So my girlfriend works out, I’m her boyfriend. She does cardio i.e. running, biking, stair stepper, ab exercises, squats and some arm exercises here and there. She has no specific routine for each day. She says she wants a more toned body… So can anyone give me some advice/ideas to give her? I workout and have been for a while, I’ve tried giving her a full body workout, but she wasn’t satisfied with it. So I’d appreciate the help
My girl trains the same way I and the other male power and oly lifters at my gym do and her body is bangin’. She does heavy squats, trap bar deadlifts, farmer’s carries, bench pressing, and so on… I personally don’t see any reason girls should train different than guys. With the exception of their menstrual cycle which can disrupt the flow (holy shit pun intended) of their training and it can be frustrating for them. At least that has been my observation training around chics, their strength levels fluctuate way more than men. Also, how they handle a failed lift can be different. But that’s for the birds-- the training in general should be the same.
I do believe in finding the money exercises for everybody. But only she can find that over time, so starting her out with the basic lifts and letting her evolve on her own would be the way I would handle it. Focusing on strength, obviously, and mastery of the lifts.
Why wasn’t she satisfied with a full body workout?
You’re gf wants a more toned body? Tell her you decide on your goals, not her and you want bigger boobs and a tighter ass.
[quote]ashawk wrote:
So can anyone give me some advice/ideas to give her?[/quote]
Same girl from this thread or a new gf? - Workout Plan for Beginners - Powerful Women - Forums - T Nation
If for some reason she didn’t “like” that plan, check anything from Joy Victoria:
[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:
[quote]ashawk wrote:
So can anyone give me some advice/ideas to give her?[/quote]
Same girl from this thread or a new gf? - Workout Plan for Beginners - Powerful Women - Forums - T Nation
If for some reason she didn’t “like” that plan, check anything from Joy Victoria:
[/quote]
Yup same girl, thanks man ill check it out.
She doesn’t really want a full body workout. She wants to isolate a muscle/muscle group every time she works out. i.e. Leg day. A full body workout was the last workout I gave her and thats why I’m here asking again for another one
Well honestly man, I think the main thing I picked out from the original question was the fact that she doesn’t follow a set routine.
If you think about it, the only way for the human body to change is:
Stimulation → adaptation
Whatever workout you do decide to go with, try to keep some sort of training log, and have her do a little more of each workout every week. Either more reps, or more weight. You know…progressive overload.
In terms of a workout…what’s her body type now and what is she looking to get?
What about an Upper/Lower split?
[quote]ashawk wrote:
She doesn’t really want a full body workout. She wants to isolate a muscle/muscle group every time she works out. i.e. Leg day.[/quote]
I feel like you’ve answered you’re own question there to be honest.
[quote]ashawk wrote:
She doesn’t really want a full body workout. She wants to isolate a muscle/muscle group every time she works out. i.e. Leg day. A full body workout was the last workout I gave her and thats why I’m here asking again for another one[/quote]
Has she gotten any visible results since that thread last summer?
What kind of shape is she currently in, honestly? If she’s already lean/skinny/whatever, “toning” translates to “building muscle”. If she’s on the curvier side, “toning” becomes “fat loss”.
For the first case, you could consider this:
But her nutrition, particularly getting plenty of protein and calories everyday, will be key to building muscle.
For the second case, a full body or upper/lower split is going to be the most efficient path to that goal. If she doesn’t want to do that, that’s on her and all you can do is provide the info for her to either accept or ignore. And again, nutrition will be key here - enough protein and enough calories - not too many and not too few (dropping calories too much/too fast is a problem some ladies do fall into).
My girlfriend is currently doing Bret Contreras’ Strong Curves and is loving it. The main stuff is full body, but there’s some plug-ins you could incorporate into a split routine. It has heavy focus on regions like the butt & shoulders.
Only downside is it’s a bitch to workout together now.
[quote]TX iron wrote:
My girlfriend is currently doing Bret Contreras’ Strong Curves and is loving it. The main stuff is full body, but there’s some plug-ins you could incorporate into a split routine. It has heavy focus on regions like the butt & shoulders.
Only downside is it’s a bitch to workout together now.[/quote]
The Strong Curves book is one of the best laid out books for women. Something about it seems to speak to the reluctant strength trainer that gets them over the hump of committing. Would highly recommend.
You can forget about a full body workout not sure what its good for other then stuff like training for a mountain bike race.
[quote]300plus wrote:
You can forget about a full body workout not sure what its good for other then stuff like training for a mountain bike race.[/quote]
I have to disagree strongly. Good full-body training uses the money lifts, is frequent, and is great for people with awkward schedules and limited training time.
[quote]300plus wrote:
You can forget about a full body workout not sure what its good for other then stuff like training for a mountain bike race.[/quote]
Really? You don’t get why someone would use a full body routine?
I absolutely do if you if read it correctly. I don’t spend huge amounts of time in the gym either.
[quote]300plus wrote:
You can forget about a full body workout not sure what its good for other then stuff like training for a mountain bike race.[/quote]
A “full body workout” can be ridiculously effective for: bodybuilding or strength/power training or general athleticism or fat loss, depending on how the plan is designed.
If you, or whoever, think full body training is all only foo-foo lightweight nonsense, it’s only because you don’t know how to program effectively.
[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:
[quote]300plus wrote:
You can forget about a full body workout not sure what its good for other then stuff like training for a mountain bike race.[/quote]
A “full body workout” can be ridiculously effective for: bodybuilding or strength/power training or general athleticism or fat loss, depending on how the plan is designed.
If you, or whoever, think full body training is all only foo-foo lightweight nonsense, it’s only because you don’t know how to program effectively.[/quote]
I’ll get Dan John, Jim Wendler and Chad Waterbury on the phone, let them know 300plus says they’ve been doing it wrong all these years.
To answer Adonis13 and Chris Colucci, my girlfriend is not on the ‘curvier’ side. She’s not on the anorexic side either (which to me is 105 pounds or below). I don’t know if this is wrong telling y’all or if she’ll get mad that I did lmao, but I think she weighs 115-120. And to answer Evolv, I think she would like an upper/lower split too. TX Iron, I like how that workout is planned out.
Full body workouts are effective, I’ve used one in the beginning of when I started working out. They’re good for beginners. My girlfriend knows how to do shit at the gym. She knows the main lifts and her forms are pretty good. The shitty thing is, me and her don’t go to the same gym because mine is more expensive. She goes to 24 Hour, the super sport gym in our city; So teaching her everything and leading her into a workout is hard because of that reason above. Two of you guys that commented seem to like Bret Contreras workout so I may consider having her do that lmao. The Tried and True workout page has good information as well. So I will show her a couple of these that you guys have suggested.
She eats healthy, but she and I or her and her friends go out to get food every now and then. She can’t stick to a chicken/rice diet, but she’s good at eating fruits/vegetables/salad and meats ya know. She doesn’t eat candy or ice cream and shit every day, at all. So overall she’s healthy. I will stress to her more that if she wants to get ‘tone’ then diet is a lot of it.