New Program for my wife

[Matt Z]

I recently started my wife on a new weight training program. It's not exactly a full-body workout program, but it's not a typical bodypart split either, or a squat/push/pull program, or a upper/lower program. Instead, I have her doing one upper/ lower body push workout and one upper/lower body pull workout. These workouts are to be performed on non-consecutive days, 3 days a week. For example, one week she might do Workout A (push) on Monday, Workout B (pull) on Wednesday and Workout A again on Friday. Then the following week, she would do Workout B on Monday, Workout A on Wednesday, and Workout B again on Friday. That way she'll be training her entire body 3 times every 2 weeks.

[Matt Z]

Workout A
3s/10-12r Dumbbell Bench Press (flat or incline)
3s/10-12r Seated Dumbbell Press
3s/10-12r Dumbbell Lateral
3s/10-12r Triceps Extension (any variation)
3s/10-12r Sled Hack Squat
3s/10-12r Dumbbell Lunge
3s/15-20r Seated Calf Raise
3s/15-25r Hanging Rev. Crunch

[Matt Z]

Workout B

3/10-12 Cable Pulldown
3/10-12 Bent Dumbbell Row
3/10-12 Bent-over Lateral
3/10-12 Dumbbell Curl
3/10-12 Romanian Deadlift
3/10-12 Prone Leg Curl
3/10-12 Standing Calf Raise
3/10-12 Swiss Ball Crunch

[Matt Z]

Wow ... I was expecting more comments. This program is something of an experiment. I deliberately designed it to be different from my own workout schedual, since my wife is at a different level of development with different priorities. Her primary goal is to lose bodyfat, although she also wants to improve her general fitness and strength. Anyway, she likes the program so far, although it's too soon to judge the results.

PS.) She's also doing some cardio and stretching in addition to her weight training workouts.

[TimD]

Actually, Matt, it looks pretty decent. A push / pull combining upper and lower (considering squats/leg presses as a push movement). Schedules like that with those combinations were pretty popular among PL types back in the late 70's, early 80's (different set rep combo's of course) and proved to be very effective. Kind of combines the benefits of full body and splits at the same time.
Tim

[kevin harris]

i agree with tim looks great
one question thoug......how in the world did you get her in the gym.

[Matt Z]

I first showed her how to lift when we were both in college and she liked it.

[Matt Z]

Funny thing is I'm WAY more flexible than my wife. She jokes that she'a one step above rigormortis.

[PeterP]

I helped my wife (and myself) start on a similar plan recently. I used the workout order from exrx.net to determine the order of the exercises within each workout. I notice this is somewhat different than yours. The main difference appears to be that squats and deadlifts happen much earlier in the workout in my version (2nd after bench press on push days or pullups on pull days).

Also we are new at this and only do one warm up set with 50% weight and 1 workout set with full weight.

We both really enjoy it! We are both pretty new to weight lifting and are doing everything at home with dumbbells, an ironman superbench, and a pullup bar. Doing good for the past 1.5 months with 3 workouts per week.

Nice to hear someone else is doing something similar so we're hopefully on the right track.
-Peter

[PeterP]

To be even more clear, here's the workouts we do for our 2 day Push/Pull split:

Push Workout:
-Bench press
-Squat
-Incline bench press
-Shoulder press
-Single leg calve raise (right)
-Single leg calve raise (left)
-Seated triceps extension
-Incline or lying leg-hip raise

Pull Workout:
-Wide grip chin ups
-Deadlift
-Bent over 1 arm row (right)
-Bent over 1 arm row (left)
-Upright row
-Curls
-Shrugs
-Crunches
-(optional) Side bend

[Matt Z]

If I had her doing Barbell Squats and Standard Deadlifts I would have placed them earlier each workout. However, Sled Hack Squats and Romanian Deadlifts are less demanding exercises.

[Matt Z]

I chose Sled Hack Squats for my wife instead of Barbell or Dumbbell Squats because unfortunately our scheduals don't allow us to workout together right now. As a result, I can't always be around to spot her and/or correct mistakes in form.