12-Week Workout for the Ladies

NOW that Valentines Day is over. Its time to get down to business. There are no other holidays between now and when it will be warm. It’s time to put in 100% focus on getting in the best shape of your life!! That summer body!

I mean the goal is to Look Great and Feel Great… right?!

If so, this 12 week program is perfect for any woman who is looking to transform her body through a good weight lifting program.

The goal is to help you develop lean and functional muscle tone through foundational lifts. The workout itself targets your lower body three times a week with a strong focus on your glutes, and your upper body twice a week with a focus on sculpting the muscles of the arms.

To increase the total number of calories burned each day, there are some recommended cardio sessions that you can do either in the morning or after that day’s workout. However, if you are limited on time, they are not required to see progress with this workout.

Rest periods for this program should be kept to 30-90 seconds in between sets and exercises.

Workout Schedule

• Monday – Legs & Glutes, Cardio (optional)
• Tuesday – Back & Arms, Cardio (optional)
• Wednesday – Legs & Glutes, Cardio (optional)
• Thursday – Chest & Shoulders, Cardio (optional)
• Friday – Legs & Arms, Cardio (optional)
• Saturday – Abs/Active Rest
• Sunday – Abs/Active Rest
  

Monday – Legs & Glutes

Exercise	Sets	Reps
1. Squat	3-4	6-12
2. Dumbbell Lunge	2-3	12-15
3. Dumbbell Step Up	2-3	12-15
4. Barbell Hip Thrust	3	6-12
5. Glute Cable Kickback	2-3	12-15

Cardio – 15 min of HIIT on Stationary Bike

Tuesday – Back & Arms

Exercise	Sets	Reps
1. Pull Downs	3-4	6-12
2. One Arm Dumbbell Row	2-3	12-15
3. Seated Cable Row	2-3	12-15
4a. Dumbbell Curl	3	12
4b. Tricep Overhead Extension	3	12
5a. Cable Curl	3	15
5b. Cable Pressdown	3	15

Cardio – 30 mins of moderate intensity on Stairmill

Wednesday – Legs & Glutes

Exercise	Sets	Reps
1. Goblet Squat	3-4	6-12
2. Romanian Deadlift	2-3	12-15
3. Dumbbell Stiff Leg Deadlift	2-3	12-15
4. Smith Machine Sumo Squats (Glute Focus)	3	6-12
5. Glute Kick Back	3	15

Cardio – 30 min low intensity on treadmill at a 10-15% incline

Thursday – Chest & Shoulders

Exercise	Sets	Reps
1. Dumbbell Bench Press	3-4	6-12
2. Incline Dumbbell Press	2-3	12-15
3. Machine Chest Fly	2-3	12-15
4. Seated Dumbbell Press	3-4	6-12
5. Lateral Raise	2-3	12-15

Cardio – 15 min of HIIT on rower or stationary bike

Friday – Legs & Arms

Exercise	Sets	Reps
1. Deadlifts	3-4	6-12
2. Good Mornings	2-3	12-15
3. Leg Extensions	2-3	12-15
4. Incline Dumbbell Curl	3	12
5. Incline Skullcrusher	3	12

Cardio – 30 min of moderate intensity on a Stairmill

Weekends:

Light activity – recovery walks and optional ab workout

Ab Workout (Optional)

Exercise	Sets	Reps
1. Plank	3	20 sec holds
2. Lying Floor Leg Raise	3	10
3. Crunches	3	20
4. Side Crunches	2	15 each side

**Printable download of the program below

Nutrition

It is important to note that your success with any workout program depends greatly on your nutrition and sleep/recovery habits. Make sure you get 7-9 hours of sleep each night and eat enough calories to help you get the results you desire.

A BMR calculator will help you know how many calories you need to maintain your current body weight.

If your goal is to lose weight, subtract ~250 calories from this number. If you are underweight, try to add ~250 calories to this number. And if you are already at your ideal weight, make sure to eat the proper amount of calories to maintain.

Tracking Progress

It is important to track your results to show you’ve made progress with this program. At the beginning of the 12 weeks you should plan to take your preferred form of measurements.

These measurements can include progress pictures, scale weighing, tape measurements, and skinfold caliper measurements. I recommend starting with what you are most comfortable with first and adding more as you feel comfortable.

The more data you have on yourself, the better you can tinker with variables such as increasing reps, sets, or weight used during your workouts, increasing the hours you sleep each night, increasing the amount of cardio you do each week, and/or increasing or decreasing the amount of calories you eat each day.

How frequently you measure your progress is completely up to you, but I’d recommend doing so once a month or 6 weeks to make sure you are progressing towards your goals.

Progressing with This Workout

You should strive to increase some variable within your workout each week. Whether that means increasing the weight you use or the amount of rep and sets you perform is going to be based on your individual preference.

One way you could go about it is to start off with the low end on all of the set and rep counts. Then each week add a single set on one exercise each day of each week. Once you’re doing all the maximum amount of recommended sets for each exercise, you could then add in 1-2 reps to each set of each exercise for the remaining weeks.

Another way you could progress is to keep your reps and sets the same throughout the whole 12 weeks. But each week you should aim to slightly increase the weight you use for each exercise.

Either way works and will help you see great results.

What Should I Do After the 12 weeks?

After you’ve completed the 12 weeks of this program, you should take a week to deload.

Celebrate the journey you have just taken and decide if you wish to continue to make improvements.

If after you deload, you decide you’d like to try another 12 weeks of this program, then you should come back refreshed and ready to make more progress.

If you have any questions or would like to leave a review for this program, please feel free to leave a comment in the comments section below!

Also, feel free to join the community. Post your progress photos, workouts, etc. and engage with fellow gym junkiez!