Quote:
|
Originally Posted by kgirl
How many times a week should women train each muscle group when they're trying to lean out (lose body fat). I've seen some work each muscle group once a week and others twice. Will working them twice a week give faster results or is it a waist of time?
Thanks  |
I would post this on the regular board. The odds are higher that someone reading there will know of some opinions on the matter.
There are differences between the way a woman's muscle responds to the way a man's muscle responds. The only aspect to this that I have read is that a woman should do 1-2 more reps than a man (for those who recommend low reps heavy lifting for a woman) or that women should do higher rep approaches (like 8-12 or 12-15). There are also schools of thought that women should do a generally high rep approach -- though that is becoming more disfavored. However a justification for the extreme high rep is that it doesn't give the "hard muscle" look that lifting heavy and fewer reps do. The thought was that this "softer" look might be preferred by women, but that view is becoming disfavored now. But see the reference to Body Pump, etc. below.
See
here recommending heavy, low reps for women, just like the men but with one or two more reps. The author of the article is not John Berardi (a well known and well respected fitness expert) but Joe Marion, another fitness expert as stated at the end of the article. The article was originally puplished in a John Berardi journal and the on-line journal republished with improper attribution.
That article recommends a 5 day cycle. 4 days, each one exercising different body parts and then 1 day off. (I. e., exercising each body part 1x per cycle.) My impression is that most recomendations are to exercise each body part 1x per cycle. The only difference is how long the cycle is : a 3 day cycle (2 on 1 off), a 4 day cycle (3 on 1 off) or a 5 day cycle (4 on 1 off).
The difference between the cycles is how many body parts are exercised each day, which determines how long your work out session is. Obviously your workout session on a given day depends on how many body parts you work out on that day.
But every exercise routine I have read that is recommended by "experts" is still to work out each body part 1 x per cycle.
But if you are doing a 3 day cycle (i.e., half the body 1 day, the other half the 2nd day, rest the 3rd day) you will go through 2 cycles per week (actually a little more as the 3rd cycle will start on the 7th day the first week and then it continues from there.) Longer cycles will sometimes end up having you work out some body parts twice a week (e.g., 5 day cycle starts again on the 6th day of the week the first week you do it, so the body parts exercised on the 1st 2 days of the cycle will be exercised twice that week, the following week it will be the body parts exercised the last 2 days, and so forth.) SO the frequency per week is irrelevant, it is merely coincidence depending on the length of the cycle.
I have not read of any debate as to what length cycle is best (Probably there is a debate from "it doesn't matter" to "5 day cylces are best.") And I don't recall reading that any length cycle is better for women compared with men. But probably there are differences of opinion.
So I would post this query on the weight-lifting forum and get the debates started.
There is also the approach of Body Pump and other BTS programs such as Body Combat, which are classes led by a trainer, which are very high frequecy reps at different speeds and different ranges throughout the workout and which attempt to work out most of the body in one hour session but with limited variety of range and style of motions. Though open to everyone, these classes seem to be favored by women. I have done them myself for a couple of years and regardless of what one thinks of them for the long run, they are at the very least a great way for women to get started weight lifting, as the energy is high in these classes, the atmosphere extremely stimulating and motivating and the class itself is fun. The classes really get women to get in touch with their "desire to be strong and phsycally powerful" side withou turning the women in to a "muscle monstor" (meaning not turning them into looking like muscular men, which is not possible anyway because women don't produce th hormones naturally to build that kind of muscle. Women who do look like that take some form of steroid or other drug to accomplish that look.) The energy among the women is great. Men don't seem to take to the classes very well or stay regulars very long.
The jury is still out on how effective Body Pump classes are for all over body muscle fitness in the long run-- see a couple of threads discussing this
here and
here and
here
But ultimatley the answer for you is, after you try whatever appeals to you to start with, see how it is going for you and then modify as it feels best. Everyone is unique and there is not one size fits all exercise program.
Keep posting and
Hw many times a week?
Linear Mode
