Trying to help a friend lose weight.....

T-rev

Hi folks. A friend of mine wants to lose weight. She is very self concious and has social phobias so wont go to the gym.

Had her up with me last night, went through the diet and exercise (walking, running, badminton, some swimming).

Wanted to do her a light weights program for at home to help out the weight loss. Few questions.....

Should I just pick some dumbell exercises or will I need to get specific female exercies?

What kind of workout should I give her to get started, full body or split or what?

Any advice much appreciated.

TommyKnocker

I am far from an expert but doing something similar for someone.

DB's or KB's would be good, just make sure they are heavy enough to be challenging and not "pink fluffy" 2 kg "Female Dumbbells" :rolleyes:

There is no such thing as female exercises. Females should train exactly the same as guys do with a progressive weights routine.

Full body always when starting off as IMO this will give best bang for the buck

T-rev

Cool thanks. Will get her a routine going so.

T-rev

sorry, should i do one or two exercies per muscle?

tHE vAGGABOND

I was very concious of how I looked when I started to loose weight too - thinking everyone would be looking at me [they are not, clearly, but your head does not say that].

I started out using Wii Fit, to get me into the swing of things, get used to the actions of the different things needed. You can do them in the privacy of your own home, and no one will see you, or be looking at you.

Is the same as a good program in a gym or going for a run outside - clearly no.

But its a damn sight better than fecking around with a few weights and stuff from Lidl without knowing what your doing. It also got my head in the right place, where i was able to "take the next step" after a few weeks and get down the gym.

You could get a Wii for next to nothing on eBay or similar these days I would think? [There are similar programs to wii fit on all the games consoles, but I only have experience of that one I used].

TommyKnocker

I base the routine around the main compound lifts.

• Squat
• Deadlift
• Row
• Bench Press
• Overhead Press
• Pullups
• Dips

I use KB's, an over the door pull-up bar, resistance bands and a skipping rope with my friend

So Routine might look something like

Weight Workout A

• Goblet squat
• KB Clean
• Renegade Row
• Laying KB Press
• Push press
• Turkish get ups

Weight Workout B

• Rack Squat *
• KB Deadlift (2 KB's)
• Assisted Pullups
• Pushups
• Curl/press/tri extension **
• plank/side plank

* Kettlebell(s) held in the rack position

** Start with feet hip width apart, KB held bell end up using both hands, arms down.

• Curl the bell up to chest (Bicep)
• Thrust the KB over head (shoulder press)
• Extend the KB down behind the neck (Triceps)

On two other days I would have them do say a 20 min conditioning routine, something like the following, but scaled to their level. The Metcon Thread & Youtube would also give you some ideas for conditioning workouts.

And then they can have two rest days

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRpbM9nzDcM

g'em

TommyKnocker wrote: »

There is no such thing as female exercises. Females should train exactly the same as guys do with a progressive weights routine.

For an experienced female lifter I'd say sure, that's most likely true. But for an absolute beginner it's not ideal, while women tend to recover quicker they won't have the same workload capacity as a guy will. Plus women tend to only want to work on key areas that don't necessitate the same number of accessory lifts that you'd find in a "guy's" program.

Women will also generally need closer supervision when they start squatting - the bar alone is relatively intimidating and it's usually easier to start girls out with lunges or DB squat variations and then work up. In fact because girls will generally have lower baseline strength than men they need a fair amount of watching over at first because you need to make sure that their form doesn't suffer. From experience I've found that girls usually have slightly better kinesthetic awareness than men though so once they pick it up they're flying

T-rev

Vagabond I have a Wii I could loan her. Thanks folks.

Lantus

T-rev wrote: »

Hi folks. A friend of mine wants to lose weight. She is very self concious and has social phobias so wont go to the gym.

Had her up with me last night, went through the diet and exercise (walking, running, badminton, some swimming).

Wanted to do her a light weights program for at home to help out the weight loss. Few questions.....

Should I just pick some dumbell exercises or will I need to get specific female exercies?

What kind of workout should I give her to get started, full body or split or what?

Any advice much appreciated.

walking is something you could both do together and requires no special skill. After 7:30ish you have the cover of darkness.....

Resistance training indoors is ideal and can really help develop fitness levels and overall wellbeing. The female body in terms of muscle structure, ligaments and tendons and bones is pretty much identical to a male body, males just produce more testosteone which promotes more muscle growth. In an all body workout for beginners that comprises around 8-12 exercises try to hit every muscle group once and the quads at least twice. there are a fair few on line. A good set of dumbells that you can increase the weight as required is essential. You can use bottles of water to begin with but it's important to get some grunt going and not just work out the motions of each exercise. It needs to feel tough by the last few reps (assuming 10-12 reps of each exercise.)