A Weightlifting Routine For Women Who Don’t Play

Oct 3rd, 2023 - 9 mins

Cut through the fluff and get straight into a weightlifting routine for women who don’t play. These weightlifting routines are constructed in such a way that gets the fastest possible strength and muscle building results. You can use our plans, or build your own with the information we share with you about how to build a weightlifting routine that gets results.

What results are we talking about? Getting stronger, building muscle and burning fat. That’s what a well planned weightlifting routine can do for you.

Weightlifting Routine For Women Contents

Understanding The Fundamentals Of A Heavy Weightlifting Routine

Key Compound Exercises
Isolation Exercises
Weightlifting Routine Reps & Sets
Start Where You Are Now
Building Your Weightlifting Routine
Why You Need A Heavy Weightlifting Routine
A Weightlifting Routine For Fat Loss
Target Any Muscle Group You Want To Grow
Fast Track Your Results With Lipstick Lifters Weightlifting Routines
Sample Our Weightlifting Routines For Free
Weightlifting Routines For Women FAQs

Understanding The Fundamentals Of A Heavy Weightlifting Routine

Often when women think about heavy weightlifting routines they think about moving the biggest weights in the room. This can feel a little out of touch for many women, since nobody goes in that heavy to begin with. But you will be surprised how the correct techniques can fast track you to those very results.

To clear up any confusion; when we say ‘heavy lifting’, we mean ‘heavy for you’. And that means, as a rule of thumb; you should use a weight that you start to struggle with around the 8th rep of a 10 rep set.

The key is in understanding and utilising the exercises that will help you to move maximum loads, so that you can build up your strength to perform better on the smaller exercises where you may only be able to manage the lighter weights to begin with.

There is a lot to be said for building optimum weightlifting routines and it’s not something you can learn in a single article. We will provide a summary here, but ultimately you will need to commit to the process if you want to get the results we promise. We can help with this, we teach women how to become completely gym independent.

Key Compound Exercises

The bread and butter of your weightlifting routine should always be a key compound exercise, backed up by a range of targeted lifts. This will ensure you achieve maximum results in the time you have.

If you don’t know; compound exercises are exercises that work multiple muscle groups through a multiple joint movement, where you usually move the most weight. Examples of compound exercises are; squats, deadlifts & bench presses.

These types of exercises are your fastest overall strength builders. Master these moves as a priority. And load them with heavier weights as soon as is safely possible for you.

It is not unreasonable to dedicate an entire workout to mastering a single move. In fact; that is time well spent.

Isolation Exercises

An isolation exercise is a single joint movement targeting a single muscle group. Examples are bicep curls, lateral raises & hip thrusts.

These types of exercises should target similar muscle groups to the key compound exercise in your plan, and should be worked after the compound exercise, working down in priority from free weights, through cables and finishing up with machine and bodyweight exercises.

weightlifting-routine

Weightlifting Routine Reps & Sets

How you execute your reps and sets is a contributing factor.

To summarise:

High volume + Low rep = Mass

Mid volume + Mid rep = Mass + strength

Low volume + Low rep = Strength + fat loss

The above is not a foregone conclusion, and for the results to come through, there is a lot more strategy that goes into building a weightlifting routine that gets long term and sustainable results. It’s not a single routine, nobody ever achieved their goals on one routine alone, you need to understand how to use each method in such a way that reaps the best rewards long term.

So please don’t take the above to mean that for fat loss you should only perform low volume, low rep. A lot of women make this mistake and it’s wrong because it doesn't consider the bigger picture.

For fat loss, see; Bulking & Cutting For Women

Start Where You Are Now

There is no use worrying about what you can’t do or don’t know yet, just focus on what you can do and everything else will come from experience.

The wonderful thing about weightlifting, that women don’t always appreciate, is that if you remain consistent, you will get stronger. It’s almost impossible not to when you have the right weightlifting routine.

As mentioned above, there are some fundamentals that don’t change and that is the exercises themselves. Whether you’re lifting the lightest weights in the room, or the heaviest weights in the room, the range of motion on each exercise is the same. What differs is not just the amount of weight you’re lifting, it is also in the rep/set ranges you use and the tempo.

Ultimately, none of this matters if you’re not going to start. So make the decision now to start from wherever you are, whether you’ve never touched a weight in your life, or if you have some solid weightlifting experience. With the right weightlifting routine, you will get stronger, build more muscle and if you want to burn more fat, you will be in a much better position to do so.

Building Your Weightlifting Routine

It is important to understand the above fundamentals in order to build yourself a good weightlifting routine.

Again, there is a lot more to be said on this that goes beyond the scope of this single article. You can learn more about constructing a good weightlifting routine here.

Why You Need A Heavy Weightlifting Routine

A good weightlifting routine is responsible for building physical strength and power, as well as altering your physique. Besides the physical outcomes, heavy weightlifting is also an incredibly empowering sport.

With weightlifting, it’s almost impossible not to get results. The reason women often struggle to build muscle is because the methods they have been sold as “toning” do not work. We covered this in detail in this article; Toning Exercises For Women - What Toning Really Means.

The most important thing for you to keep in mind is that muscle is built as a result of resistance and repetition. That’s why we say “heavy for you” weights. Besides the physical, you should also keep in mind that you need to be in a calorie surplus to build muscle.

A Weightlifting Routine For Fat Loss

It is very common for women to approach us looking for a weightlifting routine that will help with fat loss. If this is your goal, you first need to understand how weightlifting is the optimum sport for fat loss and how it works. This has been covered in this article; Strength Training For Women’s Fat Loss.

Ultimately, with the correct strategy, weightlifting is by far the most sustainable route to fat loss, the reason being is that it alters your body composition which in turn speeds up your metabolism. So you don’t just burn calories when you lift, or for the hours after you lift. You burn more calories simply existing, because the extra lean muscle in your body increases your TDEE. Again, this has been covered in the above linked article.

Target Any Muscle Group You Want To Grow

Another wonderful thing about weightlifting is that you can put together a routine that targets any muscle group you want to grow. You are fully in control of which muscle groups you build.

Use the compound exercises for overall strength and power, then hone in on your desired muscle groups with isolation exercises.

This is one of the benefits of being able to build your own weightlifting routines. Naturally there is a learning curve to overcome here, you need to have a good understanding of which exercises target which muscle groups, and then you need to pull your routine together.

To get you started, see our weightlifting exercise database.

Fast Track Your Results With Lipstick Lifters Weightlifting Routines

The reason we lift heavy is because it is the fastest possible way to build muscle (“tone”) and get stronger.

Light weights and bands, - which are typically used in "women’s workouts", - have their place; but they don't build muscle and strength.

There are different techniques to build mass, strength and cut fat. For optimum results these methods are used in conjunction with each other. Understanding how to bring it all together comes with experience and that is what we teach at Lipstick Lifters.

Our goal is to make you gym independent and we do that with our learn as you lift approach. We provide you with weightlifting routines that get the fastest possible results, so you get to prove the benefits to yourself, on yourself, as quickly as possible. Once you see this working, you will be more enthused to keep going and we can support you with that too. In fact, we keep supporting you until you reach a point where you feel you are ready to build your own weightlifting workouts.

Sample Our Weightlifting Routines For Free

Below are the free plans we have available for women who are interested in weightlifting. To get access simply create your free members zone account.

All of our weightlifting routines are delivered through our Members Zone portal and they include video demonstrations of each exercise.

Warm Up Plans

1 x Circuit Plan

1 x HIIT Plan

1 x No Equipment Plan

Workout Plans

1 x Back, Shoulders & Triceps Workout Plan

1 x Boobs & Biceps Workout Plan

1 x Bum & Thighs Workout Plan

1 x Legs Workout Plan

Finisher Plans

1 x Abs & Core Finisher Plan

1 x Cardio Finisher Plan

1 x Legs Finisher Plan

1 x Upper Body Finisher Plan

If you’re a little confused by the above, don’t worry, we will show you how to bring it all together.

Create your free account and get access to the above gym workouts now >>>

Weightlifting Routines For Women FAQs

How heavy should the weights be for a beginner weightlifting routine?

Everyone will start at a different level, wherever you are, you should focus on working with an amount of weight that you start to struggle with around the 8th rep of a 10 rep set. You may need to try a few different weights for each exercise to find your sweet spot. A good indication that you can go heavier is if you are performing 10 clean reps with ease.

Can women bulk up from weightlifting routines?

Yes, that’s the entire point of weightlifting, to build muscle. With that said, you should know that most women do not produce enough testosterone to build muscle at the same rate as men. It also takes time and consistent effort to build muscle, so you are fully in control of how far you take this.

Are compound exercises suitable for all fitness levels?

Suitable and necessary, you should focus first on compound exercises. Unless you are rehabbing an injury or have some physical ailment that stops you from performing compound exercises. Everyone else should base their entire weightlifting routine on a compound exercise

How often should women perform their weightlifting routine per week?

You should aim to lift at least 2-4 times per week, but you should not perform the same weightlifting routine every time. See: The Importance Of Muscle Group Rotation