Workout plan for women: strength training for women, 3 or 4 days a week

Is strength training different for women?

Less than most magazines suggest. Muscle responds to the same signal in women and men: lifting something heavy enough, for enough sets, and a little more over time. The exercises, rep ranges and rest times that work for a man of the same experience work for you. What differs is mostly where people start and what they want.

• Starting point: many women are new to the barbell and start relatively stronger in the legs and hips than in the chest, shoulders and back. That makes upper body pulling and pressing worth some extra attention.
• Goals: stronger glutes and legs, better posture, feeling capable in daily life and confident in the free weight area are common goals. A plan can lean toward them without dropping the rest of the body.
• Getting "bulky": building a lot of muscle takes years of hard, deliberate training for anyone. Lifting heavy for a few months mostly makes you stronger and changes your shape gradually. You stay in control of how far you take it.

For general health, the World Health Organization recommends muscle strengthening activity for all major muscle groups on two or more days a week. Both plans below meet that with room to spare.

The 3 day workout plan for women (gym)

Three full body days, for example Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Each day has a different main lower body lift, so the glutes and legs get trained three times a week from different angles, while the upper body gets a press and a pull every session.

Each session takes 50 to 65 minutes with warm up sets. Most sets should finish with one to three reps left in the tank. If a session runs long, drop the last exercise, not the rest between the first ones.

The 4 day plan: upper and lower, glute focused

With four days you can give the lower body two full sessions and the upper body two shorter ones. It is a variation on the upper lower split, with more glute and hamstring work on both lower days. A good layout is Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Both lower days are hard, so keep at least one day between them. If you would rather have the upper body treated as an equal priority, use the standard templates in the 4 day split guide instead. For more glute exercises to swap in, see glute exercises.

How to progress, step by step

The most common thing that holds women back in the gym is not the plan, it is staying at the same comfortable weights for months. Muscle and strength need a reason to adapt. Use a rep range and move up through it before you add weight, which is called double progression:

1. Pick a weight for the low endHip thrust 4 x 8 to 12: choose a load you can do 8 clean reps with and two more in reserve, say 50 kg (110 lb).
2. Add a rep where you canNext session: 9, 8, 8, 8. Then 10, 9, 9, 8. Same weight, slightly more work each time.
3. Add weight at the topWhen all four sets reach 12, go up: 5 kg (10 lb) on hip thrusts, squats and Romanian deadlifts, 1 to 2.5 kg (2.5 to 5 lb) on presses, rows and dumbbell work. Start again at 8 reps.

Upper body lifts move in smaller steps, so progress there can feel slower. That is normal. If your gym's dumbbells jump 2 kg at a time, do more reps before moving up. For the bigger picture of why this works, read the progressive overload guide.

Training through your cycle, pregnancy and after 40

Your menstrual cycle

Research on planning training around cycle phases is mixed, and no specific schedule has been shown to work better for most women. A practical approach: follow the plan, and on days when you feel flat, keep the exercises but take one set off or stop a little further from failure. Logging your sessions makes it easier to see whether a pattern really exists for you.

Pregnancy and after giving birth

Many women keep lifting during pregnancy, but what is right depends on you and your pregnancy, so agree on it with your midwife or doctor. After birth, get the go ahead from them before you return to heavy lifting, and consider a pelvic floor physio if you have any leaking, heaviness or pain.

Strength training for women over 40

Muscle and bone become harder to keep with age, and strength training is one of the best tools for holding on to both. The plans above work at 40, 50 and beyond. Start lighter, take a longer warm up, and use machine or dumbbell versions of any lift that bothers your joints. Progress may be slower, but it still comes. If you have osteoporosis or a joint condition, check with a doctor or physio which exercises fit you.

Common mistakes in women's strength training

• Light weights for high reps forever. 20 reps with a tiny dumbbell is mostly endurance work. Use weights that make 8 to 15 reps hard.
• Only training the lower body. Glutes are a great goal, but a strong back and shoulders improve posture and make every lift easier. Keep a press and a pull in every session.
• Circuits instead of strength sessions. Rushing from station to station with short rests limits how much you can lift. Rest 1.5 to 3 minutes on the main exercises.
• Avoiding the free weight area. Squats, hip thrusts and Romanian deadlifts are where most progress happens. Start with an empty bar if you want; nobody watches as closely as it feels.
• Switching programs every month. Give one plan 8 to 12 weeks, log it, and judge it by the numbers.

The exercises

Barbell hip thrustGlutesGuideBarbell back squatQuads and glutesGuideGoblet squatQuads and glutesGuideRomanian deadliftHamstrings and glutesGuideBulgarian split squatQuads and glutesGuideSingle-leg Romanian deadliftHamstrings and glutesGuideHip abduction machineGlutesGuideLying leg curlHamstringsGuideDumbbell bench pressChestGuideLat pulldownLatsGuide

Band-assisted pull-upLats

Seated cable rowUpper back and latsGuideSeated dumbbell shoulder pressFront deltsGuideDead bugAbsGuide

Questions people ask