Workout Plan for Beginners

Hey my name is Alan. My girlfriend (17 years old) has asked me for a workout routine/plan. She has played sports, and goes to the gym a couple days (4/5) a week. She has no special goal in the gym besides getting an overall better physique as most girls want.

It’d be great if someone could give me a 5 day workout. My girlfriend is confusing and it’s tough to get solid information out of her so I apologize in advance for the lack of information regarding what she specifically wants to work on in the gym. I think she wants to “tone” her body. Yes, I know a lot of experienced weightlifters/bodybuilders don’t like hearing the word “tone” but you can deal with it for one time.

Thank you, I hope to hear some positive feedback.

What is she doing in the gym now? Does she work with weights or mostly just cardio?

Also, what are her eating habits like? A good diet and supplementation will be a key to her success in the gym… When you hear people say, “abs are made in the kitchen” they aren’t kidding!!

My best advice for a beginner would be to start with full body workouts. Each day pick an upper body push exercise, upper body pull exercise, leg exercise and 1 isolation exercise.

4 sets x 15/12/10/8 reps for EACH exercise (so each day she’s doing 16 sets) and she can do cardio after her weights.

For example:
Day 1
Back squats
shoulder press
chin-ups (assisted)
Rope tricep push down

Day 2
Deadlifts
Close grip bench press
Barbell or dumbbell rows
Dumbbell bicep curls

Day 3
Lunges
Assisted dips
Wide grip pulldowns
Lateral raise

Day 4
Stiff leg deadlifts
Incline dumbbell press
Tbar rows
Cable or machine rear delts

Bron Sapir, thanks for replying and helping out! Right now in the gym this is her procedure: She starts off by running 2-3 miles, then does stair stepper and I just yesterday told her to do sprints either on treadmill or on the turf, and finally she does the bike for 3 miles.

After that she does a few abdominal exercises (decline sit ups/leg raises), then depending on what day and what she does the day before, she does Arm exercises (hammer curls, tricep pushdown, french press I think too, maybe one or two others), or leg work (leg press, deadlifts, and squats).

Probably every day she has some fruits or vegetables, or both. She eats different things for dinner every day (chicken, steak, Chinese, sushi, etc), and breakfast, she has eggs pretty often for breakfast. She has frozen yogurt some nights, other desserts for special occasions… she’s healthy.

[quote]ashawk wrote:
Bron Sapir, thanks for replying and helping out! Right now in the gym this is her procedure: She starts off by running 2-3 miles, then does stair stepper and I just yesterday told her to do sprints either on treadmill or on the turf, and finally she does the bike for 3 miles.

After that she does a few abdominal exercises (decline sit ups/leg raises), then depending on what day and what she does the day before, she does Arm exercises (hammer curls, tricep pushdown, french press I think too, maybe one or two others), or leg work (leg press, deadlifts, and squats).

Probably every day she has some fruits or vegetables, or both. She eats different things for dinner every day (chicken, steak, Chinese, sushi, etc), and breakfast, she has eggs pretty often for breakfast. She has frozen yogurt some nights, other desserts for special occasions… she’s healthy. [/quote]

Get her to start off with the weights as I suggested and then continue with the sprints on the turf preferably or the treadmill if she has to.

Also, she’ll want to make sure she’s eating enough protein throughout the day. A lot of girls tend to eat less because they think it’s better, but this is not necessarily the case. My favorite protein is the MAG-10 from the T-Nation store, it’s a casein hydrolysate. This would be PERFECT for her post workout or any other time in the day, it helps speed recovery from training and makes the body more responsive to protein (plus, it tastes good!) and it’s an easy option for people who have troubles consuming enough protein. She should try to eat about 5-6 small meals a day and make sure to have at least 20g of protein in each. You mentioned that she eats Chinese food, this is full of fat… And a lot more than you think! Everything is fine in moderation but for her goals I’d suggest sticking with cleaner food types.
http://www.T-Nation.com/store/products/MAG-10

Example:
Protein: lean beef, chicken, turkey, white fish, egg whites, tuna, MAG-10
Carbs: rice, oats, potatoes, quinoa, whole wheat pasta, rice noodles
Fat: coconut oil, nut butters, avocado, nut butters, olive oil

Another great idea for meal replacements are Metabolic Drive protein bars… Especially for people who don’t want to be in the kitchen all day.

Hopefully this helped you out a bit… And good luck to her! I hope she does well :slight_smile:

Thank you, you’ve helped a lot. I appreciate it, and so does my girlfriend!

[quote]ashawk wrote:
Thank you, you’ve helped a lot. I appreciate it, and so does my girlfriend![/quote]

You’re welcome, let me know how it goes and if you(or her) have any other questions if be happy to help!