Women's training guide

This thread has really good info, whether you're a woman or not (there's discussion in the thread about lifting goals and priorities t may help with "typical" women's goals vs. men's, and which programs emphasize what):

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

Advice you didn't ask for: I'd encourage you to think through what your personal, individual goals are, and judge programs accordingly. Here, I mean things like increasing/minimizing glutes (da booty), shape changes you'd like to emphasize, whether you're more about strong bones/muscles for health and performance or about particular appearance enhancements, etc. You'll get some of most of those with any program, but the programs do emphasize different goals, especially strength vs. size gains vs. muscular endurance.

In terms of what works to achieve X exercise goal, women and men really aren't all that different. For strength training, the typical woman will make a bit slower progress, and may have a lower upper limit to accomplishment than a similar man because of a different hormone profile. But it's a continuum - a few women may progress further/faster than some men because of genetic factors and plain hard work.

The whole "get bulky" thing some women worry about really isn't a thing, without illegal performance enhancing drugs, and body changes from strength training happen over months to years, not overnight, so you have plenty of time to adjust what you're doing to fine-tune your results where you want them, as long as that's within your genetic potential.

Some "for women" programs are really good . . . but they'd probably be good for anyone of either sex who shared their goals. Some "for women" programs spread myths and nonsense, or foster an attitude of low expectations. Hopefully, you'll get advice here that helps you avoid the latter type.

(An aside, something I find just hilarious, but also sad: If you compare the "Big Book of Exercises for XYZ" in the Men's Health magazine edition, and the Women's Health magazine edition, they typically have exactly the same exercises, but photographed with models of the target sex, and differences in the rah-rah motivation sections where the women's version has lots of "getting toned" and "flat belly", while the men's is all "build muscle gainz" and "rock hard six-pack". LOL!)