Workout for my GF... help?

[djeclipse]

Hi everyone, I just came across this board. I haven't been to the gym in at least 7 years, i personally need a lot of work... it was my Gf that actually got me back in the gym.

She has been doing cardio mostly workouts on and off for a while but hasn't been seeing results. She said she likes doing weights so I want to get her to start doing weights along with cardio. for now it will be the machines at the gym as she is a little intimidated to go over to free weight side of the gym.

I was thinking 3 days a week (every other day) to start with weights and then cardio after.

Maybe upper body one day and legs the next (though it doesn't really fit into the 3x a week thing).

The goal is to tone and lose weight. So I was wondering if you guys could help me set up a decent beginner workout for her.

In the past when she did weights she was doing very light weight and high reps, 15-20 easy. I was thinking of getting her to do heavier weights like 3 sets of each exercise, set 1 = 12 reps and sets 2&3 = 8-10 reps to failure.

And after the weights 20 min of cardio followed by abs (the hardest thing to get motovated for).

Is something like this a good idea for a woman? Are those reps ok, or too low/high? I have no experience on how a woman should properly work out with weights and I don't want to have her doing something wrong.

And help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[Sassy69]

Hey & welcome to the ladies board. Couple comments -

- even w/ sporadic training, diet is going to be the thing that gets results. Its like 80% of the work to get to your goal. If she doesn't have a tight diet, the results will come more slowly. By tight I dont mean has to be pre-competition rigor, but rather just a reasonable, clean diet w/ enough protein to help build muscle, enough good fats and enough good carbs to provide energy but not deposit too much bodyfat.

Generally I'm going to suggest that you get your girll to read the stickies at the top of this board - especially "Are you new to the EF Ladies Board - START HERE!" and "TOP THREADS! Must Read!" - excellent links for all sorts of questoins about diet & training.

Generally I like lower reps, higher weights, esp if she's been doign the high rep thing forever. There's a time for that, but if you are looking to make gains, heavier weights w/ good form will help build a solid base.

Cardio - soem people need more cardio than others to get results. But just so you don't end up doing hours and hours of boring cardio, throw in 2-3 20 minHIIT (high intensity interval training) sessions/weeek. This is like - 5 min warm up, 1 min high, 2 min low (recovery), 1 min high, 2min low, repeat several sets and then 5-10 min cool down. There are also some links on this stickies about interval cardio that you should find interesting.

Finally - abs -- personally I LOVE working abs, however its still just another muscle group like bis, tris, chest, etc. No reason to do abs alot. Each muscle group should get a couple days recovery before working it again.

Generally I like to recommend the Body for Life book by Bill Phillips - excellent intro to good training & nutrition programs w/ very usable guidelines - not an annoying & limiting diet. Also if you all like to cook, there's a killer recipe thread on teh top of this board to help make the diet more interesting!

Hope that helps!

[djeclipse]

Hi Sassy69,
Thanks for the quick reply. I don't know if I'll be able to get her on this board, so for now I'll have to relay the message to her.

Diet is a hard thing right now as we don't exactly make our own meals (we both live at home), it is something we need to work on, junk food is my biggest enemy.

I like the HIIT cardio, I will maybe give that a try myself, it is very boring running on the tread mill for 20-30min after a workout.

Thank you for the help, I will search the site and the threads you recommended.