Training programs for women
The fitness scene called Anya in 2011, and since then she has become a regular participant in competitions under the auspices of the WBFF. Check out her training program and learn how to get your body in shape and closer to winning your upcoming competitions!
Author:
Anya Partin
I was born and raised in Poland. She married a diver who served in the Coast Guard and thought only about training and healthy eating. As a military wife, I had to get used to the constant change of location and long deployments of my husband. This is constant stress, which, I tell you, is not easy to cope with, especially taking into account that we have a growing son.
I came to fitness in March 2009, and it became the beginning of a new life for me. My son was only 2 years old at the time, I bought a sports stroller, decided to start running and signed up for the gym. Imagine my surprise when I couldn’t run even one and a half kilometers. A frail girl in poor physical shape. It was time to change something, and I decided to completely focus on my health.
In just two years, I went from skinny to a slender and confident girl with developed muscles. Seeing how much my body had changed, I decided to take part in the first bikini fitness competition in my life, it was in June 2011. When I started preparing, my weight was the same as it is today, only the composition of the fabrics had changed dramatically . I started buying clothes several sizes smaller, lost several inches of volume, and my body fat percentage dropped from 19 to 11.
In just two years, I went from skinny to a slender and confident girl with developed muscles.
What training schedule produces the best results?
My training is very intense. I like circuit training with minimal rest. I love strength exercises, but in one workout I work no more than 2-3 muscle groups (or even less) so as not to overload my metabolism. I experiment with different exercises to avoid training plateaus and plain boredom. I constantly return to working my abdominals, doing 2 or 3 exercises every 2-3 days. Six times a week, I complete my strength training with a cardio session, which lasts 20-30 minutes in the off-season and 40 to 50 minutes when preparing for competitions.
My workouts are very intense
The main dangers of the “bikinist” lifestyle
Unfortunately, many competing “fit girls” pay for their ideal bodies with big health problems and irreversible changes in appearance. Let's look at the most typical of them.
“Blown-out” chest.
“Unfortunately, it is impossible to keep breasts natural. Personally, before the competition my breast size was 3.5. After the competition he went to zero. Because what are breasts? This is fat. And when we dry out the body, the chest also dries out. That is why all performing athletes “make” themselves silicone breasts,” explains Anna Starodubtseva.
Amenorrhea.
“The issue of amenorrhea is very relevant, but, unfortunately, few people talk about it,” emphasizes Anna Starodubtseva. According to her, there are two types of “bikinists” who experience a lack of periods. “The first category is those who greatly underestimate fats, do a lot of training and cardio on too low a calorie diet. The second category is girls who do everything right, but genetically the body reacts heavily to various sources of stress, and specifically by stopping reproductive function. In such girls, amenorrhea can occur not only due to preparation, but also other stressful situations,” explains the expert.
Poor skin and hair condition.
According to Anna Starodubtseva, the exhausting lifestyle of “bikinists” leads to premature aging of the skin and loss of its elasticity, as well as constant “jumps” in body fat - from the competition norm to the “off-season” norm.
To avoid all these problems, any novice athlete should be very careful about her diet and habits. “It is not advisable to use diuretics; it is important not to lower the calorie content of food below 1000 kcal per day, use vitamin and mineral complexes and consume a sufficient amount of unsaturated fatty acids (found in vegetable oils, fish oil, seeds, nuts),” says Dmitry Topilin. Anna Starodubtseva also adds that it is important to closely monitor the percentage of subcutaneous fat in the body. If you do not plan to compete, or are not currently preparing for the competition, then it should be no lower than 15-16%.
What supplements do you prefer?
With 1st meal
Optimum Nutrition Opti-Women:
More than just a multivitamin. Women's formula for good health!
Universal Nutrition Vitamin C Formula:
500 mg vitamin C! A vital vitamin and antioxidant!
Twinlab Super CoQ10:
50 mg CoQ10 per serving! Support a healthy cardiovascular and immune system!
Before training
Optimum Nutrition Glutamine Powder:
Pure L-Glutamine! To enhance muscle growth and recovery!
Ultra workout
MusclePharm Re-Con:
Post-workout complex. Accelerates muscle recovery processes.
After training
BSN True Mass 1200:
Multifunctional gainer. High-calorie protein mixture for gaining muscle mass!
With the 3rd meal
Optimum Nutrition Glutamine Powder:
Pure L-Glutamine! To enhance muscle growth and recovery!
With the 4th meal
Universal Nutrition Vitamin C Formula:
500 mg vitamin C! A vital vitamin and antioxidant!
Twinlab Super CoQ10:
50 mg CoQ10 per serving! Support a healthy cardiovascular and immune system!
Before bedtime
Optimum Nutrition Glutamine Powder:
Pure L-Glutamine! To enhance muscle growth and recovery!
How did your passion for fitness begin?
My fitness journey began when we lived on the beautiful island of Guam. I went to the gym and started taking part in fitness classes.
My friends joined me at the gym (some of whom were already fitness instructors and personal trainers) and they inspired me to become a personal trainer. Some of my friends took part in competitions. I saw my friends change their appearance and improve and was ready to challenge myself with unprecedented zeal. My dream came true and I went on stage for the first time in July 2011.
Stay committed to your dreams and never give up
Fitness bikini workout program. Drying training method for fitness bikini
Here I will describe some secrets of cutting training for a fitness bikini. The most important thing for this category is not to overpump and not be massive. We are more interested in the proportions and balance of the figure.
Priority Exercise Set
For us, first of all, the following exercises will be a priority:
- Squats, classic
- Leg press
- Bent-overs with a barbell, or deadlifts with dumbbells
- Swing dumbbells to the sides, bent over, in front of you
- Bent-over dumbbell row
- Leg curls in the simulator
- Incline Bench Crunch
- Side lying twist
This is a basic set of exercises needed to build a proportional figure worthy of a fitness bikini. One more nuance: you shouldn’t gain much in relief, we’re not preparing for bodybuilding. The condition should be as close as possible to relief, but without muscle cross-section and fiber division.
Special exercises
Pull-ups are a very useful exercise for our posture, because on stage we need to be as straight as a cane, but not lose flexibility.
- We set the weight on the blocks so that we can pull ourselves up 10-15 times. This is approximately 25-30 kg.
- We perform 3 or 4 approaches.
- As if we are trying to bring our elbows together behind our backs, our shoulder blades are brought together.
- We hold with a wide grip.
- If there is no “gravitron”, it can be replaced by rowing from the upper block with a wide grip to the chest. The technique for performing the exercise is the same.
Why perform a “stomach vacuum”? This exercise will help us get rid of a saggy or bulging belly. By doing this exercise, you will strengthen the weakened walls of the abs. Few people think about this exercise, and even fewer use it because they don’t know about it. Thanks to the vacuum we can also achieve a narrow waist.
Technique:
- Sitting on a bench or chair, we pull our stomach in all the way. We try to pull in the lower abdomen.
- When we release the stomach back, we do it with muscle tension, as if pressing the upper abdominal muscles into the lower abdomen.
You can also do this on an inclined bench or lying on the floor;
- Lying on the floor, we fix our feet under a counter or some object where we can fix them. Essentially these are the same “twisting”
- We keep our backs in a semi-circle when we go down and when we go up. At the same time, we pull the lower abdomen into ourselves at the upper extreme point. And we repeat again.
You need to perform 3-4 sets of 10-15 repetitions. We do it at a slow pace, keeping the abdominal muscles tense.
I recommend doing an exercise for the upper pectoral muscles in the Smith machine. This is effective isolation for this group, since we do not need to maintain balance and monitor the progress of the movement.
- This exercise is performed with the same technique as on a regular bench.
- There is less stress on the back here.
- The front deltoids and triceps are included in the work.
This exercise differs from the usual side bends with dumbbells, from the side bends through the goat. It is the oblique abdominal muscles that work here. That is, work is underway on isolation. The most important thing is that the back muscles are not involved here, and the stabilizer muscles take on less of the load, which will prevent our waist from getting fat.
Recommendation for pumping your legs
You need to pump your legs at the end of the week. This is necessary so that your legs do not get too tired. After all, if you pump them up at the beginning of the week, your legs will hurt the entire training time. So let's shake our legs on Thursday.
On Friday we have a light training session. We don’t stress ourselves too much before the weekend so that on Saturday and Sunday we can rest properly and recover after a difficult training program and after pumping our legs.
How to make a narrow waist
You can create a narrow waist by pumping up your abdominal muscles and doing crunches on an inclined bench. At the same time, we try to strain the lower abdomen, as if pulling it into ourselves. We also do the side crunch exercise, this is an effective exercise for pumping up the oblique abdominal muscles. You can do side turns with the bar on your shoulders, or with a cane.
You should not bend to the sides with a dumbbell, since this exercise works the stabilizer muscles, and they only expand our waist.
Regarding cardio exercises: it is best to give preference to the orbitrek. This is a very good simulator and can be used in almost all programs and techniques. I know that not all fitness bikinis do cardio exercises and build a good figure without them. But we also need to take into account the genetic component. Some people succeed without it, while others can’t do it without cardio. Therefore, experiment, try different techniques and complexes.
Don't forget about symmetry, this is an important part of all preparation. The top and bottom should form a harmonious and beautiful figure. To do this, you need to focus your exercises on the shoulder girdle and legs. And of course - a cutting diet. After all, if we do not comply with it, then all our efforts will come to nothing.
Who or what makes you lead a healthy lifestyle?
I have very strong internal motivation. Today I want to be better than yesterday. My motivation is so persistent, and my desire to be fit and beautiful is so strong that I don’t need any additional external influence. Fitness, like life, is a journey, not a destination.
I'm training for the WBFF Championships in Edmond in October. I will compete with girls in the fitness star category. I have a passionate desire to help people by example in achieving their goals, to inspire and motivate them, to pass on the gift that has been given to me. I will continue to be strong physically and mentally, and remain committed to my dreams.
Today I want to be better than yesterday
Nutrition and workout plan for girls. Training program and features of the female body
Training programs for men and women are different, and rightly so. The reason is the characteristics of the body. In particular, representatives of the fair half contain much less testosterone and norepinephrine, so they are physically unable to strain their muscles to failure during strength training, which greatly limits their ability to work out muscles.
Women also have fewer muscle fibers in their bodies, so they need to perform more repetitions than men to achieve the same performance. The best option for girls is 12-15 times, while guys can limit themselves to 6-8.
The main part of the muscles in a woman’s body is located in the lower part of the body and falls on the legs and buttocks. That is why, even with a super-effective training program created specifically for girls, it is much more difficult for them to pump up their chest, back, and abs.
Particular attention should be paid to the process of carbohydrate absorption. In this regard, the female body behaves differently than the male body. Remember: it is much easier for girls to gain weight by consuming large amounts of flour products, cereals and sweets, because excess carbohydrates quickly take the form of fat deposits.
But! You cannot refuse them, since they are necessary for building muscles. If you don't have a goal to build bodybuilder muscles, you need to take care of proper nutrition to get rid of excess fat and build muscles. This is necessary in order to get yourself into an attractive athletic shape.
The menstrual cycle also leaves its mark on the training program for girls. Within two weeks after ovulation, a woman’s body goes into strict energy saving mode.
This means that the intensity of training can be reduced, and exercises on the legs and abs can be completely eliminated, since they will be almost useless.
But in the first half month after the end of the menstrual cycle, on the contrary, you need to load the muscles to the maximum. The effectiveness of the training will be high.
In order for the effectiveness of training for girls to meet expectations, in no case should they include elements of split training designed for myofibrillar hypertrophy. Women have different goals, so they should rather do full-body workouts.
Maximum effectiveness from exercises aimed at burning fat can be expected with prolonged low-intensity exercise with a heart rate of no more than 120-130 beats per minute according to the Karvonen method.
