Fat loss help

J

JMora88

New Member
I've been working with HST for the past 8 weeks and I ahve seen tremendous results myself.

Now, my girlfriend wants to join the gym. She wants to be on a 3 day routine as well and I thought to myself HST might be perfect for her. She wants to lose body fat but get that tone look that so many fitness models have (and that so many women want)

My question is, do I do HST as it is outlined? Do we do progressive load for her working up to 15 rep max or do I keep her at a consistent weight for 2 weeks doing 15 reps then the 10s and 5s?

The workout needs to be as simple as possible. She is at 1200 calories a day right now but doing no workout.
 
Always use progressive load. Always.

Also, you may want to consider 20's, 15's and 10's for her. As for exercises, keep to the basic compound lifts. She may have trouble with dips and chins so change to an assisted apparatus or just bench and front lat pull downs or cable rows. Machines might be better at first so that she gains a bit of strength and does not have to worry so much about form to prevent injuries.

As far as her caloric intake is concerned, I would concentrate on what she is eating as opposed to an arbitrary calorie number at this point.
 
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Unless she's a naturally athletic woman (not many seem to be) she will prefer the safety and comfort of machines and weight selectors. If she wants to learn to squat and clean then great; but, otherwise, just let her do movements she prefers and then she'll be much more likely to stick with the plan. Not much point in her doing 5s at this stage—although machines make this an easier option—unless she really wants to get strong as well. If she hasn't trained before, working up to a heavy set of 10 reps will be perfectly adequate for the results she wants. Some people dislike sets with as high as 20 reps, but the crossfit women seem to manage it so maybe your g/f will too. Give it a try.
The fastest way to lose bodyweight is to eat less. Adding in training will ensure that she loses mainly fat and not muscle as well. In an untrained individual, it is much easier to lose fat and maintain (or even gain!) muscle when training is introduced.
 
To go along with the above I work out with my wife and some of my friends and their wives. I think particularly for women the squat and deadlift are the most important lifts. However, I found that most of the girls wen they first started could not squat with the bar with reasonable form for 15 reps. To compensate I think you can start at body weight squats and then just add a kettle bell/dumbbell (hold it against your chest, essentially a front squat) for progression and still get good results. At about 35-40lbs the weight becomes too heavy but they generally have the strength to move to actual squats at that point. I also found that slowing the progression (same weight for two sessions) was a better idea too because in my experience the girls overall weren't used to pushing themselves at maximum exertion so they fall out of form quickly as the weight increases even if the general strength exists.

That being said, she could squat and deadlift 3 times a week doing 20,15,10 with progressive loads and a little cardio to finish each session and get some great gains/progress (my wife definitely has but she likes to bench too). If you can get an upper body exercise in there too I would suggest assisted pullups if you have one of those machines.
 
Thanks for the great advice guys. Friday will mark the end of the first two weeks for her.

When you guys mention gains, that makes me nervous though because she already has a bigger bone structure to begin with. We do not want to see the type of gains most of us like to speak of.

she is eating between 1200-1500 cals a day, closer to 1200 most days so I don't think she will see the gains but hopefully the fat loss is happening.

We will see if four more weeks what her progress has been like
 
She can't make the gains you seem to be concerned about unless she has (or supplements with) an unnaturally lot of testosterone.
 
Like O&G said, even for men in their prime doing natural gains, it takes a lot of hard work and years to build noticeable amounts of muscle.
That being said, the first few months of starting a routine, your muscles will start to look more fuller and defined...
Beyond that, its all up hill!
 
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