Training Schedule for Women: How Do I Start?

Whether you want to lose weight, have a firm bottom or a flat stomach: a training plan for women helps you to achieve your goals. We help with the implementation.

Training schedule for women: What is your goal?

Even if the basics of a training plan do not differ that much, you should first ask yourself the following questions:

Goals

• Where do I currently stand in terms of sports and what do I want to achieve?
• Do I simply want to lose weight or am I interested in a sporty, firm figure?
• Do I want to gain specific muscles or weight?
• Am I ready to move weight in the gym or do I only want to train cardio, i.e. endurance?

Time

• Do I prefer short, hard sessions or rather a longer training?
• Do I want to train every other day or only 1-2 times a week?
• Can I make it to the gym or do I want to train at home or outdoors?

Important: It is of no use if you set yourself high goals and plan a lot of time, but hardly have a chance to achieve them.

Stay realistic and rather set small milestones, e.g. training at a fixed time every week. It’s important that you stay motivated and don’t give up frustrated because you don’t have a six-pack after two weeks.

Are there differences compared to men?

As a woman, you are known to have lower testosterone levels and higher body fat. Your muscles are therefore not as pronounced and develop less strength than those of men.

It is assumed that you have on average 60 percent of the strength of men. The upper body is somewhat less developed and the lower body somewhat stronger. So when you do an exercise like bench press you take less weight compared to a lower body exercise like squats.

Important: Many women tend to do a lot of repetitions in the gym with minimal weight without overdoing it. You shouldn’t overdo it, of course, but in the end you need to train as hard and as persistently as men to achieve your goals. The fear that you then build up too many muscles is completely unfounded. But you lack the testosterone mentioned above.

Warming up is important

To loosen up your muscles, you should start each workout with five to ten minutes of cardio. You can do this by using a treadmill or cross trainer and running at a moderate pace.

You can also improve your mobility by stretching. For example, a Thera-belt can help you warm up your rotators and reduce the risk of injury.

If you want to burn more calories with endurance training, you can add a longer cardio unit at the end of the workout.

But avoid doing mainly cardio training. Strength training involves a lot more muscles and therefore burns more calories and makes your body firmer.

How often should I train?

If you want to work really hard on yourself and your goal is a firm, well-trained body, you should train your exercises three times a week. More training, on the other hand, is not even necessarily beneficial, as your body also needs time to regenerate. If you train too often, you won’t be able to push yourself to your limits regularly, because otherwise the wear and tear and sore muscles will counteract.

If you only manage to train once or twice a week, your training plan is always the same. You do a classic whole body workout with basic exercises like cross lifting, bench press and knee bends. You can find a complete example training plan below.

With three days of training, you have the choice of either doing the whole body plan or splitting your training into two complementary units – Training A and Training B.

Due to the need for regeneration, you do not train on two consecutive days, but always leave at least one day off. With only two training sessions a week, you always take three to four days off a week.

What are the best exercises?

Fitness is not the rocket science that many people want to make of it! Even as a beginner, it makes sense to integrate the elementary basic exercises – squats, bench presses and cross lifts – as a foundation into your training. These exercises are so-called compound exercises and already cover almost all relevant muscle areas.

If you primarily want to lose weight “only”, then a combination of cardio units and weight training is a good idea.

For training at home, you focus on exercises with your own weight (bodyweight):

• Push-ups
• Crunches
• Squats
• Failure steps
• Jumping jack
• Exercises with dumbbells
• Optional: dips, pull-ups

This could be your training plan!

It is important that you first start with the hard basic exercises and then move on to isolation exercises such as triceps pushing or side lifting. There you can also vary more freely and take up crunches or lunges, for example.

You ask yourself: “How many reps should I do? Adjust your weights so that you can do 8-15 repetitions in 3 sets for each exercise. In this area you are in hypertrophy (muscle building).

Your training should not last much longer than an hour. Try to keep the breaks short and do a short, crisp workout.

Full body training: (1-2 trainings per week)

• Squats
• Cross lifting
• Bench press
• Rowing
• Lat pulling
• Triceps Pushing
• Page lift
• Sit-Ups

Double split: (3-4 workouts per week)

Training A (upper body)

• Bench press
• Rowing
• Shoulder Press
• Page lift
• Triceps Pushing

Training B (lower body)

• Squats
• Cross lifting
• Leg extension
• Leg curl
• Exercises for the stomach

Important tips!

• Training diary: With a training plan you know exactly which exercises you do how often. Write down every week how much weight you can currently move and try to increase your weight by a few percent after a while!
• Trainer: If you have never trained before, you should always go over your exercises with a trainer or an experienced fitness athlete. That way, you’ll be able to spot mistakes right away and make faster progress.
• Training partner: Some people prefer to train alone. But maybe you need a training partner who motivates and supports you? Together you find it easier to go to training? Important: A training partner is not an outlet for casual conversation. You can do that after training.
• Adjust your training plan: Don’t make the mistake of changing your training schedule every few weeks. If you can’t cope with an exercise at all, you can of course see what alternatives there are. But stay on the ball for at least three to four months and then see how you can modify your training plan, also to set new stimuli.
• Nutrition plan: Your diet is at least as important to your goals. With a diet plan, you can control how many calories you consume and when you eat every day.