The National Women's Health Information Center recommends strength training at least twice a week in addition to aerobic activities and stretching. Only 21 percent of women follow this advice, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, despite the potential of a sleeker, stronger body for a modest time investment. You can use weight machines, free weights or your own body's weight for push-ups, sit-ups, lunges and other training.
Benefits
You'll probably find weight training sessions three times a week more practical than extended daily workouts. "You don't have to be in the weight room for 90 minutes a day to see results," notes Dr. Edward Laskowski, co-director of the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center. "You can see significant improvement in your strength with just two or three 20- or 30-minute weight training sessions a week." And a 2006 study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that lifting weights twice a week slowed down middle-age spread and weight gain among overweight and obese women from ages 24 to 44.
Considerations
Start slowly. You'll want to do at least 10 different activities, with eight to 12 repetitions of each activity, and multiple sets of repetitions as you get stronger week by week. Once you can do 12 repetitions at a set weight, gradually increase the weight, recommends MayoClinic.com.
Time Frame
Rest at least one full day between exercising each full muscle group. Some women work all the major muscle groups during sessions three times a week, while others work specific muscle groups daily, for example, the upper body on Mondays, the lower body on Tuesdays, and so on.
Types
In "Strength Training for Women," personal trainer Lori Incledon suggests four ideas for structuring your workout week. If you want to commit to three workouts a week, you can work on your upper body, lower body and a core circuit, or your total body each session. If you want four workouts a week, you can try total body, metabolic circuit, upper body, and lower body and core; or chest and back; legs; shoulders, lats and arms; and deadlift and core. Metabolic circuits combine weight stations with skipping, jogging or sprinting.
Expert Insight
Incledon recommends maintaining a training log to record your gym visits, tracking exercises completed, weight amounts lifted, reps, sets and rest periods. Look at the log to note increases in the weight you've lifted and to see if it's time to add some variety to your routine. You can shorten rest periods, add metabolic circuits, train while balancing on stability balls or experiment with plyometrics, trying jump squats with a barbell behind the neck or trying overhead throw-downs, tossing a medicine ball to the ground.
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