GF asks me to help her put together workout routine

[Synpax]

GF asks me to help her put together workout routine - need feedback

She knows I work out a lot and I really haven't tried to push her to anything at all, but she asked me to come help her. I'm a little leary because she seems to think she's 'fat' and I think she's perfect. But everyone can use more muscle and I do like to have 'projects' so this might be fun. I hope that she will forget about the weight loss thing and focus more on muscle gaining in time.

She's worked out in a gym before but I think the trainer she was using was a tool and he mostly just confused her and kept her on machines.

We talked about diet already and what she needs and what she wants to avoid to serve her goals.

The routine I have in mind is a three day weekly split (M-W-F) for lifting and letting her do early morning cardio/abs on other days as she desires. The three day split is:
- Chest/Triceps
- Back/Biceps
- Delts/Legs

We are going to start the first 3-4 weeks with 2x15 set/reps and follow that with 3-4 weeks of 3x15 for most exercises, and then drop the rep count to 8 and boost the weight. After she's done that for about 6 months we can add more advanced exercises (squats/deads) and I can put her on the Needsize 5x5 routine.

I need to be able to get her in and our in about an hour, so I think 6 exercises with 1 minute rest between each (12 sets times one minute rest plus one minute to do the 15 reps and add to that transiotion time of 3 minutes for each of the six exercises, and you get 42, plus 5 minutes of warmup and 5 of cool down, 52 minutes.)

Monday -
Chest:
- Flat Bench
- Incline DB flies
- Decline DB flies
Triceps:
- Assisted Dip Machine
- Rope pulldown (extend at the waist)
- Lying DB Extensions

Wednesday -
Back:
- Assisted Pullups (underhanded, medium grip)
- Cable Rows
- Back extensions /w DB
- Shrugs
Bi:
- EZ bar curls - pinky over thumb
- hammer curls

Friday -
Legs:
- Hack squats
- Leg Extensions
- Leg Abduction/adduction
- Calf raises
Delts:
- DB Shoulder press (standing)
- DB Lateral raises (three variations - starting in front, at sides, and behind)

Any thoughts/suggestions? Thanks.

 

[Daisy_Girl]

In all honesty, I have better luck with plain old lunges than leg machines.

Lunges can be weighted or unweighted. You can do them walking, stationary, front leg elevated, back leg elevated (like a 1 legged squat).

Done correctly, lunges eliminate the need for additional isolation movements (Leg Ext, ab/ad-duction).

 

[super_rice]

when my girlfriend came to me similar to the way you describe with yours, i decided to help, however, when i was laying down a plan, i realized she had no fundation of athletic ability, let alone strength.

so for the last 4 months, she's been doing pushups, squats, crunches, hyper extensions, burpies, bridges, dips, step ups, everything body weight.

it may be beneficial to you as well, to consider testing to see where she is physically, before jumping into weights

 

[Synpax]

"You must spread some Karma around before giving it to Daisy_Girl again."

Thanks folks. She does have some basis in strength training in the past.

For better or worse, I did one thing I thought was small last night at the end of a very good evening that she didn't think was a small thing at all and I think she is going to get rid of me now, so this is moot.

 

[alycat]

What ya do?
how long have you two been together?
do you Love her?


ALyCat :




For better or worse, I did one thing I thought was small last night at the end of a very good evening that she didn't think was a small thing at all and I think she is going to get rid of me now, so this is moot.[/QUOTE]

 

[wnt2bBeast]

squats and deads from the beginning..they do not have to be heavy teach her good form on those..

i think its too much volume for a newb..i would put chest/delts/tris in one workout..one work set is all that i needed for her at this time..

aslo she may not want to add thickness to her frame which if you have her follow a real 5x5 with heavy weights will happen..nothing worng with a female with muscle and thats fer her to decide if thats the kinda look she wants to eventually have

 

[Sub-Zero]

"You must spread some Karma around before giving it to Daisy_Girl again."

Thanks folks. She does have some basis in strength training in the past.

For better or worse, I did one thing I thought was small last night at the end of a very good evening that she didn't think was a small thing at all and I think she is going to get rid of me now, so this is moot.

so much for the year plan...

give us details!

 

[Synpax]

I called her today and she said it was ok and that she was being overly sensitive. And then she asked me if we could go to the gym today, so I have to see her in an hour.

Sorry to not share too many details. But essentially she was telling me something I about someone I wasn't sure I was comfortable hearing, and I hand signaled to her that I didn't really want to hear any more, and she started crying and said I made her feel stupid. I think she was just really tired and had too much to drink.

I think depending on how well developed she is now we can put in the squats and deads. I really want her to do those movements, but am weary of 'bottlenecks' - IE - her back strength for the squats. I have a bottleneck of my own - I use straps for heavy deads - but that isn't the kind of thing that can result in an injury.

The point is, I think she can work her legs harder than her back would let her work her legs doing squats right now.

I will add lunges to legs and drop the hack squats, and add some light squats, maybe with dumbells, and drop the calf raises. - good advice folks.

Right now this is just induction - get the muscles use to moving again.

 

[Daisy_Girl]

Women are stronger in their LB naturally. We have naturally lowerer sense of garvity and wider hips. She will probably make quick progrss in a squat and dead. Make sure she has the core strength to hold up the weight. Even with plain lunges, she needs core strength to maintain balance and control. It also helps maximize the movement. Doing lower back work and ab work is necessary!

 

[Synpax]

Hiya,

The routine we set up was:
Chest/Tri day -
Flat bench
Inc Flies
Dec flies
Assisted Dips
Lying DB Tri Extensions
Rope Pulldown

Back/Bi day:
Assisted Pullups (narrow underhand grip)
Back extensions (will go to deads after the six weeks of induction)
lat pulldown (Wide overhand grip)
Cable Rows
EZ bar curls
DB hammer Curls

Leg/Delt Day:
Squats
Leg Ext.
Lunges
Standing DB Shoulder Press
DB Lat Raises

This is an old Gold's gym and the squat setup is really lame. It's hard to get the bolts in and out - I hope she can get them when they are out of place. My gym has a really easy, modern power cage that you can slide the bars out of and pegs out of easily.

They also don't have any of the plate mates (1 and 1/4 LBS magnets)

We are going to do the above 2x15 for three weeks, then 3x15, then 3x8 when we are going to go with a moderate weight progression (if no failure at X weight for two sessions in a row, it gets the smallest increment).

She will also be doing abs on the off days when she does cardio - ball crunches.

Her first bench today was settled at 25 lbs (a special bar, not the regular one). She tried a few with the 45 but had trouble with them after 5 or so. She will probably go with the 35 next time.

Her first squats were with just the bar, and her form was perfect. Then we added 10 lbs and she said it was a challenge but felt alright - still with perfect form - just slightly beyond parallel.

Thanks all.

 

[Daisy_Girl]

sounds good

 

[Synpax]

Thank you.

BTW - one error - should be leg curls, not leg extensions. I meant to get in a hamstring targeting exercise to go with the squats and lunges.

 

[Madcow2]

For simplicity, I would just limit her to a few exercises performed 3x per week.

Have her bench, squat, row, pulldown (I'm assuming she can't chin or pullup), lunge, and throw in something for her arms if you choose which I wouldn't because they'll get more than enough work and women who aren't into weight training don't like to feel their arms pumped with blood (they don't like having big arms). Throw in some light ab work and hypers for conditioning the core.

Maybe she wants some extra variety but all that assistance work doesn't do a thing to build a foundation and actually will serve to slow down progress by taking emphasis away from the primary exercises and eating into recuperative capacity.

At her stage, she can train the full body 3x per week. 3 day split stuff is a bodybuilder thing and IMO it's garbage except in a very few unique cases (which are limited to advanced competitors in the comp prep phase - and this could still be argued against effectively as the case is still weak). The most knowledgable coaches and best athletes in the world, natural and drugged, don't arrange programs like that and neither should anyone else. But regardless, new trainees benefit a great deal by training the whole body at once. Keep the intensity and volume each day reasonable and she will progress quickly.

The only negative will be if she wants to train with you and your programs have little commonality.