Weight Training For Women: The Ultimate Guide

Weight lifting is a type of training that many women tend to shy away from. For instance, you may have seen female bodybuilders who are excessively muscular and somewhat resemble men in their physique.
Most women who look “bulky” are often using hormone supplements to boost their testosterone levels. Otherwise, it is highly unlikely that women will get muscular and bulky from simply lifting weights. In fact, I’ve known many women who have drastically increased their strength through weight training without increasing their size.

Here’s the truth: you will NOT get too “bulky.” Men generate approximately 10x more testosterone than females which stimulates muscle growth. Even so, it can take males years of training and proper dieting before they significantly build muscle mass.
In fact, intense weight training is more effective than long, drawn out cardio at burning calories. 
With that being said, this doesn’t mean that women can’t gain muscle at all. Instead, this means that women can achieve a more toned and lean appearance with the proper weight training.

Weight Training For Women To Add Curves

Contrary to popular belief, the best way for a woman to build muscle and tone up is to train with heavy weights. Rather than performing countless repetitions and hardly breaking a sweat with lighter weights, lifting heavy allows for the ideal stimulation of muscle growth in the right places.
These are 6 exercises that will effectively help women build that lean, fit and sexy physique.

Bench Press 

To bust the myths, bench pressing for women will not bulk up your chest, shrink/enlarge your breasts or make you look like a man. Unless you are lifting excessive amounts of weight (over 200 lbs), you don’t have to worry about looking like a man.
If you omit chest training completely but continue to train your other muscles, you may develop muscular imbalances that could result in bad posture, a bony looking chest, or inability to do certain exercises.
Since most women have never bench pressed in their life, I would recommend starting with only the bar to apply proper technique and avoid injury. If the bar is too heavy, you can start with basic push-ups to gradually strengthen your chest and eventually work up to the bench press.

Squats

Squats are the ultimate compound exercise for any woman (and man) because it incorporates almost every important muscle group in the body. Squats are essential for enhancing your butt and toning your legs. In addition to targeting the hamstrings and quads, squats also work your abs and calves.

Deadlifts

Deadlifts are another great full body exercise for women. They primarily target the lower back, legs, abdominal muscles, and arms. In my previous article, I mentioned that deadlifts may make your thighs bigger. However, this is only true if you’re performing many reps, for example in the 8-12+range.

Lunges

Next to squats, lunges are one of the best exercises that develop your quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes. Lunges are ideal for toning the lower half of your body to give you the curves you want.
For more of a challenge, hold a dumbbell in either hand and perform the lunge with one foot on a Bosu ball to work your stabilizer muscles. You can gradually increase the resistance as your legs get stronger.

Pull Ups

This is a tough one. Physiologically, women have less upper body strength than men, which makes this exercise very difficult. In fact, less than 1% of all females can do a proper pull-up.
Pull-ups focus on developing the muscles of your back, biceps, shoulders, and forearms. If you find yourself struggling, try using the assisted pull-up machine to gradually build muscle and eventually transition into doing unassisted pull-ups.

Dips

Dips mainly focus on working the triceps, but also emphasize your chest and shoulders if done properly. This exercise is great for developing upper body strength and firming up your arms.
Weights are not required to perform dips. Simply grab a flat bench and elevate your body by holding yourself up with your arms while keeping your feet on the ground in front of you. Lower your body down by bending your elbow to a 90 degree angle, then push yourself back up.
Like pull-ups, you can use the assisted dip machine if you can’t support your own body weight yet. To increase the difficulty, elevate your feet on an exercise ball as shown below.

Weight Training Workout Sets for Women

• Aim for 3 sets of 6-8 reps per exercise
• Lifting in the 6-8 rep range will optimize strength gains and maximize toning
• Do these exercises 3 times per week alternating between Workout A and B

So you’d want to do at least 6 reps but not exceed more than 8 reps per set. If you can’t fully complete 6 reps, lower the weight. If 8 reps is too easy, increase the weight.
Workout A (3 sets of 6-8 reps)

• Bench Press
• Dips
• Pull Ups

Workout B (3 sets of 6-8 reps)

• Squats
• Deadlift
• Lunges

Remember that women cannot get bulky from weight training, but instead build toned muscle and burn fat. Performing these exercises at the gym will optimize your physique. Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself by lifting heavier weights!

Visual Impact for Women

If you’re a woman looking for a complete weight training, cardio and nutrition guide, I recommend taking a look at Visual Impact for Women. I bought this program for my sister and I can honestly say that in terms of a comprehensive workout guide, there is nothing comparable.
With a 229 page manual describing each exercise and printable workout charts for every routine, I was blown away. There is nothing else that can compare when it comes to helping women get that slim, sexy physique - without getting bulky!
In fact, I incorporated a few of the weight training concepts from Visual Impact into this article. This is a program for women who want to look fit while still looking amazing in a dress and 100% feminine.