The Mission of Weight Training for Women Today is to help women get started with strength training. We are convinced that weight training is something that every woman should be doing for her health and we hope that by sharing our passion for weight lifting we can help women become stronger, more confident, healthier versions of themselves.
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The Most Important Weight Training Book You Will Ever Own
No it is not a text book on the studies related to the benefits of weight lifting for women. Nor is it a workout program, even though there are some really good ones out there available. Craig Ballantyne’s “Turbulence Training” and Pavel Tsatsouline’s “Enter the Kettlebell” (once you get past ETK’s macho rhetoric) come to mind. The best and most critically important book to your strength training success is your … wait for it… Training Log.
Keeping a journal can be the difference between results and going in circles.
Heck, it doesn’t even have to be a book, but it does have to be a consistent diary of your workouts. Not tracking your workouts promises to be an exercise in futility and frustration because you will never see the results you want. How can you get where you are going if you don’t know where you’ve been? How many times have you quit working out because you weren’t seeing any results? Well, to use another idiom is the same paragraph… What get’s tracked, gets results. Not to mention it is a great feeling to look back after a couple of months and really see just how far you’ve come.
There are a lot of online sites now that allow you to keep a workout log, but you could just as well use old-fashioned paper and pencil. One of those black and white composition books you used in school would be perfect… or you could use some paper and a clipboard. It doesn’t matter so much what you use, so long as you do it.
Put your name on it! Not only to keep track of it and keep it from getting mixed up with others… but to really take ownership of it. It is represents YOUR fitness journey.
Put your measurements in it. You don’t need to do this every day, but once a week will be good. It will give you solid, indisputable proof that your body is changing. Hot DAMN I lost an inch on my waist! Well how would you know you really lost a whole inch if you hadn’t written it down?
Then for each workout you will want to track:
What exercise you did and how. Barbell squats or kettlebell squats? Bench press or dumbbell press? This section should not change so much on a day to day basis. I definitely don’t advocate jumping around from exercise every day. Too much variety is probably worse than no variety. Get a solid workout plan and stick to it for a while.
How much weight you used. Depending on your program you might also be using different weights for each set. Though that is an advanced technique, and a beginner would be better suited to picking a weight and accomplishing her set and rep goals with it before moving up to a heavier weight. And yes, even women should try to consistently lift heavier weights than they are now. They should be heavy for you.
The number of sets and reps you performed. If the weight is challenging enough you might not reach your full goal of X sets of & repetitions. You should never start a rep you know in advance you can’t finish. So you will want to write that all down. Today you got 3 sets of 5 and then a set of 4 and finished with a set of 3.
Seat and other machine settings. I don’t believe in doing many (if any at all) machine exercises, but if you are doing them then take note of where you like the seat and other adjustable pieces. Personally, I think you will be better served by getting up onto your feet, but that is another subject.
A space for comments/notes. This is a space where you can write whatever you want. Did your left hamstring bother you? Note that down. Did you feel tired, sad, happy, weak, strong? Write is down. You should also note which exercises felt easy and which felt difficult. Leave yourself a note if those 3 sets of 5 and then following sets of 4 and 3 were easy , ok, or really a strain. If they were easy or even ok you will know next time to shoot for that you need to get 4 sets of 5 and finish with a set of 4, or 3 sets of 5 and finish with 2 sets of 4, etc.
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