Professional female bodybuilders follow an intensive training and diet program to build heft and size. Most women, however, will not reach such massive size unless they take on the same rigorous programs. Beginners who work out at least three times a week can see visible changes in about three months.
Maintain Cardio Fitness
Start every resistance training session with at least 20 minutes of moderate cardio as a warm-up for your heart and lungs. Bodybuilders build muscles, and the most important muscle is the heart muscle, moving blood through the body to fuel all workouts. Your lungs also must efficiently move oxygen to all of your muscles. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends all healthy adults get at least 30 minutes of cardio five times a week or, if you do resistance training twice a week, three, 20-minute sessions of vigorous cardio are adequate.
Work Upper and Lower Body Different Days
Exercising the same muscles daily will not allow them to repair adequately. Instead, divide your workouts into upper and lower body so that you can exercise all muscle groups without overtraining; this will help prevent injuries. All weightlifting creates microtears in the muscles and by taking a day off to rest those muscles, they repair and grow larger and stronger.
Exercise Opposing Muscles
Work opposing pairs of muscles, the so-called "pulling" and "pushing" muscles of the body. This means you work front and back of every body part so you develop muscle symmetry. For example, do biceps curls and triceps kickbacks so that the front and back of the upper arms are equally developed. In the same way, work the quadriceps and hamstrings of the legs by doing seated double leg extensions and lying hamstring curls.
Do Ab Exercises for Spinal Stability
Include important abdominal exercises so that the deep core muscles act as a supportive brace to the spine. For example, crunches will work the upper and lower abs. Lying leg lifts will work the lower abs. Learn proper lifting technique so that you always feel the specific muscles working and getting appropriately fatigued. If you don't feel the muscle groups, you may not be working them efficiently.
Sample Upper Body Workout
Start with the upper body as that is often challenging for beginner female bodybuilders. Do eight to 12 reps for one to three sets of each exercise. A sample upper body workout might include: jumping jacks for a minute, wall pushups, lat pulldowns, seated rows, standing triceps, biceps curls, lying chest press with dumbbells and lying dumbbell flyes. Do eight to 12 different exercises for each resistance training workout.
Lower Body Workout
A sample lower body workout might include walking five flights of stairs slowly, one step at a time, or walking dumbbell lunges, seated leg abduction, seated leg adduction, seated leg extensions, hamstring curls, leg press, step ups on a platform and ending with setting a soccer ball on the floor and lightly "tapping" it with your feet by hopping and touching it with your feet as you move around the soccer ball.
Create Your Workout Plan
Start with 20 minutes of moderate cardio such as walking, biking, stair climbing or easy jog. The first week, do two weightlifting sessions: one for the upper body and lower body of eight to 12 reps for one set. The second week, do two sets. The third week, expand to three days a week of one set. The fourth week, do three days of two sets. The fifth week, expand to four days of one set. Repeat the sixth week. If it is appropriate, on the seventh week do four days of two sets. Repeat for weeks eight and nine. Continue for weeks 10 and 11 or, if appropriate, do four days, three sets. The idea is to train to see increasing muscle strength, size and definition without strain or obvious physical exhaustion. It would be fine, for example, to train three days for three sets for three months before increasing the difficulty.
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