Mom's Fitness Tips for Women

So you decided to start incorporating weight training into your exercise regimen to firm up those muscles and rebuild your physique, but where do you start? Simply going into the weight room and throwing some dumbbells around will give you less than stellar results. Here is how to build a beginning weight lifting program.

Begin with an all-body routine. This will introduce your muscles to the stimuli of weights and build up your neuron activity. Choose one to two exercises per body part and do 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps. Do this workout 3 times a week, with at least one day of rest between workouts. Here is an example:

Chest – Bench Press

Shoulders – Shoulder Press, Lateral Raises

Biceps – Curls

Triceps – Pressdowns

Back – Lat Pulldowns, Bent Over Rows

Legs – Squats, Lunges

Hamstrings – Curls

Calves – Calf Raises

Abs – Crunches, Reverse Crunches

Do this routine for 4-6 weeks, you should notice yourself getting progressively stronger. At the end of the six weeks, graduate to an upper/lower body split routine.

An upper/lower body split means you work your upper body one day, then lower body the next. You can also perform more exercises per body part in the same amount of time. Do each upper body and lower body workout twice a week. Here is an example:

Upper Body

Chest – Bench Press, Cable Flye

Shoulders – Shoulder Press, Lateral Raises

Back – Lat Pulldowns, Seated Cable Row

Triceps – Skullcrushers, Pressdowns

Biceps – Curls, Concentration Curls

Lower Body

Quads – Squats, Lunges, Leg Extension

Hamstrings – Curls, Romanian Deadlift

Calves – Calf Raise, Seated Calf Raise

Abs – Crunches, Reverse Crunches, Oblique Crunches

So for example, you can do upper body on Monday and Thursday and lower body on Tuesday and Friday.