“I want nice abs, can you ask people on that site what I should do?”
Hi, I’ve never dropped around these parts before. I’m looking for some advice on what kind of a program I can set my girlfriend up with.
Her goal is basically fat loss with increased muscle in her arms, shoulders and butt.
Background:
She’s 29yo, 5’5, ~125, and Asian. (I.e., her body processes carbs in a completely different way than mine does.)
Right now she runs 2-5 days a week, for 2-6 miles at a time. She’s been doing this for several years, so I think it’s pretty worthless for anything but calming her mind. (Not that that’s not important.) When I mentioned interval training to her, she seemed interested and willing to try it, so I don’t think it should be too much of a challenge to get her to incorporate it.
In the past, she did pilates for awhile, and I guess she “took some weightlifting class in college”. It doesn’t sound like they actually really learned anything though.
Diet:
Diet-wise, we eat together and shop together. The food choices are good, and nearly everything is cooked from scratch. She’s not afraid of fats, and there’s already plenty of vegetables.
My biggest challenge will be convincing her to eat enough protein. Additionally, she won’t do any dairy unless it’s whipped cream or ice cream… or cheese-its. I think it’s really lactose intolerance, but she just claims “she doesn’t like it”.
An additional consideration, she’s a pediatrician, finishing up the last few months of her residency, so her schedule is fairly inconsistent; with 30 hour shifts are the norm at least once every week or two. Sleep is pretty good most of a time, but there are those days that throw her off.
I saw the Jamie Eason LiveFit program mentioned a few times. I looked into it, but it actually doesn’t seem to be a good fit. It’s too structured for what she can work with with her schedule, and we don’t have access to all the equipment.
Equipment-wise, I have a power rack, olympic barbells, ez bar, olympic dumbbells, dip/pullup belt, and a couple kettlebells. The apartment gym also has an adjustable cable stack, lat pulldown, treadmills, elliptical, and bike.
My thoughts were strength training revolving around:
pushups (she can only do knee pushups right now, so working up from that)
back squats
BB RDL/SLDL
BB overhead press (maybe with the ez bar since it’s lighter)
DB curls
DB kickbacks
lateral raises
lat pulldowns
For sets and reps, my instincts say:
5x5 squats
3x15-18 lat pulldowns
2x15 SLDL
work up to 3x10 pushups before adding weight or moving to bench
3x8-12 on everything else: curls, kickbacks, lateral raises, overhead press
And then do an A/B program, with
A:
5x5 squats
3xAMRAP pushups
3x8-12 curls
3x8-12 kickbacks
B:
5x5 squats
3x8-12 overhead press
3x8-12 lateral raises
3x15-18 lat pulldowns… (or maybe rack pulls?)
2x15 SLDL
And then cardio: 1-2 days a week of her normal 2-6 mile runs, and 2x a week of intervals (10 seconds sprint, 2-5 minutes recovery, 5 sets)
But, basically, I’m iffy on the exercise selection and the programming. I just don’t know a thing about training women.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.