Thinner Leaner Stronger: The Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Female Body

by Michael Matthews

Day 1: Chest & Calves Day 2: Back & Butt & Abs Day 3: Shoulders & Calves Day 4: Arms & Abs Day 5: Legs & Butt If you don’t want more muscular calves, you can leave all calf training out of your workouts. Your “Back and Butt and Abs” day consists of 3 sets for your butt performed in the 8- to 10-rep range followed by back training in. As you’ll see in the workouts laid out in the next chapter and in the bonus report at the end of the book, this additional butt training will consist of squats, hip thrusts, and glute blasters. Here’s an example of a 5-day week on the program (and remember that “working sets” are your heavy muscle-building sets and “optional” sets are for when you feel like you have a bit more juice left but aren’t mandatory): DAY 1 CHEST & CALVES Incline Barbell Bench Press – Warm-up sets and then 3 working sets Incline Dumbbell Bench Press – 3 working sets Flat Barbell Bench Press – 3 working sets Optional: Dip (Chest Variation) – 3 working sets Calf Workout A If you can’t do dips, find out whether your gym has an assisted dip machine. If it doesn’t and you still want to do 3 more sets in your workout, you can do 3 sets of flat dumbbell presses. DAY 2 BACK & BUTT & ABS Barbell Deadlift – Warm-up sets and then 3 working sets Barbell Squat – 3 working sets Barbell Row – 3 working sets One-Arm Dumbbell Row – 3 working sets 3 to 6 ab circuits If you have lower-back issues, remember that you can swap the deadlift for a more lower-back-friendly variation like the ...

reps. Rest

In your first warm-up set, you want to do 12 reps with about 50 percent of your heavy, 8- to 10-rep set weight and then rest for 1 minute. This set should feel very light and easy.

it’s completely normal. If you can handle the barbell alone and work in your beginning rep range of 8 to 10, then you’re good to go. You’ll quickly get stronger and be able to add weight (and as a general rule, for every 10 pounds you add to the bar, you’ll lose about 2 reps; the same goes for each 5-pound increase on the dumbbells).