Most of the weight lifting exercises I've done and that I've seen for women using free weights call for 15 reps, 3 sets, which I understand builds endurance. I'm more interested in building strength. I checked out the exrx.net site, and put together this workout from the templates.

Upper Body=A
Lower Body=B


XABXABX

The Monday/Tuesday Upper/Lower Body workout (AB) is "heavy" 6-9 reps, 1 set with heavier weights.

The Thursday/Friday Upper/Lower Body workout (AB) is "light" 10-15 reps, 2 sets with lighter weights.

This was the suggestion on the site for intermediate to build strength. I've never worked out using heavier weights with so few reps and only 1 set.

Is this a good plan? I think that my diet and cardio are taking care of the fat loss, so according to the exrx.net site, I should try to start lifting heavier weights (for free weights for me, the heaviest would be 12 or 15 lbs.).

Please, any feedback on this plan would be greatly appreciated. My goal is to develop the larger muscles in my legs and butt, as well as sculpt my upper body and core.

Is the plan above better than doing full body 3X a week at 15 reps, 3 sets with lighter weights?

Also, are hip adductors and abductor exercises a waste of time?

Any good floor exercises for hip flexors?

And, one more question, if I have 12 exercises and more than one set, is it better to complete all 12 exercises once and then start another set, or do 2 to 3 sets of the same exercise and then move on to the next exercise?
Thanks.

Is the plan above better than doing full body 3X a week at 15 reps, 3 sets with lighter weights? I don't think it's not better nor worse, it's good to do both and have a change, your body will quickly adapt to a workout, your body needs change to keep it guessing... After a few weeks of this you may want to go to a 3 or 4 day split.

Also, are hip adductors and abductor exercises a waste of time? I'll direct you to 10 Most Ineffective Exercises #1 and 2...

Any good floor exercises for hip flexors? I really don't know I'll let someone else answer this one...

And, one more question, if I have 12 exercises and more than one set, is it better to complete all 12 exercises once and then start another set, or do 2 to 3 sets of the same exercise and then move on to the next exercise? You can do both, alternate doing it one way one week then the next week doing it the other way ... Change is good don't be afraid to experiment, have fun with all the different variations you can make up!

Hope this helps

My advice will be from a weight-liftting for fat-loss standpoint, with a secondary goal of strength. (I am a guy that has lifted for about 9 months.)

First off, I don't think there is any reason not to do what you have outlined. See if you like it and how well it works for you. Feel free to change it whenever it stops working (all plans eventually stop working after the body acclimates).

You have obviously done a great deal of research to get to the point where you can develop such a comprehensive plan. During your research, you no doubt ran across a multitude of opinions on what works and chose what made the most sense to you. There is no clear concensus on the "optimum" number of sets - it ranges from 1 per excecise up to 4 or 5.

Personally, I like lifting 3 sets per excersize (1 warmup at 50% load and 2 sets at 100% load). Load = what I can do for the number of reps to failure. I start with a weight I can do for 6 reps and keep at that weight until I can do 12 reps for both sets. Then I up the weight to where I can only do 6 again. It takes me about 30-45 minutes using only 4 excercises per session (12 reps).

I personally don't think I want to do a light and heavy workout unless the heavy is just too much to recover. Seems like doing heavy all the time would lead to faster results. However, my reading shows that it gets good reviews. Maybe I will try something like that next time I have to develop a new routine (in about 2 months).

What percentage of her own body weight can an average fit woman lift, just out of curiosity? Is there a strength goal to achieve, like being able to lift 20% of your body weight in free weights, etc.? If a woman weighed 100 lbs. would she realistically ever be able to lift more than 50 lbs?

It depends on the lift. I can do almost double my body weight in squats and deadlift, my body weight in barbell bench presses, but less with dumbbells. But it's taken YEARS to get there, and specific lifting goals and training to meet those goals.

There are no set "normal" numbers. Your body adapts to the type of training that you do within the parameters of genetics and previous injuries.

I'll get back to the original posters question later today

Mel

There never is one set answer to weight lifting. Only what works for you...

I rotate through light, medium and heavy lifting. I find that heavy lifting for too many days wears me out, and I make no progress. So throw in light days when you feel you need them. I do one warmup set, then anywhere from 2-4 working sets, and the rest in between depends on how heavy the workout is. The heavier the weight, the longer the rest (up to a minute and a half at times)

Full body vs split- use them as you need them. During the months when my gym attendance is regular, I use a split, either torso/legs or push/pull. During the months when my seasonal job interferes, I use a full body routine. Even with the full body routine, I rotate through light, medium and heavy weights.

I don't do a lot of hip abductors/adductors. I just throw them in if I have time and the machine is free. I haven't found many exercises for these. Here are some...

Upper leg raise- lie on mat on your side. Raise upper leg slowly. Try to raise the side of your foot to the ceiling, not your toe. Hold, lower and repeat.
You can do this standing up, or with your arms on a ball. For weights, use ankle weights.

Lower leg raise- same thing as above, but raise the lower leg.

Scorpion Kick- I found this while searching for golf exercises for my husband. Lie face down, arms perpendicular to trunk, palms down. Bring R leg up and across to touch R toe to floor over L leg. Hold

Express Leg Circles- Lie in position as for Upper Leg Raises. Lift top leg a few inches. Draw circles, clockwise and counterclockwise. Lower leg. Repeat on the other side.

Side Lift and Circle- Lie on your side as for the Lower Leg Raise. Lift bottom leg and draw circles, clockwise then counterclockwise. Lower leg. Switch sides

Straight sets? Again mix it up. You can do straight sets- all the sets for one muscle before moving on. Linear sets- 1 set of each exercise, then go through it again. Supersets- alternate between 2-3 exercises for antagonistic muscles; for example, I will do an ab then a back exercise, a quad then a ham exercise.

Thanks! I am losing weight and inches, and also my body fat% is going down. I'm not sure if that's because I've lost weight/fat or if I'm also building muscle. I've been working out with weights since I started this about six weeks ago. So far, I like the results.

Another question I had, is how consumption of protein affects muscle gain. I did an online calculation and these were the results. Is the recommendation of 67 grams a day of protein to improve lean body mass? I get around that much protein each day now.

Your Recommended Blocks
Your weight is: 119 pounds
Your sex is: Female
Your Body Fat percentage is: 27
Your Lean Body Mass is: 87 pounds
Your 'Ideal' weight is: 106 pounds
Your activity factor is: 0.79
Your recommend blocks per day are: 9 (67 grams of protein)

Everything I have read says that you can't build muscle AND lose weight at the same time (except for a few weeks just after starting to lift weights). That said, my experience is I have noticed more muscle definition and some apparent gain in size - although that probably just that my muscles look more defined as their covering of fat comes off.

My plan is to keep excercizing with weights and cardio until I reach my goal weight (cutting). I will then examine if I want to go into muscle building mode that involves eating extra calories that will promote adding muscle weight (bulking).

I try to get 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body weight. I can't tell you if that has any significant advantage. My thought is that the more calories of protein I eat, the less room there is for fat and carbos.

There are lots of good weightlifing websites, although most are populated with pretty hardcore lifters. But they still have tons of information on the details of lifting and diet.

Well, see, I've read up on the subject before, and one of the reasons I stayed away from lifting weights, is I felt like if I didn't eat just the right foods and get just the right amount of sleep, and progress the weight load at just the right time, I wouldn't see results.

I have a graduate degree, and the weight lifting stuff is still confusing. I really don't enjoy working out at a gym so I'm sticking with the free weights at home.

I did the upper/lower body workout yesterday and today, completing 3 sets using 8 lbs at 15 reps, 10 lbs at 10 or 12 reps, and 12 lbs at 6 or 9 reps. It was one of the better workouts that I've had. I think I'm going to stick with this.

I also read that for my bodytype, I should limit my cardio to 30 mins. 3x a week, or else I might actually start to burn muscle and not just fat.

I think that was my problem before, that I was doing too much cardio (in my early 20s when I tried a weightlifting program that didn't work).

Thanks for your helpful advice.