What Female Bodybuilding Workout
Plans Are Like
How do you build impressive muscles? With strength training, of course.
"Typical bodybuilding training is not easy," says Snyder. "It usually involves training
twice a day—approximately one hour of lifting and anywhere from 30 minutes to two
hours of cardio per day."
Most female bodybuilders structure their workouts by dividing up their strength
training days by body part, often called a "split." For example, a common 5-day split
could look like this:
Day 1: Chest
Day 2: Back
Day 3: Shoulders
Day 4: Legs
Day 5: Arms
Days 6 & 7: Rest
However, everyone's training will look a little different depending on your body type
and goals. "Most people structure their lifting by focusing on one body part per day,
but I do three days of legs and three days of upper body," says Snyder.
Many athletes prefer to hit each muscle group twice a week. To do that, you could
structure your training to alternate a "push" day, a "pull" day, and a leg workout day:
Day 1: Push (chest, shoulders, triceps)
Day 2: Pull (back, biceps)
Day 3: Legs
Day 4: Push (chest, shoulders, triceps)
Day 5: Pull (back, biceps)
Day 6: Legs
Day 7: Rest
Typically, you'll do a warm-up, then three to five of exercises for the designated body
part, performing three to four sets of 8-12 reps of each.
It's smart to start with compound exercises (ones that require the use of more than
one joint like squats, bench press, deadlift, etc.) and then move onto isolation
exercises (which only require the use of one joint like bicep curls, leg extensions,
etc.), says Martinez. (More here: How to Correctly Order Exercises At the Gym)
Compound exercises typically get all the glory because they allow you to hoist bigger
weights and also count as functional training, but isolation moves are actually pretty
important for bodybuilding workouts: "Because these exercises focus on one muscle
at a time, they're effective in increasing the size of muscle fibers, a major goal of all
bodybuilders," says Martinez. Not to mention, if you're new to strength training, these
more straightforward exercises will help keep you moving safely and injury-free.
When you're doing 8-12 reps of each exercise, you should only be working at about
60-70 percent of your 1RM (one repetition maximum), says Martinez.
"Lifting closer to 100 percent of your 1RM is more efficient in building strength and
power, but bodybuilders more often focus on the size of muscles," she explains. "To
induce hypertrophy—AKA increase in muscle size—it's better to lift for longer periods
of time. That's why bodybuilders often lift less weight for more reps."
(Related: What's the Difference Between Muscular Strength and Endurance?)
You can also use supersets in your training, which simply means doing two
exercises targetting the same muscle group back to back, often with little or no rest
in between. Tempo is important, too: You want to lift very slow and controlled along
the whole range of motion, says Martinez. "All these techniques are all efficient in
causing muscle fatigue and causing micro-tears in the muscle fibers. When the body
repairs these micro-tears during rest, the muscle fibers grow back thicker, resulting
in hypertrophy, or an increase in muscle size."
And, yes, you have to do cardio: "Cardio is crazy important!" says Snyder. "This will
help uncover the beautiful muscular shape you’re creating." (Related: You Don't
Have to Do Cardio to Lose Weight—But There's a Catch)
Snyder recommends shooting for 20 minutes of cardio three times a week. If you're
more advanced, you can also incorporate HIIT workouts, says Martinez.
