My fiance has recently started lifting with me. She has an athletic built albeit very tiny and thin (5'4" - 117 lbs) w/ six pack abs. She says the word that sounds like nails on a chalkboard - I want toned. She of course wants some more definition, so I prescriped her an HIT routine split w/frequency of 1-2x/week. How does that sound?
Program for Fiance
- Thread starter colby2152
- Start date
I
imported_fearfactory
Guest
<div>
(colby2152 @ Oct. 21 2007,14:10)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">How does that sound?</div>
umm....sounds like you're engaged to a man? lol, j/k Colby.
fi·an·cé
–noun- a man engaged to be married; a man to whom a woman is engaged.
if your fiancee is only weighing in @ 117, she probably doesn't have much body fat. if she's looking to tone, it sounds like she's looking to add muscle definition rather than cut?
if so, anything she does is going to increase her muscularity (newbie response and all that). your HIT plan would probably work great! Heck, a split by bodypart routine would work great too. I've been trying to get my wife started on an HST routine... but she's afraid she'll end up looking like Arnold, lol!
(colby2152 @ Oct. 21 2007,14:10)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">How does that sound?</div>
umm....sounds like you're engaged to a man? lol, j/k Colby.
fi·an·cé
–noun- a man engaged to be married; a man to whom a woman is engaged.
if your fiancee is only weighing in @ 117, she probably doesn't have much body fat. if she's looking to tone, it sounds like she's looking to add muscle definition rather than cut?
if so, anything she does is going to increase her muscularity (newbie response and all that). your HIT plan would probably work great! Heck, a split by bodypart routine would work great too. I've been trying to get my wife started on an HST routine... but she's afraid she'll end up looking like Arnold, lol!
I convinced her to do deadlifts. HST is definitely not the way to go for her. She'll respond to any type of lifting at this point. She did it back in high school, but that was four years ago. This is the routine I have outlined for her - it's short because we don't have the time right now, but I'll probably add a 3rd exercise to each split soon.
A: Bench Press, One-Armed Bent Over Row
B: Deadlift, Tricep Extension
It's funny how a simple routine like that hits pretty much everything.
A: Bench Press, One-Armed Bent Over Row
B: Deadlift, Tricep Extension
It's funny how a simple routine like that hits pretty much everything.
I
imported_fearfactory
Guest
I think you're exactly right about that. My wife is far too...whatever to try deadlifts. She'd love the results if she did.
I think I'd have better luck selling her on squats.
I think I'd have better luck selling her on squats.
TunnelRat
Active Member
<div>
(colby2152 @ Oct. 21 2007,18:51)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I convinced her to do deadlifts.</div>
Well done! Deadlifts and squats are much more effective than curling little pink dumbbells...
Be sure to have her take a look at Mistress Krysta's Stumptious site. That's where I send my daughters when they ask me such things. Often young women can take body building advice more easily from a woman than from a man.
(colby2152 @ Oct. 21 2007,18:51)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I convinced her to do deadlifts.</div>
Well done! Deadlifts and squats are much more effective than curling little pink dumbbells...
Be sure to have her take a look at Mistress Krysta's Stumptious site. That's where I send my daughters when they ask me such things. Often young women can take body building advice more easily from a woman than from a man.
Why would HST be too much?
My wife doesn't work out with me anymore, due to her job taking too much time, but when she did, she followed routines quite similar to mine, albeit with less weight. She is a big fan of the deadlift and the overhead press, but also did pendlay rows (with far better form than most men I've seen online,) bench press, pulldowns, hypers, close grip bench press, pullovers and had started learning the clean and press before she had to stop.
I had her doing an A/B setup, started out with reasonably light weights to work on form, and just added 5 lbs or so now and then. She didn't follow a specific sets/reps scheme, I just decided with each lift how many sets and reps to have her do.
Her strength went up rather quickly. If I recall correctly, before she quit, she hit a 205 lb deadlift, 115 lb bench and row, was adding 35 lbs for hypers and overhead pressed somewhere around 85-95 lbs. Those were all for 5 reps, I believe. The deadlift might have been a single or double though.
She could probably have deadlifted and benched more, but strangely, it seemed like the only exercise where she wasn't afraid to push herself was overhead pressing.
The routine wasn't the typical hst routine, but it did follow the principles at least, and that seemed to work real well for her. I'd highly recommend it for a female trying to get serious about lifting.
My wife doesn't work out with me anymore, due to her job taking too much time, but when she did, she followed routines quite similar to mine, albeit with less weight. She is a big fan of the deadlift and the overhead press, but also did pendlay rows (with far better form than most men I've seen online,) bench press, pulldowns, hypers, close grip bench press, pullovers and had started learning the clean and press before she had to stop.
I had her doing an A/B setup, started out with reasonably light weights to work on form, and just added 5 lbs or so now and then. She didn't follow a specific sets/reps scheme, I just decided with each lift how many sets and reps to have her do.
Her strength went up rather quickly. If I recall correctly, before she quit, she hit a 205 lb deadlift, 115 lb bench and row, was adding 35 lbs for hypers and overhead pressed somewhere around 85-95 lbs. Those were all for 5 reps, I believe. The deadlift might have been a single or double though.
She could probably have deadlifted and benched more, but strangely, it seemed like the only exercise where she wasn't afraid to push herself was overhead pressing.
The routine wasn't the typical hst routine, but it did follow the principles at least, and that seemed to work real well for her. I'd highly recommend it for a female trying to get serious about lifting.
Tot,
I believe HST would warrant too much muscle gain for her likes. Her body responds well to any type of physical conditioning, so an HIT split seems to suit her well. However, it isn't like she is eating more while working out. Diet is the key to growth, and she has a high metabolism which is good for her in this case. I may consider an HST routine in the future. We'll see how this goes.
Thanks for the responses everyone!
-Colby
I believe HST would warrant too much muscle gain for her likes. Her body responds well to any type of physical conditioning, so an HIT split seems to suit her well. However, it isn't like she is eating more while working out. Diet is the key to growth, and she has a high metabolism which is good for her in this case. I may consider an HST routine in the future. We'll see how this goes.
Thanks for the responses everyone!
-Colby
I wouldn't worry about the muscle gain too much. And if she does gain muscle, but doesn't increase her weight much, wouldn't that only improve her appearance and health? Natural females usually look good when they put on muscle, it only looks nasty when they are using assistance.
One thing I'd highly recommend is something for erectors for any woman. I guess it would depend on some factors, but back strength, especially lower back strength, can be very important for women. I don't know what your girl's bodytype is, but using my wife as an example... she has enormous breasts, which resulted in all kinds of discomfort for her. After I had her doing hypers, rows and deadlifts for a while, her back has gotten so strong that she doesn't have any problems anymore.
They should be teaching this stuff to the girls in health class when they are in high school, because it seems like a widespread problem. If women knew how important lower back strength is, maybe it wouldn't be such a problem for them.
So... might be something worth looking into with her program. I don't know if you have any way to do hypers, but that's only one option. Deadlifts will help a lot on their own anyway.
One thing I'd highly recommend is something for erectors for any woman. I guess it would depend on some factors, but back strength, especially lower back strength, can be very important for women. I don't know what your girl's bodytype is, but using my wife as an example... she has enormous breasts, which resulted in all kinds of discomfort for her. After I had her doing hypers, rows and deadlifts for a while, her back has gotten so strong that she doesn't have any problems anymore.
They should be teaching this stuff to the girls in health class when they are in high school, because it seems like a widespread problem. If women knew how important lower back strength is, maybe it wouldn't be such a problem for them.
So... might be something worth looking into with her program. I don't know if you have any way to do hypers, but that's only one option. Deadlifts will help a lot on their own anyway.
I don't see why she can't use HST.
Diet will obviously restrict weight gain. It can only be a mucle gain with fat loss if the diet stays the same.
Besides, if she finds she gains as much as she wants, then she could just stop her HST cycle then and then just do maintance.
She should try and get to her goal as fast as possible, so why do an inferior lifting routine to get their slower?
Diet will obviously restrict weight gain. It can only be a mucle gain with fat loss if the diet stays the same.
Besides, if she finds she gains as much as she wants, then she could just stop her HST cycle then and then just do maintance.
She should try and get to her goal as fast as possible, so why do an inferior lifting routine to get their slower?