AccipiterQ wrote:
OK, so my gf actually found a gym she can afford and is joining. We got her some gym clothes, and sneakers today. She’s not really sure what her goals are at this point, just to get into better shape generally. She could probably stand to lose 15-20 lbs. as well.

Right now she is in pretty awful shape cardiovascularly; she can’t even run across a street without feeling winded. I’m thinking before she even starts with weights, have her do some 3 or 4 mile walks/jogs on a treadmill? Other than that I’m not really sure what to have her do, should a beginning girl do the same things as a beginning guy?? [/quote]

Yes - train her like you would a beginner guy. We’re not completely mentally challenged and if SHE has the drive and motivation to do this she can train like a guy.

I too disagree with Oleena about not using barbells to start. Does the gym have straight barbells? When I first started I literally was backsquatting 40lbs and even when I got under the olympic bar the first time it freaked me out more than anything because it was so much bigger and I felt unbalanced.

I would suggest started 3x per week with weights, and if she’s totally a newb, total body might do her well. As far as cardio, I’d suggest going for time and not distance. Doing something like a 30sec jog then a 2:30 walk might be a good place to start. If that’s too difficult, increase the walk time.

However I agree with another poster (can’t remember who) who stated training your gf will fail. Even now, I can’t follow a training program written by my trainer boyfriend even though I’m highly motivated on my own and he’s not actually “training” me. If she just blindly follows (and again, SHE wants to do it) it could work for a while though, especially if she sees results and feels better about herself.

34

[quote]mr popular wrote:
debraD wrote:
When are you guys going to learn you can’t train your girlfriends? I mean you don’t even know what her goals are (neither does she), but you know what yours are for her.

She needs to come here and ask ‘what should I be doing?’ rather than you. Unless she is THAT interested you’re just going to be banging your head against the wall in 2 weeks when she stops going.

I would echo what debra is saying here.[/quote]

The problem is that girls sometimes refuse to do the work to find out for themselves. My girlfriend has expressed several times that she wants me to show her what to do and how to do it. Each time I’ve showed her what I think would be best for her, she doesn’t like it and quits. It’s as if she thought it would be easy.

Finally I bought her some of those crappy “boot camp” workout dvd’s that do little more than get your heart rate up and now she thinks she’s found something she likes. The problem is that it’s worthless. Go figure.

35

[quote]Da Vinci wrote:
Right now I’m hovering around 215lbs and 7% bf yet my fiance won’t stand to listen that bunz of steel is garbage, that she needs to keep a closer eye on her diet and god forbid maybe lift some weights…you know only for high reps though, she doesn’t want to get too jacked.[/quote]

sigh There’s not a whole lot of ways this can end well for me, is there?

36

[quote]Court wrote:
AccipiterQ wrote:
OK, so my gf actually found a gym she can afford and is joining. We got her some gym clothes, and sneakers today. She’s not really sure what her goals are at this point, just to get into better shape generally. She could probably stand to lose 15-20 lbs. as well.

Right now she is in pretty awful shape cardiovascularly; she can’t even run across a street without feeling winded. I’m thinking before she even starts with weights, have her do some 3 or 4 mile walks/jogs on a treadmill? Other than that I’m not really sure what to have her do, should a beginning girl do the same things as a beginning guy??

Yes - train her like you would a beginner guy. We’re not completely mentally challenged and if SHE has the drive and motivation to do this she can train like a guy.

I too disagree with Oleena about not using barbells to start. Does the gym have straight barbells? When I first started I literally was backsquatting 40lbs and even when I got under the olympic bar the first time it freaked me out more than anything because it was so much bigger and I felt unbalanced.

I would suggest started 3x per week with weights, and if she’s totally a newb, total body might do her well. As far as cardio, I’d suggest going for time and not distance. Doing something like a 30sec jog then a 2:30 walk might be a good place to start. If that’s too difficult, increase the walk time.

However I agree with another poster (can’t remember who) who stated training your gf will fail. Even now, I can’t follow a training program written by my trainer boyfriend even though I’m highly motivated on my own and he’s not actually “training” me. If she just blindly follows (and again, SHE wants to do it) it could work for a while though, especially if she sees results and feels better about herself. [/quote]

Good post! She’s actually spent money on the clothing/shoes/equipment/membership so I’m hoping that keeps her there for at least a little while. Thanks for the idea with the cardio, I hadn’t thought of that. I figure I’ll suggest going 3x per week to start, as I get the feeling she’s a bit intimidated by all this. She’s on a month to month plan at Bally’s for now. I figure that’s more ‘girl friendly’ than my gym.

37

I would have to agree with most other post. Training the gf isn’t the best idea. Even if you try to find a friend that you trust to train her is better than you training her. There’s no separation between gym and home with feelings. If you piss her off at the gym by telling her to work harder she’ll take that home with her and still be pissed at you. Lose lose situation.

38


my girlfriend started w. me and doing a split similar to mine w/ and adjusted rep range slightly higher than mine. as she built a base and shed some BF% she took off on her own.

Oxygen magazine for women is a good starting point.

You can’t teach someone to like it, they quickly decide they like it or they don’t.

GF started at 5’3" 150lbs and now is 130-135lbs, when she does her first show she’ll likely be at 125lbs.

Cardio after weights bro. here’s a pic of where she’s at now. She was scared when she began and now T-bar rows, front squats, deadlifts, like it’s nothing.

She does incline presses at Planet Fitness w/ 50’s for reps and all the little hollister college fuckers break there neck, it’s awesome. we go to our real gym four days a week and hit PF like once a week.

39

My girl recently started training with me. I have her mostly focusing on lower body lifts consisting of:

  • Lunges
  • Glute ham raises
  • Leg curls
  • Squats
  • Single leg dead lifts

For upper, she will do:

  • Shoulder presses
  • Lat pull downs
  • DB bench
  • Preacher curls

Then after the workout, she will walk about 1km. My only gripe is she gets bored so quick, misses workouts consistently and has poorer flexibility than me! Bless her good spirits.

40

No one mentioned box squats for building a big ass?