Women Wow-Factor Weight Training

Bill Starr
A Complete Strength and Curve-Carving Program for Women

When Larry McMurtry—author of Lonesome Dove, Terms of Endearment and The Last
Picture Show—was asked why he always made the women characters in his novels stronger
than the men, he replied, “Because they are.”

In the past 25 years there’s been a revolution in women’s athletics. It seems rather silly now,
but not so very long ago the fairer sex was deemed physically unable to participate in many
sports. In light of later events, the ruling of the International Olympic Committee that women
couldn’t compete in races longer than 10,000 meters because running longer distances would
be harmful to them was obviously absurd. That precept wasn’t changed until 1984. While it
was true that the IOC was made up of men, their attitude toward women in sports was shared
by the majority of the general public. Some athletic endeavors were considered too
demanding and dangerous for the delicate female.

The concept of the frail female is false—very false, and they’ve proved it. Once the doors
were open to them, women rushed in and succeeded in many sports that were formerly the
exclusive domain of men. Women run excellent times in marathons, compete in grueling
triathlons, play extremely physical games such as softball, basketball and soccer, have formed
tackle football leagues—and in 2004 went to the mats in Olympic wrestling. Women pole
vaulters are exceeding heights that won the Olympics back when I was growing up. Sure, I’m
aware that the poles are much more advanced, but to me that’s beside the point. In another
five years they’ll be approaching 20 feet.

Women had to fight their way into the hallowed halls of weightlifting. Most sports
administrators—men, of course—did not believe they belonged there. Strength belonged to
men, and they wanted to keep it that way. The ladies persevered, and when the barriers finally
fell, they flourished. Those who follow powerlifting know that some of the women lifters are
benching double bodyweight and squatting triple bodyweight. Not all of those achieving high
levels of strength are behemoths either. The weight divisions start at 97 pounds. American
women competed in weightlifting at the Olympics for the first time in Sydney in 2000 and are
faring better internationally than their male counterparts.

Body Image Issues

The way women are perceived in weight rooms has also altered dramatically in recent years.
Most who have been into physical culture for a long time can easily recall when there were no
such animals as co-ed gyms. The women and men trained on different days, and the programs
women followed were, let’s say, less than taxing. Light weights and high reps were the order
of the day. The idea of doing a heavy deadlift or squat was out of the question.

The concept that the female is the weaker sex has always been a stupid one, in my opinion.
Throughout history, the females have carried the bulk of the load—from the time our
ancestors lived in caves to walking from coast to coast behind Conestoga wagons and
preparing the food, washing the clothes and taking care of the family. Women are accustomed
to hard work, which is why it’s not the least bit surprising to discover that once they were
given the opportunity to take part in a wide range of athletic activities, they quickly excelled.

I never cut my female athletes any slack. I give them the same routines that I give my men,
and I work them just as hard. Contrary to what many experts contend, I find that women
thrive on hard work in the weight room and prefer it to any so-called toning programs
administered at most fitness centers. The owners of those places are afraid if they get their
customers sore, they may not come back. I, on the other hand, try to get my ladies sore. Their
routines include the same exercises I give to the men when they start out. Once they start to
see some results of their labors in the weight room, they become extremely regimented and
consistent with their training. Being able to actually have control over how they look and feel
is very motivating, and they don’t mind putting in the extra effort to achieve their goals.

It’s been my experience that women learn proper form on exercises much faster than men.
One of the main reasons is that they haven’t already adopted incorrect technique. When I lay
out a day’s schedule, they never waver from it at all. They do every set and rep even if I’m
not in attendance. In contrast, lots of men like to add and delete when I’m not watching.
Women are more appreciative of the coaching help as well.

Some authorities contend that because the two sexes are physically different, there should be a
male and a female approach to strength training. I don’t agree. Male and female muscles,
tendons and ligaments respond to strength work in exactly the same manner. If a certain
exercise works the hips and legs of a man, it will do the same thing for a woman.

The biggest difference, strengthwise, between a man and a woman who are just getting started
on a strength program is that the female is much weaker in her shoulder girdle. But that’s no
reason to change the beginning routine. That just tells me that after the foundation has been
established, more time needs to be spent on the weaker areas of the body.

At the University of Hawaii and Johns Hopkins I’ve coached women who participated in
lacrosse, field hockey, swimming, volleyball, basketball, soccer, fencing and track-and-field
events. Everyone does the basics until the foundation is firm. Then they move on to specific
exercises for their sports. To start out doing specific movements before the base is solid isn’t
nearly as effective.

Before getting to the principles of strength training and outlining a complete program for
women, I want to address a few of the concerns that invariably come up when I start a woman
on the routine. First and foremost is the worry about adding bodyweight. Every female I’ve
put on a weight program tells me that she’s afraid that if she lifts heavy weights, relatively
speaking, she’ll get huge. I assure her that lifting weights doesn’t mean she’ll gain weight.
That’s a factor of diet. The only time a female athlete adds pounds is if she increases her
calorie intake, which would also happen even if she weren’t weight training. I tell my women
trainees that if they eat like football players, then they may end up looking like them as well.

All successful strength programs have their roots in Olympic weightlifting. In that sport,
strength is enhanced while the participants—except those in the heavyweight class, of course
—are required to stay within strict bodyweight limits. So while strength is gained, bodyweight
stays the same. If the athlete pays attention to her diet, she’ll lose unwanted fat while adding
muscle. A fair exchange in my book.
Another anxiety that many beginners express is that lifting heavy weights can be harmful.
Certain exercises that entail an all-out effort, such as squats or deadlifts, should be avoided
because they put the lifter at risk. There’s no valid reason that women can’t do exercises with
heavy weights, however, if they’ve learned good form and have built a solid base. Women
have been lifting heavy objects throughout history. It is no more dangerous for a female to
strain doing a maximum poundage than it is for a male. The risk comes into the formula when
faulty technique is used, and then it doesn’t matter whether the weights are heavy or light.
Even tame exercises, including those performed in a machine, can be risky if the athlete uses
sloppy form. In other words, the weights don’t know which sex is lifting them. Failure to use
the correct technique is rewarded democratically.

Exercises for the Three Major Muscle Groups

Here are the basic guidelines to help you set up your strength program. Three workouts a
week in the weight room are enough to give you consistent, long-term gains. The other days
of the week should be spent improving your aerobic base, flexibility and practicing the skills
needed in your sport. When you become an advanced strength athlete, you may decide to add
a day, but in the formative stages, three days is best.

Each weight session includes a core exercise for each of your three major muscle groups:
shoulder girdle, back and hips, and legs. After the core movements have been completed,
additional work can be done in the form of auxiliary exercises for the smaller groups, such as
the calves, biceps and triceps.

Research has shown that the best set and rep formula for developing strength is four to six sets
of four to six reps. I am referring to working the major groups. I use the mean, five sets of
five. It makes doing the math so much easier, particularly if I’m dealing with a large number
of athletes. For the auxiliary movements, I use the 40-rep rule. That means two sets of 20 or
three sets of 15. I realize that three sets of 15 doesn’t come out to 40 reps, but you get the
idea. Calves are the exception to the rule. Since they have to be abused to get them to grow, I
recommend three sets of 30.

The five sets of five will help you establish a firm base and enable you to learn correct form.
Once your base is firm and your form good, you can vary the sets and reps. For example,
instead of doing five sets of five on full squats, do three sets of five followed by three more
sets of three. As you become more advanced, you can add more sets for each exercise,
especially those in which you are relatively weaker. The first step in the process is to add a
back-off set of eight or 10 reps after you’ve completed your five sets of five.

Working the Legs

All strength development originates at the center of your body, right at the hips. The groups
involved include the hips, glutes, legs, lower back and lower abs. The single best exercise for
strengthening the power pack is the full squat. In many articles in IRON MAN I have
explained why full squats are much better than partial squats, but I’ll go over a couple of
points again.

Core exercises: full squats and lunges. The full-range movement works the various groups
involved much more thoroughly than a partial one. Full squats hit the lower back, hips, glutes,
hamstrings, quads, adductors and abductors so that they all receive equal attention, which
results in balanced strength. In contrast, when partial squats are done, the quads do the bulk of
the work, and that causes them to be disproportionately stronger than the other groups. That
eventually leads to trouble.

Every athlete is concerned about the effects squatting has on the knees. When partial squats
are performed, the burden of halting the downward stroke is placed on the knees. The knees
are relatively small joints and cannot handle the stress over time. Once the thighs break the
parallel position in the squat, however, the job of halting the descending bar is transferred
from the knees to the more powerful hips, glutes and legs. Thus full squats are safer for the
knees than partial squats.

A few years ago I read an article in a publication about a weight program at a university
where the female athletes were having a much higher rate of knee injuries than their male
counterparts. It seemed the men did full-range squats while the women did only partial squats
because their coaches felt that going low was potentially harmful to their knees. The exact
opposite was true. Staying high was the reason for the many knee problems. Once the women
started doing full squats instead of partial ones, the knee injuries went away.

It’s also a fact that many coaches encourage partial squats over full squats because higher
numbers can be handled and that makes them look good. But they are doing a disservice to
the athletes and putting them at risk.

Form for the full squat. The very first step is to fix the bar firmly to your upper back. Those
who are slender often find that the bar irritates their back and resort to using some kind of
padding to cushion it. That’s not a good idea. When you graduate to heavier weights, the
towel or pad of rubber will twist and roll up, becoming more troublesome than the bar itself.
Get used to handling the bare bar from the start. Beginners try to pull away from the bar when
it starts hurting them, but that only adds to the problem. Instead, elevate your traps to provide
a platform for the bar. Even though you may not have much in the way of traps, they’ll still
serve the purpose. Over time, they’ll grow, and you’ll get used to holding the bar snugly on
your back. It has to be locked in place throughout the movement.

Foot positions vary according to height, but the basic stance for the majority of athletes is
slightly wider than shoulder width with toes turned out a bit. Experiment with different foot
positions until you find the one that enables you to go the lowest.

Your head position should be straight ahead. Don’t look up or down. After you’ve found your
desired stance, tighten all the muscles in your body and grip the floor with your feet. That will
help you establish a firm base. With your back flat and chest up, lower yourself until the tops
of your thighs go below parallel; then stand back up. Stop at the top, and reset for the next
rep. While learning form, take your time, trying to do each rep perfectly. Do all your
breathing at the top. Hold your breath during the execution of the lift.

Two things not to do: Don’t let your back round excessively, and don’t rebound out of the
bottom. Some rounding of your back is okay, but if it becomes pronounced, take some weight
off the bar and practice better technique; otherwise you’re asking for a back injury. If your
back rounds too much even with the light weights, you need to do more work to strengthen
your lower back.
You don’t want to get into the habit of bouncing out of the bottom, which can irritate your
knees and work against you when the weights get heavy. Pull yourself down into the low
position in a controlled manner, hesitate for a second and then explode upward. That brief
pause will help teach you to use your hips to drive the bar upward rather than using the recoil
to come out of the bottom.

Should you notice that your knees are turning inward during the squat, that indicates a
weakness in your adductors, the muscles on the insides of your legs. Do extra sets on the
adductor machine until that weakness is rectified because it will adversely affect progress.

Lunge lesson. The lunge is an excellent lower-body exercise, and many of my woman athletes
preferred it over the squat. Since the two lifts work the various groups differently, I believe
doing both works best. The bar is fixed on the back exactly the way it is for a squat. Feet are
set at shoulder width with toes pointed straight ahead. It’s important for you to step into a
deep, full split with your rear leg staying almost completely straight and the front knee
extending out over your front foot. You should be so deep that your rear knee is nearly
touching the floor.

Most muscle mags show the model doing lunges with her trailing leg bent. She merely dips
her rear knee down a bit, then recovers. While that style is easier to do, it’s much less
effective. Once you try the deep split version, you’ll understand what I’m talking about.

Do a rep with one leg; then switch to the other. You’ll most likely find that one leg is stronger
and more flexible than the other. That’s normal. One of the reasons I like lunges is that doing
them over a period of time improves strength in the weaker leg more than the squat does,
where the stronger leg can carry the exercise.

A couple of tips to make the lunge easier. Your feet are set at shoulder width at the start. Be
sure that you step straight forward. The tendency, especially when you get tired, is to place
the lead foot inward, but when you do that your feet end up on a line, and that adversely
affects your balance. Don’t rush the recovery. Take as many baby steps as you need to
recover from the heavy sets.

Do five sets of four while you’re learning the form. Do four reps per leg, and should one leg
be considerably weaker than the other, do two extra reps on that weaker leg at the end of each
set.

Auxiliary exercises: calf raises, leg extensions, leg curls, adductors. All of the auxiliary
exercises for the legs are done on machines. Do the movements smoothly, and don’t jerk the
weights around. If you have a standing and seated calf machine available, alternate using
them each time you do calf raises.

Working the Back

The muscles of the back are extremely important to any strength athlete. All the power
generated by the hips and legs has to be transferred up through the back in order for many
athletic feats to be accomplished, such as striking a field hockey ball or spiking a volleyball.
If any part of the back is weak, that power will be greatly diminished.
Core exercises: power cleans, deadlifts, good mornings and almost-straight-legged deadlifts.
The power clean is called the athlete’s exercise because if it is done correctly, it enhances
overall athletic ability. A high-skill movement, it improves coordination, timing, quickness
and strength. It’s a dynamic form of strength that can be used in any sport. While it may seem
complicated, it isn’t. My woman athletes learned the form as fast and in many cases faster
than my men. One reason is that women have better shoulder flexibility, which enables them
to rack the weight more easily.

It’s most helpful to provide five-pound Olympic-size plates for women in order to teach them
the power clean. The plates set the bar high enough so the athlete can assume a good starting
position. If smaller metal plates are used, the bar is too low to enable the lifter to assume the
correct starting position.

Place your feet at shoulder width with your shins touching the bar, toes pointed straight ahead.
Grip the bar just outside your legs. Lower your hips, but don’t set them deep as in the bottom
of a squat. The higher you can set them and still maintain a flat back gives you a leverage
advantage. Make sure your frontal deltoids are out in front of the bar. Tighten all the muscles
in your body, and with perfectly straight arms pull the bar off the floor. When it passes your
knees, drive your hips forward, contract your traps, bend your arms, and climb high on your
toes.

Once the bar is high enough, flip your arms under it and rack it across your frontal deltoids.
Don’t let it crash down on your collarbone. Your elbows should be high while you rack the
weight parallel to the floor. Stop it at the top of your thighs; then lower it deliberately to the
floor. Reset to make sure your starting position is right. Then do the next rep.

The key points in power cleaning are 1) keeping the bar close to your body throughout the lift,
2) not bending your arms until the bar passes your waist and 3) not leaning backward when
you rack the bar. When the bar is pulled to the desired height, dip your knees and rack the bar
with your torso erect. The bar should travel upward like a whip, slow off the floor, start
picking up speed through the middle and be a blur at the top.

It takes time to master the form on the power clean, which means you must be patient. With
practice you’ll improve. Don’t be concerned with the amount of weight on the bar until you
have the technique down pat. Then you can add more plates. Five sets of five is the best
formula for the lift.

The main reason I teach the power clean first is that once form is mastered on that high-skill
exercise, all of the other pulling movements can be learned more readily. Such as the deadlift.

Many strength programs for females shun deadlifts because the coaches deem them too
dangerous. When done correctly, they’re as safe as any other exercise in weight training.
Keep in mind that any exercise can be dangerous if you use sloppy form, even if you’re using
light weights or machines. I teach the deadlift to all my female athletes for a very practical
purpose in addition to improving their back strength for some sport. I believe it’s imperative
for them to know how to lift a heavy object off the floor properly. Every female will be
required to do it some time or other in her life. It may be a heavy bag of groceries, a basket of
laundry, a squalling child or a drunk husband.
The starting position for the deadlift is identical to the one used for the power clean—same
foot stance, same grip, same flat back. Once you’re set, however, don’t pull the bar off the
floor the way you do in the power clean. Instead, think about pushing your feet down through
the floor to break the bar free while keeping your entire body tight. That will help you
maintain the critical starting position and keep your back flat. When you tug the bar off the
floor, your back tends to round. You want to avoid that. The best way to assure a flat back is
to pull your shoulder blades together and keep them that way while you perform the lift. If
you try to tighten only your lower back, the middle and upper will often round.

As in the power clean, the bar must stay snug to your body from start to finish. Your arms
stay straight throughout the movement. They never bend at all. Think of them as strong
connecting links, chains. When you complete the lift and are standing erect, take a breath,
then lower the bar in a controlled manner with your back still flat and tight. Don’t allow the
bar to crash to the floor. Remember that you can injure yourself if you lower the bar
improperly, just as when you lift it improperly.

Your hips should rise up at the same rate as the bar. If that isn’t happening, use less weight.
Should you have difficulty holding on to the heavier weights, use straps. As for your knees
turning in while doing a deadlift, position yourself the way you do on the squats. If necessary,
make sure you spend more time on the adductor machine. Five sets of five will get the job
done.

Since the lower back is the cornerstone of strength for the body, I always include one specific
exercise for the lumbars. Good mornings and almost-straight-legged deadlifts are the two
best. Since the two exercises hit the muscles involved somewhat differently, I believe
alternating them every other week is a good idea.

Although good mornings do indeed appear gruesome, the effort you put into them is well
worth it. Not only do they strengthen the lumbars, but they hit the glutes and hamstrings at the
same time. You may have to start out using an E-Z curl bar across your upper back if the 45-
pound Olympic bar is too heavy—but that’s okay. It doesn’t matter where you start. What
counts is where you end up.

Lock the bar on your back as you did for the squat and lunge. It’s even more important for
you to really pull it tight to your back because of the nature of the good morning. If you don’t
squeeze it down into your traps and keep it there, it will move when you bend forward and
become most irritating. Moving your hands in closer on the bar helps to lock it in better.

Place your feet a bit closer than shoulder width and turn your toes inward. This facilitates
balance. Bend your knees a bit, but not so much that you’re in a partial squat, and they won’t
bend any further. They’ll stay in that starting position throughout the exercise. Push down
hard with your feet to create a solid base, and then rotate your upper body downward until
your chest touches your thighs. The lower you go, the more muscles you activate. I had
several who could look back between their legs at the bottom of the good morning. Most
impressive.

It’s okay for your back to round on good mornings. Go down and come back up in a smooth
fashion. Don’t flop forward and jerk back to the standing position. Pause at the finish, make
sure the bar is snug to your back, rebend your knees, take a breath, and lower into the next
rep. Once you learn the rhythm of the movement, good mornings will be easier. However, the
truth is that good mornings are never easy. What they are is effective, and that’s why athletes
do them. You’ll be able to feel the effects the following morning, sometimes sooner. My
athletes used to dub them “tomorrow mornings,” which I thought was quite apt. Because I
want to restrict the weight used on them, I have my athletes do four sets of 10 or five sets of
eight.

In most photos of models demonstrating how to do the straight-legged deadlift, their knees are
locked. You should never do any lower-back exercise, however, with your knees locked. It’s
risky to your lower back and hamstrings. So bend your knees slightly when doing the almost-
straight-legged deadlift. Bending your knees doesn’t alter the effectiveness of the exercise and
is safer.

Feet are at shoulder width, and your grip is the same as when doing the deadlift. Pull the bar
in close to your shins and glide it up and down your body. Don’t let it stray away at all, and
don’t bounce the plates off the floor to get a better start. That bypasses the muscles
responsible for moving the bar off the floor, and you want to work them. Dead stop at the
conclusion of each rep. It’s not necessary to stand on a bench or block of wood to do them.
Just use 10-pound plates and stand on the floor. The smaller plates will force you to go low,
and you won’t have to worry about your balance as you do when standing on something. Like
the good mornings, they’re done in higher reps, four sets of 10 or five sets of eight.

Auxiliary exercises: hyperextensions and lat pulldowns. Do a set of back hyperextensions at

the beginning of every workout as part of your warmup. Start with 20 and work up to 50.
Come up only until your back is parallel to the floor. Any higher puts an undue stress on your
lower back. On the pulldowns, always pull to the front, never to the back, and do the
movement in a smooth fashion.

Working the Shoulder Girdle

Typically, females are weakest in this area so I include more exercises for their upper bodies
than I do for their backs and legs. They enjoy the exercises because they can see the results
faster, especially in their upper arms. Girls like big guns too, it seems.

Core exercises: bench presses, incline-bench presses and overhead presses. While most
strength routines emphasize the bench press for the shoulder girdle, I give the incline priority.
It does more for any athlete. The incline strengthens the high portion of the chest along with
the triceps and deltoids, groups that are used in every sport. A purer exercise than the flat
bench, the incline makes it almost impossible to cheat. Always make sure that you have a
spotter when you do both inclines and flat benches. They’re the two exercises with the highest
risk factor in the weight room.

Grip the bar so that during the performance of the exercise your elbows stay directly under
your wrists. That means your forearms stay vertical throughout. If your grip is too wide or too
narrow, you’re giving away pressing power. Make sure your thumbs are around the bar. No
false grip. Even with a spotter, the bar can slip out of a false grip, and because the bar is over
your face, the consequence can be horrible.

With the spotter’s assistance, lift the bar from the rack and lock out your arms and get it under
control. Take a deep breath, and lower the bar in a controlled manner to a point high on your
chest, right where your collarbone meets your breastbone. That’s a much different placement
from the one on the flat bench. Pause, then drive the bar upward right past your nose. Once it
passes the sticking point, exhale. Reset at the top, take another breath, and proceed with the
next rep. The bar should travel in a straight line up and down. When the weights get heavy,
the bar will try to run forward. You must resist that. If it goes too far out front, there’s no hope
of pulling it back in the correct line. One other tip: Instead of merely sitting on the incline
bench, squeeze your back and glutes down into it. Be sure to have the spotter assist you in
reracking the weight, and don’t let go of the bar until you know it’s secure.

Assume the same grip on the flat bench as you used on the incline, and, again, your forearms
stay vertical during the exercise. The main difference between the two pressing movements is
that on the flat bench you touch the bar to your chest much lower. Pull it into your chest
where your breastbone ends. The bar needs to be lowered in a controlled manner. Never let it
crash onto your chest. Don’t get into the habit of rebounding the bar off your chest. That’s
self-defeating for a couple of reasons. Banging the bar off your chest can damage tissue, and
you want to work those muscles responsible for driving the bar upward.

Because you’re touching your chest at a lower position, the flight of the bar is different from
the incline. It moves straight upward as it leaves your chest, then glides backward a bit so that
it ends up over your face. Even while you’re gliding the bar back, your elbows still stay under
your wrists. Otherwise you lose upward thrust. As I suggested for the incline, squeeze down
into the bench. Become the bench. Trite, I know, but it gets the idea across. The muscles of
your body should all be tight when the bar is taken from the rack, and they need to stay that
way until you’ve finished the set.

Overhead presses can be done while standing or seated, and you can use a bar or dumbbells. I
teach the standing press with a bar first. Once technique is learned on this form of the
exercise, the others come easy. Using the same grip as with the other pressing exercises, stand
with your feet at shoulder width and locked to the floor. That will provide you with the solid
base needed to press the weights. The bar sets across your frontal deltoids. Make sure your
entire body is very tight from your feet up to your traps. Drive the bar off your shoulders,
keeping it close to your face. After it passes your head, glide it back a bit so that when the bar
is locked out it’s fixed over the back of your head. Hold your breath during the execution of
the press. Inhale and exhale at the start and finish.

You can lean back some, but not too much. Excessive backbending is not healthy for the
lumbars. If your backbend becomes exaggerated, switch to seated presses. Lower the weight
from overhead back to your shoulders deliberately. Otherwise you’ll ding your clavicle.

Auxiliary exercises: incline dumbbell presses, straight-arm pullovers, curls, front raises and
lateral raises. Since most females are proportionately weaker in their upper bodies, I have
them do a couple of auxiliary exercises for the smaller groups at every session. I like straight-
armed pullovers with a bar or dumbbell and pushdowns on the lat machine for the triceps
because these exercises are not stressful to the elbows, a major consideration for athletes.
Curls work the biceps and can be done with dumbbells, EZ-curl bar or straight bar, and
seated, standing or sitting on a preacher-curl bench. The more variety, the better. Use
dumbbells for front and lateral raises, unless your gym doesn’t have any light enough. In that
case, just use small plates.

Do mild stretches during the workout between sets. That’s idle time anyway and benefits the
session. Stretch again after you finish and later that night if you feel really tight or sore.
Do the program for three days a week over the course of two months, and you’ll make
significant gains in overall strength. There is a truism in sports that a stronger athlete is a
better athlete, if for no other reason that the strength enables her to practice longer and harder
and recover faster.

Editor’s note: Bill Starr was a strength and conditioning coach at Johns Hopkins University
from 1989 to 2000. He’s the author of The Strongest Shall Survive—Strength Training for
Football, which is available for $20 plus shipping from Home Gym Warehouse. Call (800)
447-0008, or visit www.Home-Gym.com.

A Complete Strength Program for Female Athletes

At the start of each workout, do one set of situps or crunches and one set of back
hyperextensions.

Monday

Squats

(going to limit on final set) 5 x 5

Power cleans 5 x 5

Calf raises        3 x 30

Triceps pushdowns        2 x 20

Dumbbell curls 2 x 20

Leg extensions        2 x 20

Leg curls 2 x 20

Leg adductors 2 x 20

Wednesday

Lunges (per leg) 5 x 4

Bench presses 5 x 5

Good mornings

alternated with

Almost-straight-legged

deadlifts 5 x 8 or 4 x 10
Straight-arm pullovers 2 x 20

Lat pulldowns to front   2 x 20

Front raises    2 x 20

Lateral raises    2 x 20

Friday

Squats 5 x 5

Overhead presses 5 x 5

Deadlifts 5 x 5

Calf raises        3 x 30

Leg extensions        2 x 20

Leg curls 2 x 20

Leg adductors 2 x 20

Incline dumbbell presses 2 x 20

Curls (EZ-curl or
   straight bar) 2 x 20

Conclude the session with an exercise for your lower abs and some stretching. After a few
weeks, add a back-off set of eight on all the core exercises.