How to create a training program: instructions for girls

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

This approach is suggested by Frederic Delavier, author of The Anatomy of Strength Training for Women.

Looking to round your buttocks, improve the shape of your lower legs, or build your pectoral muscles? Do you dream of making your stomach flat and your arms elastic? The secret to achieving these goals is in a properly designed training program. You can rest assured that regular training in a well-designed program will lead you to progress.

Step # 1: Define Your Goals

To create a perfectly tailored personal training program, you must start by setting your goals. Avoid vague statements like "I want to get back in shape" or "I want to improve my figure." Try to be as precise as possible.

For example, over the course of a month, you can set the following goals for yourself:

• lose weight by 5 kilograms;
• increase strength by 10%;
• start again wearing clothes that have become small for you.

Step # 2. Decide how many days per week you will train

Exercising at least once a week is better than not exercising at all. If you are a beginner or have little free time, then one session per week is already a good start, provided that you exercise regularly.

Three strength training sessions per week are ideal.

In this case, you can devote more time to each area of the body. If you are a beginner, then three short workouts per week are preferable to you than two long workouts.

Keep in mind that overtraining slows down progress more than not enough exercise. Only high-level athletes can afford to train more than four times a week. Muscle strength only increases if you rest between workouts. Therefore, if you want to make quick progress, rest is crucial. Exercising too often leaves no time for rest.

Step # 3. Select training days

Try to spread your workouts as far away as possible (for example, Monday and Thursday, Tuesday and Friday). You must balance exercise and rest.

But if you can only train on weekends, do so. Classes on Saturdays and Sundays are not ideal, but you will have plenty of time to relax during the week.

Step # 4. Choose a workout time

Scientific research suggests that muscle strength and endurance change throughout the day. Most women are stronger during the day and weaker in the morning. This is totally normal. These changes are due to an increase in body temperature during the day.

In the morning, body temperature is slightly lower than the rest of the time, as it rises slightly after eating. This slight increase in body temperature is associated with an increase in the efficiency of the central nervous system. Thus, muscle strength increases with body temperature.

You should not constantly change your training time, as this will prevent your body from adapting in time.

Ideally, you should train at peak muscle strength, that is (for most women) during the day. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. If you only have the opportunity to exercise in the morning, the body will gradually get used to this schedule and muscle strength will begin to increase at this time.

Step # 5. Determine which areas of the body you will work on in each workout

This step helps you structure your workout around your athletic or aesthetic goals.

Working out all muscle groups in one workout can be difficult. For this reason, we divide the body into six main areas:

1. Legs (posterior thigh muscle group, calf muscles, gluteus and quadriceps muscles).
2. Abdominal Press.
3. Back.
4. Breast.
5. Arms (biceps and triceps).
6. Shoulders.

Exercise each area of your body at different times. The frequency of training for each muscle group should be determined by the specific tasks.

To reduce body weight, maintain health, and prepare for your sport, you can start by training each muscle group once a week. As you have more free time, you can increase your training frequency.

Step # 6. Determine the number of exercises for one area of the body

If you've never done strength training before, it's wise to choose one for each muscle group. It is best to focus on an exercise that will most effectively work out a specific muscle group. After a couple of weeks, you can add one more exercise for the main muscle groups.

After a few months of training, you can introduce additional exercises, but only for those areas of the body that you want to change significantly.

Step # 7. Choose the number of sets for each muscle group

After completing the exercise, you must decide how many times you should repeat it (that is, how many sets of this exercise to perform). The number of approaches is of great importance, since it is one of the main quantities that determine the duration of a workout.

We all strive to complete as many sets as possible, especially when we start training, in order to accelerate progress. Unfortunately, the human body does not encourage this desire. Our muscles can only receive a limited amount of stress, after which they are overworked.

Exceed the optimal load and the muscles will not be able to recover.

If you're feeling tired and looking for an excuse to skip your next workout, this is a sure sign that you've done too many sets.

Before each workout, you must understand what level of energy you have. If you feel energized, you can do more sets than usual. If you feel tired, reduce the number of approaches.

Step number 8. Decide: simulators or free weights

Beginners are usually advised to work out on simulators: exercises on them are easier to master, since the simulators themselves direct your movements. Many studies show that beginners can use machines to build strength faster than free weights.

This happens because training on simulators requires very little development of motor skills, since movements are completely guided by the simulator, and this excludes violation of the trajectory of movement and loss of balance.

Women who begin strength training progress faster when exercising on machines rather than free weights.

As you progress, you can move on to more challenging free weights. By this time, they will seem easier to you, since the muscles are already used to training.

Step 9. Set the duration of the workout

How much time can you devote to each workout? This question is very important not only for making rapid progress, but also in order to adhere to our program. It is better to train a little than not to train at all.

The length of each workout does not have to be fixed. If you have more time on one day, do more sets and more exercises, work more areas of the body. If you have less time on the other day, focus on the areas most relevant to achieving your goals, or shorten the rest time between sets.

If you don't have time to go to the gym, do exercises that can be done at home with minimal or no sports equipment. In other words, don't skip classes.

Step # 10: Learn to Perform Each Repetition at the Correct Speed

The secret to doing the exercises at the correct speed is to control the movement of the weights and not let the weights control your movements.

Step # 11. Determine the amount of rest between sets

Consider rest between sets as a tool to help you reach your goals more quickly. If you want to create muscle relief, you need to rest for a long time to recover most of the strength spent on the previous set. However, you should not rest for too long, so as not to reduce the overall intensity of your training, despite working with a lot of weight.

Step # 12. Choose exercises that suit your physique

If an exercise forces you to assume an uncomfortable position, exclude it from your program.

When starting strength exercises, limit yourself to those that you can do safely, based on your physique.

As a rule of thumb, the taller you are, the more dangerous basic strength exercises with free weights (dumbbells and barbells) will be for you, since they will have to be performed with a large range of motion. The same goes for squats, push-ups, and bench presses.

Step number 13. Change the program in time

If you are new to strength training, we recommend sticking to one workout program for as long as it allows you to progress.

Once you are comfortable with strength training, you can change the exercises as often as you like, as this will help you learn the exercises faster.

Step 14. Maintain the achieved results

Maintaining muscle mass is easier than building it. However, research shows that the amount of training required to maintain performance changes with age.

People in their 20s and 35s who have previously exercised three times a week can maintain their results with one workout per week. Unfortunately, older adults who do the same exercise must exercise twice a week to maintain muscle strength.

The book "" by Frederic Delavier and Michael Gandil contains exercises, training programs and recommendations that take into account the peculiarities of the female anatomy and are optimal for strength training of the fair sex.

Step-by-step instructions, accompanied by anatomical illustrations and photographs, will help you understand how to make each exercise as effective as possible so that you can target specific muscles and problem areas in a targeted manner.