Women strength training... for real

If a certain threshold of tension isn't reached, no adaptations as far as strength/hypertrophy are going to take place. Sure, you can get a training effect. You might build muscular endurance. You might build cardiorespiratory fitness. But here's my real point...

Not everyone needs to pick up a heavy barbell to realize this tension overload. For beginners, simple calisthenics can provide enough of an overload to drive improvement. Hell, in the research, taking sedentary folks and starting them on a walking regiment was enough to add muscle to their legs. Their bodyweight was enough.

Exactly! Thus the 5x5 format. If you can complete more than 7 reps on your first set, you're not loading yourself enough, and you need to upgrade your exercise. I'll post my routine below (stolen shamelessly from Cheesedog at bodyweightculture.com lol)

And since it seems like this thread will grow in popularity... I want to share another thread that revolves around the same topic. In it, I talk in detail about selecting the right load for you and I think I even write a sample body weight routine you can do from home.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/276660-i-do-dvds-so-i-don-t-need-to-strength-train

Awesome post =D!

Another Bodyweight Culture article, this one courtesy Cheesedog at:

http://www.bodyweightculture.com/forum/showthread.php?11058-Bodyweight-Strength-Training

Bodyweight Strength Training

People are always asking about strength training using only bodyweight. This is nothing new or revolutionary. I am borrowing HEAVILY from Rippatoe, Bill Starr, and lots of other great authors and trainers. This is your basic 5 x 5 template. (To clarify, 5x5 is 5 reps x 5 sets. The idea is to work at a difficulty level where you could only do maybe 7-8 reps on the first set, and are struggling to finish 5 reps on the last set). You would do strength training 3 times a week, say Monday-Wednesday-Friday with the weekends off. These are done "lazy circuits" style, with about 1 minute rest between each set.

Workout A
1A. Knee dominant - 5 x 5
1B. Horizontal push - 5 x 5
1C. Horizontal pull - 5 x 5
2A. Ab - flexion - 3 x 5
2B. Ab - static 3 x 30 seconds

Workout B
1A. Knee dominant - 5 x 5
1B. Vertical push - 5 x 5
1C. Hip dominant - 5 x 5
1D. Vertical pull - 5 x 5
2A. Ab - rotation - 3 x 5
2B. Grip and neck training - 3 x varies

Exercise Progressions - with regular weight training you can just add weight to the bar. With bodyweight progression is mostly about changing your leverage. These are just a few examples, I'm sure we could come up with dozens more if needed. You can always add resistance in the form of a weighted vest or backpack or resistance bands.

1. Knee Dominant -- squats, lunges, step-ups, bulgarian split squats, unilateral bent leg deadlift, partial one leg squat, one leg squat, box or stair pistols, full pistols.
2. Horizontal Push -- pushups, decline pushups, resistance pushups, side to side pushups, stair one arm pushups, negative one arm pushups, full one arm pushups.
3. Horizontal Pull -- body row, resistance body row, negative one hand row, incline one hand row, full one hand row.
4. Ab - flexion -- crunches, situps, resistance or incline situps, reverse situp, resistance or incline reverse situps, hanging knee or leg raise, hanging pikes, rollout from knees, rollout from feet, dragon flag. Also included are oblique moves like side lying crunches with or without resistance and side lying two leg raise.
5. Abs- static -- 4 point prone bridge, 3 point prone bridge, 2 point prone bridge, 4 point supine bridge, 3 point supine bridge.
6. Vertical Push -- pike pushup, hindu pushup, divebomber pushup, decline pike pushup, decline hindu pushup, decline divebomber pushup, one arm pike pushup, negative handstand pushup, handstand pushup with head touching floor, full handstand pushup.
7. Hip Dominant -- supine hip extension, good morning, one leg stiff leg deadlift, split one leg good morning, one leg supine hip extension, hyperextension, one leg hyperextension, natural glute-ham raise.
8. Vertical Pull -- jumping or assisted pullups, pullups, resistance pullups, side to side pullups, negative one hand pullups, one hand pullups. All these can refer to chinups or neutral grip pullups as well.
9. Ab - rotation -- twist crunches or situps, resistance or incline twist crunches or situps, russian twists, lying windshield wipers, standing rope rotations, hanging windshield wipers.
10. Grip and Neck Training -- for grip you can use handgrippers, deadhangs from a pullup bar (especially a fatbar or gripping a towel). For neck nothing beats wrestlers bridges. If you are involved in a striking martial art or sport, finger and fist pushups are very important also.

None of these lists have to end here. If you get strong enough you can always add resistance to your full range of motion one limb exercise. Or if you can do more than 5 one hand pushups do decline one hand pushups, or start working on one hand hindu and then eventually one hand dive bombers, and so on.

The nice thing about this routine is it scales dramatically depending on your fitness level. If you can't do even ONE regular pull up, you can scale it down and do assisted pull ups (legs on a chair), or ballistic pullups (where you jump to provide the initial momentum). It's actually easier to do properly when you're very unfit...because once you're healthy and strong...you're going to be searching for challenging enough exercises to only allow you 5 reps max by the finish of the 5 sets.

stroutman81, this is an awesome thread! I got through as many pages as I could, and hit upon the post one page ago with the young lady who is at a low weight and bf% and looking to go lower and struggling with the cardio vs. strength conundrum--my situation is similar, but different in that I'm not overweight but I AM overfat.

I'm 5'2" and last May I was 130 lbs and lost 10 of it in 4 months of 'experimenting with x program until something worked', but with no real change in physique since I didn't have any weights (though I was religiously doing the same bodyweight exercises regardless). Gained some of it back over the holidays, (but I got about 50 lbs worth of adjustable weights for christmas) and am now getting back into it.--My weight 'goal' is 110 lbs as a really vague benchmark (mostly because even at my peak fitness I've never been 110 lbs, but I had significantly more muscle then), but would rather see my measurements go down by about 2 inches all around.

The conflicting info that I get is that since I'm a 'healthy' weight, I should focus more on strength training...however since I have 'high' fat, I should burn it off with cardio. Assuming my bodyfat % is between 25% and 28% (after staring at many, many images online) am I still wasting my time with running? Since I'm a small person to begin with, I'm torn between maintaining a calorie 'deficit' with the right macronutrients (currently doing 40/40/20 c/p/f on 1300 calories) to fuel my body through low-intensity cardio training, or risk slowing down my progress on the fat front because I need to eat closer to maintenance in the form of protein in order to gain some muscle. When your BMR is 1,200 calories, there isn't a whole lot of wiggle room!

I would really appreciate your thoughts on the matter, and thanks in advance! Anyone else who has been there, done that feel free to share!

Who says you need to burn the fat off with cardio? Fat loss is a function of being in a calorie deficit. A calorie deficit can come from decreased food intake, increased exercise, or a combination of the two. A deficit is a deficit is a deficit.

The same can't be said for muscle though. There's only one thing that's going to influence that and it's progressive resistance training.

In order to achieve leanness, we know we need to minimize fat mass and maximize muscle mass. From above, it should be obvious that progressive resistance training needs to be prioritized over cardio. At least in the context you find yourself in.

I don't know exactly what your weight is, but let's say it's 135. 1200 seems like a low BMR for someone weighing 135 lbs. How did you come up with that number? BMR is typically around 10 cals/lb assuming a normal functioning metabolism.

I like how you understand the issues here! My calorie allowance is about 1650 and its tough getting enough protein in every day. Yesterday, I had two protein drinks, coffee and two slices of pizza (believe me the pizza isn't normal!)! That protein is getting tiring! I eat chicken, turkey, eggs, everything protein related all day. Every meal is protein focused. My weight loss is slow as well. I rarely see actual gains, I lost the first ten pounds in six weeks. The second ten have taken me 6 or so months to lose. I also don't do much "cardio" consistently. Its mostly weight lifting. The toss-up of getting more calories in protein for my muscles vs the restricted calories is frustrating. For now, I do my best at squeezing both together and my meals aren't the most

I feel like..I can never take up 'real" strength training because I have a very messed up shoulder...multiple dislocations have worn down the socket and they haven't invented a replacement for it yet...what do the pro's here think?