“I don't want to bulk up.”

I hear that, and I'm sure you do too, from many women that strength train for better bodies. And while it’s true that the main effect of weight training is building muscle, research shows that moderately heavy, low repetition training increases a woman's metabolic rate more than light weight, high-repetition training.

There’s no doubt that every woman needs some form of resistance training in her workout program. Science also tells us that gaining mass is a function of intensity and volume of training. So if a woman reduces her lifting volume, she can continue to train at a high intensity and reap the strength and metabolism boosting benefits without the fear of developing the dreaded “bulk.” Unfortunately, practically every female fitness magazine article is based on the high repetition, high volume, bodybuilder-influenced approach. So it’s no wonder women aren’t happy with their strength training advice, especially when they are given bodybuilder routines by default.

So what is the answer? What’s the next stage in the evolution of female fitness programs? I believe the best way to give a female client a well-rounded fitness and fat loss program is to reach a middle ground. Your options for fat loss aren’t just high repetition bodybuilder workouts, 60 minutes of cardio or a yoga class. Instead, if you use the following formula, you’ll help your female clients get lean and build the sleek, sexy physiques they’re after.

The Female Fat Loss Fitness Formula

• Low volume, high intensity total body weight training sessions - Use weights to build small amounts of muscle and burn lots of calories. Structure your weight training exercises in supersets of non-competing exercises (i.e., two exercises that don’t result in fatigue of the other) to get maximum results in minimum time.

• Bodyweight training - You can use advanced bodyweight exercises in traditional strength training supersets or put together a series of less-intense bodyweight exercises in a circuit fashion to burn calories, boost metabolism and get improved fitness levels that transfer best to everyday activities.

• Interval training - As with resistance training, I’ve found the best results are achieved by high intensity cardio intervals, rather than lower intensity, longer duration exercise. This form of high intensity cardio will burn calories and fat more efficiently than long cardio sessions.

• Variety - Change your training programs frequently, sticking with a program for no more than four weeks straight. Frequently changing your training variables will constantly demand your body to change, helping you get maximum results in minimum time.

Let’s start examining the formula by looking at the two methods of how women should train so that the risk of bulking up is minimal.

• Reduce the volume of weight training - You can reduce the number of exercises per body part, or you can reduce the number of sets per exercise. Either way, this reduces the total training volume per muscle, which is one of the key factors determining muscle growth. Since I prefer to avoid bodybuilding-based “one muscle group per day” workouts, I simply reduce the number of sets per exercise from three to one. So if we are following one of my workout templates that call for three sets of eight repetitions for the DB Split Squats, we’ll reduce the volume to one set of eight repetitions only. Two sets are also acceptable.

• Train with more bodyweight exercises - This doesn’t mean more crunches and sit ups. There are dozens of exercise variations you can do for lunges, push ups, bodyweight rows and chin ups, Stability Ball leg exercises, single leg exercises, and yes of course, abdominal exercises. Bodyweight exercises accomplish a lot, with little investment in training equipment, including:
  • Mobility - By using bodyweight exercises, you train the body to increase its relative strength through a wide variety of movements and ranges of motion. From deep diagonal lunges to push ups in all types of contortions, you get the best of both yoga and strength training all rolled into one.
  • Applicability - If you wanted to use the label functional training, I don’t see how you could apply it to any other method of exercise than bodyweight movements.
  • Accessibility - If you train young moms, busy moms or new-to-exercise moms, chances are you are going to need to find an exercise program that works with minimum equipment and maximum results in minimum time. Bodyweight training is your answer. The number of workouts and exercises are limited only by your creativity.

So how does the female fat loss fitness formula fit into a weekly training schedule? Through years of experience and reading the research, I’ve concluded that the proper training schedule for a woman wanting to get lean is hybrid workouts consisting of weight training and bodyweight exercises.

Three strength training sessions are performed per week, with a total body focus in each. Throw out your body-part training workouts - the ones where you do chest on Monday, back on Tuesday and so on. Instead, structure your workouts around four multi-joint exercises. Once you get those taken care of, you can add exercises as time permits.

A typical workout would begin with a bodyweight circuit to prepare the body for the four main exercises. In addition, the start of the workout should address the muscles of the abdominal wall, lower back and pelvic area. Recommendations for training these areas are highly individual and depend entirely upon your fitness assessment of each client.

Moving into the main strength training portion of the workout, your four multi-joint, multi-muscle exercises must address a pushing movement, a pulling movement, a squat and an exercise for the muscles of the posterior chain. Do eight reps per set. And here's the key: do only one to two work sets per weight training exercise. You can include advanced bodyweight exercises such as a single leg squat in the four main exercises, or you can complete the workout with a bodyweight circuit to burn more calories and train more muscle groups. And for women that insist that all weight training exercises will make them bulk up, you can use bodyweight exercises exclusively and still follow the above workout formula.

Follow this plan and women will boost their metabolism, burn more calories and fat at rest, and they’ll have no worries about becoming a female “Ah-nold.”

Exercise Program for Female Fat Loss & Body Sculpting

• Bodyweight Circuit Warm Up
  • Overhead Squat (see Figures 1 and 2)
  • Lunge
  • Push up
  • Inverted Row (see Figures 3 and 4)

• 4 Main Exercises (completed in two non-competing supersets)
  • A1) Overhead Squat (see Figures 1 and 2)
  • A2) Pull up
  • B1) DB Press
  • B2) DB Deadlift

• Supplementary Bodyweight Exercise Circuit
  • Bulgarian Split Squat (see Figures 5 and 6)
  • Spiderman Push Up (see Figures 7 and 8)
  • Inverted Row (see Figures 3 and 4)
  • Stability Ball Jackknife (see Figures 9 and 10)

Figure 1	Figure 2

 

Figure 3	Figure 4

Figure 5	Figure 6

Figure 7	Figure 8

Figure 9	Figure 10