Any Additions/Suggestions for women’s routine?

[angelyak]

My (F) 19 step sister came to me earlier this year asking me to help her lose some weight. She’s around 130 at 5’2 so not overweight by any means but she was insecure and not feeling as confident so I wanted to help her get that back.

Her goals were to lose fat all around while also gaining mass in her lower body while getting toned in her upper body. She wants the legs, the glutes, and the toned back. I created the routine I’m gonna paste below for her as it best matches her college schedule and availability. When it comes to her eating she’s only really eating 2 meals a day because that’s what her meal plan provides.

She’s been on this routine since mid August and is feeling a bit discouraged because she’s seeing minimal results. Not really much fat loss while also not really much muscle gain. Is there anything else you all would recommend to better results?

Monday: LOWER (Hamstring/Glute focused)
Warm up:
- 15m cardio
- Stretch

RDL 3 x 8-10
Hip Thrust 4 x 8-10
Kick Backs 3 x 8-10 each leg
Seated Leg Curl 3 x 10-12

Tuesday: REST

Wednesday: UPPER
Warm up:
- Stretch

Lateral Raises 3 x 15
Single Arm Tricep Extension 3 x 10
Cable Row 3 x 10
Lat Pull Downs 3 x 10
Bicep curls 3 x 10

Thursday: REST

Friday: LOWER (quad focused)
Warm up:
- 15m cardio
- stretch

Bulgarian Split Squats 3 x 10-12
One of these:
- Back Squat 3 x 8
- Leg Press 3 x 8
Goblet Squats 3 x 8-10
Elevated Squat into Lunge 3 x 10-12

Saturday/Sunday: Choose One
- Cycle
- Cardio
- Abs

TLDR: Step Sister has been working out since mid-August and isn’t seeing the results she wants. Any advice and suggestions are appreciated!

 

[lifesharer]

@angelyak Gonna drop a few "hard truths" very quickly here - don't have time atm to make it sound nice.

First, she will not be able to "add mass" anywhere on her body while in a caloric deficit. Period. So her goals are not aligned. She needs to either build the mass first, or cut some weight first. Tell her to pick a goal and adjust her nutrition accordingly.

Second, mid-August to now timeframe is not nearly enough time to make appreciable changes other than changing the number on the scale. If she ate a "small" 300 calorie deficit this entire time since then, she'd be down about 7-8 pounds. At her weight that would be a big enough drop to make a somewhat noticeable difference visually, but she's been spinning her wheels - again, nutrition and diet are the culprit. A "moderate" deficit of 500 cal would net her basically 12 pounds of loss, and again at her height/weight that would be noticeable visually. She'd likely look a lot more "toned" due to the revealing of musculature underneath fat being put on display.

Third, the basic principles of progressive overload and exercise effort do not differ from males to females. Her workouts need to utilize the same basic principles as anyone else to see results. As a female, she is in a worse-off position to build and maintain muscle inherently, so some random program that doesn't address the basics will not help her "build mass". She will need a lot of time and effort to build musculature in her lower body ("add mass" as she puts it) and she will need proper nutrition and diet including a caloric surplus to do it.

Without seeing her, my suggestions are:

Revamp her workout to appropriately address progressive overload. You can have her give her lower body more attention than upper, that's fine. If she wants big butt and legs then cool, focus more on that.

Get her in a caloric deficit. Anywhere in that 300-500 per day deficit range. Have her do it for 12 weeks.

Switch her to a +150-300 cal per day surplus. Have her do that for another 12 weeks. She can focus on lower body as I said.

The whole time, ensure she is eating .6gm/lb protein minimum. Or, to make it easy, just tell her to hit 80grams minimum per day every single day.

At the end of those 24 weeks (yes, nearly half a year...) reassess where she is at visually and let her decide if she wants to build more mass (bulk longer) or get more toned (begin cutting again).

 

[angelyak]

@lifesharer So would you say to cut out the gym and focus primarily on a caloric deficit or to continue the workout routine at the same time as the caloric deficit

 

[mommajulesberry]

@angelyak - what you measure gets managed

- eg bodyweight you kinda gotta decide based on preference whether you just slowly recomp while eating around maintenance or cut aggressively then "gaintain"

- and gym strength, beating the logbook (!!!) can really lead to actually taking sets into a good reps in reserve tank

- eg if i see back squats 3x8 maybe i could personally load x number of plates and feel nothing by the end of it but if each week i'm adding 5lbs each week im eventually gonna run into the territory of "hard sets that drive growth"

- realistic expectations (e.g. 10lbs of muscle in a year would be excellent progress as a female novice, or on the flip side actively dieting i wouldn't push much past 1lb/week of fat loss)

- programming: tbh everything works as a novice but you can totally afford to cram a lot of heavy compound lifts especially for upper body. more raw stimulus magnitude from something like a barbell (or ez fixed bar) overhead press than a single arm cable extension. /r/xxfitness probably has good resources. can even test the 5-8 rep range just to eke a bit more effort out.

 

[cnnsdc63]

@angelyak If she's not muscular she is probably about 9 pounds overweight.