Best guide for womens lifting

suemcmurry

Hi Everyone,
Just throwing this out there for ideas, but I would like to know what everyone recommends as a lifting guide for women. I am not new to all this, just would like to develop my own program.

Hoping all MFPers are having an AMAZING WEEKEND!!!

usmcmp

I think if you want to develop your own program you should consider personal training books/certifications. Unless you've been lifting for a long time or have studied the different types of programming it is best to follow a program built by a professional. It will help you avoid imbalances.

hannahnew625

You should figure out what your goals are first. Do you want to grow your glutes? Do you want a sexy back? Nice shoulders? So, once you figure out your goals, you can design your workout split. How often do you plan on working out? 3x, 4x, 5x, 6x a week? That will help you decide how to break it up. Also, I would suggest making each day you workout not using a bunch of different equipment. Decide on a few machines and spend time on those that way you know you are getting the burn in those muscles! For me personally, I am struggling figuring out my plan. My gym is going to comp me 3 personal training sessions. I am going to tell them my goals; I want to do a recomp and build the glutes! They will design my workout for me. You could also go on Bodybuilding.com they have workout programs already designed for you (:

DawnEmbers

I would agree in part that it depends on your goals. I find training programs specific to powerlifting because I want to compete again in a meet. Other people focus on training in a way to develop a certain look to compete on stage. And some just want to lift stuff and look like maybe they lift. There are many programs out there, non-gender focused, so it really depends on what you want to focus on with your training.

annaskiski

@psuLemon put together a great guide here:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

psuLemon

usmcmp wrote: »

I think if you want to develop your own program you should consider personal training books/certifications. Unless you've been lifting for a long time or have studied the different types of programming it is best to follow a program built by a professional. It will help you avoid imbalances.

I would agree with this. Unless you have been certified or a have a degree, you are unlikely going to produce a program as good or as beneficial as a well established program.

sardelsa

You don't need to do a program designed for women, although there are many out there: Strong Curves, New Rules of Lifting for Women, Thinner Leaner Stronger, etc.

I tend to tweak/modify programming or use a template (ex. in Strong Curves, Bret Contreras outlines a template how to set up a program with the index), but to write one from scratch usually takes quite a bit of expertise/lifting experience.