The world's most effective routines are those that increase lean muscle tissue throughout the entire body and elevate the metabolism. Women should follow a routine that includes three or four days a week of strength training, and aerobic exercise at least five days a week to achieve and maintain a toned, curvy physique.
Weight Training
Weight training is essential in building lean muscle tissue. Muscle tissue is essential for keeping women's metabolism high and making daily tasks easier. Muscle tissue is more metabolic reactive than fat tissue, burning up to 50 calories a day per pound of muscle tissue compared to only three calories a day for a pound of fat, notes the ExRx website. Strength train four times a week using compound exercises that work multiple muscle groups, such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses and pullups. Select a weight in which muscle fatigue is reached between eight to 12 repetitions for three sets.
Advanced Weight Training Techniques
Include advanced training techniques in your weight training routine to help stimulate muscle growth and burn more calories during your workout. Super sets are when you perform an exercise, and then immediately perform a different exercise of the same or different muscle group. For example, perform one set of bench press, then immediately complete 10 pushups. There are also tri-sets, three exercises performed back-to-back, and giant sets, four or more exercises performed back-to-back. Drop sets are when you perform one set of an exercise than immediately select a lighter weight and perform another set. One or more "drops" can occur in a drop set.
Sample Training Schedule and Routine
On day one, train your chest and triceps with bench presses, overhead triceps extensions, incline dumbbell presses, dumbbell kickbacks, cable crossovers and drop sets with three "drops" of cable rope pressdowns.
On day two, train your back and biceps with pullups or lat pull downs, bent over barbell rows, seated machine rows and a tri-set of barbell curls, hammer curls and cable curls.
Day three, train your legs with straight leg deadlifts, smith machine squats with a super set of jump squats, leg presses, leg curls, three drops sets of leg extensions and walking lunges.
Day four, train your shoulders and abs with military presses, Arnold presses, bent-over rear deltoid flys, one drop set of at least three "drops" of lateral raises and three giant sets of reverse crunches, leg lifts, crunches and 30 second plank holds.
Aerobic Exercise
Perform aerobic exercise, such as brisk incline walking, at least five days a week at moderate intensity for 30 minutes following your weight training sessions. Do not perform aerobic exercise before weight training aside from a five to 10 minute warmup. Expending too much energy prior to your weight training sessions may cause a decrease in performance. Furthermore, gradually increasing the intensity of your aerobic sessions burns more calories in your workout session than moderate-intensity exercise. Higher-intensity exercise also keeps your metabolism elevated longer after your workout, which can further aid in fat loss. Replace two or three 30-minute moderate-intensity aerobic sessions with five to 10 sprint interval training sessions, lasting 30 to 60 seconds each with a 30 to 60 second recovery interval. Do not perform high-intensity sprint intervals on consecutive days or following your leg workout.
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