This girl I know asked me to help her get “nice legs”, she wants to build muscle. The only problem is, she’s so light and weak I don’t know where to start, she’s really small and skinny, about 90lbs. What kind of exercises do you tell someone to do who can’t squat the bar? Pardon my ignorance, I’m just kind of lost.
Start with body weight squats, lunges if she can, wall squats. Train her core and hamstrings as well you can easily load a curl bar to do stiff leg deads and the such. I personally think your underestimating the girl.
My girlfriend’s trainer has had her doing barbell RDLs, leg presses, dumbbell sumo squats, hack squat machine and leg press. She’s now slowly working toward doing more barbell squats and regular deadlifts with some goblet squats thrown in.
While I don’t agree with a lot of things her trainer has her doing, I’m just sharing some ideas.
EDIT: and planks, and plenty of core stuff using a medicine ball. I just saw Reed’s reply, and forgot about that stuff.
Actually, here’s her current split for the month. Two leg days.
Day2- Thighs/glutes
- Leg ext 50 rep (pre exhaust)
- Leg press (shoulder width center) 10/10/10 drop set
- Leg press (narrow and top) 10/10/10 drop set
4.Power rack BB squats reps10-12 x3 - BB deadlift reps10-12 x3
- Walking Lunges to wall sit 2-3 trips
Day5- Hammies/Glutes
- Single Lying leg curl reps10-12ea x3
- KB (sumo stance) Deadlift reps10-12 x3
- Angled Leg press (2High narrow, 2 wide stance) 10/10/10
- Frog squats on smith Machine reps10-12 x3
- Lunges reps10-12ea x3
- Ball bridges reps15-20 x2
- Kick backs reps 20-25ea x2
–
And her routine for when she comes and trains in my [garage] gym in a few weeks:
Legs:
power rack squats 55lbs
DB lunges 10lbs
KB sumo squat 35lbs
BB deadlifts 65lbs
DB deadlifts 20lbs
Everything 3x12-15.
I’m gonna start her with bodyweight exercises and gradually add dumbbells then move to the barbell after a few months. Thanks for all the advice guys!
bodyweight movements are always good for beginners up to experts. Good choice.
body split training for newbies is just plain fucking retarded as ballshit sack cocks
[quote]Jarvan wrote:
bodyweight movements are always good for beginners up to experts. Good choice.
body split training for newbies is just plain fucking retarded as ballshit sack cocks
[/quote]
Not my choice of words, but agreed.
I can’t make much sense of what her trainer is trying to do except make money. Throw together a basic body part split that varies every month, and preach the value of variation and muscle confusion, while avoiding the hard work and progression on basic lifts part.
However, since its helped make weight training a part of her life, instead of just running all the time, it’s a step In the right direction.
I only shared that to provide some exercise options, which I’m pretty sure was the basis of what the OP was asking about. Well, and to make sure I wasn’t the only one who completely disagreed with that programming.
[quote]Confinative wrote:
I’m gonna start her with bodyweight exercises and gradually add dumbbells then move to the barbell after a few months. Thanks for all the advice guys![/quote]
That sounds like a great plan. May not even take a few months.
If you have access to a sled I would try that. Very little technique is required, you can build very strong legs and whole body depending on push/pull style, will improve cardiovascular health and finally, low risk of injury.
[quote]Confinative wrote:
I’m gonna start her with bodyweight exercises and gradually add dumbbells then move to the barbell after a few months. Thanks for all the advice guys![/quote]
Bodyweight stuff is a great start (I’ve used the bodyweight plan in my “Teaching Kids” article as a basic intro for a lot of people).
With women overfocused on “toning the legs”, I tend to eventually use sumo deadlifts, reverse hypers on a Swiss ball, and SHELCs (bridge to leg curl on a Swiss ball), in addition to squats and leg presses.
This is an awesome article from Joy Victoria with some other points to consider, plus a few program options:
[quote]LoRez wrote:
6. Walking Lunges to wall sit 2-3 trips [/quote]
That sounds terrible, like, just brutal.
Chris has advocated leg presses for new trainees (as well as heavier individuals) because you can put what will seem to them like a lot of weight and serve as a pretty good confidence builder. Which would probably be pretty helpful to someone completely new and probably intimidated by the gym scene.
Other than that I’d agree on lots of bw squats/lunges and curl bar stiff leg deadlifts, sumo’s etc. Upper lower split might not be a bad idea.
Biggest part is help her enjoy it and the rest will come, worked with my girlfriend, now she’s got a banging bubble butt and a very sexy back and shoulders
[quote]Andrewdwatters1 wrote:
Biggest part is help her enjoy it and the rest will come,[/quote]
Yup.
I’m surprised no one mentioned goblet squats (unless I missed it). I’ve found this to be far and away the best way to teach a loaded squat to a beginner. It teaches good body awareness, it forces good posture, it can be done with minimal load. What’s not to love? For a 90 lb girl, the goblet squat could easily be the only squat variation used for a long time.
[quote]flipcollar wrote:
I’m surprised no one mentioned goblet squats (unless I missed it). I’ve found this to be far and away the best way to teach a loaded squat to a beginner. It teaches good body awareness, it forces good posture, it can be done with minimal load. What’s not to love? For a 90 lb girl, the goblet squat could easily be the only squat variation used for a long time.[/quote]
Yeah, definitely. They kind of slipped in on my first post.
I used them myself to retrain my squat.
[quote]Confinative wrote:
she’s really small and skinny, about 90lbs. What kind of exercises do you tell someone to do who can’t squat the bar?[/quote]
Just to touch back on this, let her know that she can build strength without getting “all bulky”. Training does not and should not be all about light weights and high reps.
