Workout and Diet Advice for Women over 45

In Parts 1 and 2, I covered  the leg workout and the chest and front delts workout that I do in 15-20 minutes.  I add in 15 minutes to warm up and stretch, so in 30 minutes I can get a good workout when I am pressed for time.

This is part 3 of the four-part series.  And to reiterate  –  the split I use may seem  a little unusual, though by now some of you are really warming to it.  I split the upper body into back, chest and arms and I split the shoulders over three days as well, so that I do some shoulders on each of the upper body days.  I admit that I did not develop this routine; I was lucky enough to have a trainer share it with me.  I look forward to your feedback on this routine.

Disclaimer:  I am not suggesting this will work for everyone on the planet.  My target audience is women, and especially women 45 and older.  So no, if you are training for Mr (or Ms) Olympia I am not recommending this for you.  This is also not meant for ongoing use over the long term  –  i.e. if your usual workouts are not more than 15 minutes we probably need to talk………   To continue:

As before I have tried out the workout in the time allotted to make sure it was more than theory.     And feel free to leave comments or send me emails for additional details.

Now the additional disclaimers and some pointers (and I will repeat them with each new day’s exercises):

• This post assumes a certain level of understanding of weight training, on the part of the reader.  I describe the exercises but cannot give sufficient detail for someone who has not used weights.  That would be dishonest and frankly dangerous.
• Most of the workouts can be performed in 15- 20 minutes. 
• The posts assume that the warm-up and stretch are performed outside of the 15 minutes of weight-training; and warm-up and stretch are recommended.
• Most of the exercises are done as supersets with another exercise.  Don’t rest between the two exercises, and rest about 30 seconds before starting the next superset.
• Do not do the exercises ‘fast’.  Slow down and work intensely.

Day 3 –  Back and Rear  Deltoids in 15-20 minute workout : 

• Do pull-ups using a grip that is mid-range grip (not too wide).  Use the machine that gives support for pull-ups.  I am assuming very few of us can to unassisted pull-ups. 
• Superset with bent-over dumbbell rear delt reverse flys/rasies.  I like to do these bent over my partially bent knees with my solar-plexus almost touching my thighs.  (Need more description?  Start in a standing position, legs hip-width apart, bend the knees as you push out your butt, so your thighs are almost parallel to the ground and your upper body is bent over the knees and your back is straight – from butt to head.   Arms are curved and hands are in front of your shins with dumbbells near each other, parallel to floor.  Using dumbbells raise your arms out to the side away from your body in a reverse fly.  Lead with your elbows.) Do 12 reps of the reverse flys.   Do  3 sets of each exercise.

Then –

• Do seated rows using a machine.  I suggest this in preference to seated cable rows because cable rows are considered to be less than ideal in terms of protecting the lower back.
• Superset with the reverse pec deck flys.  Do 12 reps for each exercise and do 2 sets of each.

Then –

• Do bent over  dumbbell rows.  And I like this variation:  using the same position as described for the reverse flys above, hold  the dumbbells slightly ahead of you, hands and dumbbells are perpendicular to the ground.  For this exercise use a heavier weight than we’ve been using for other exercises  –  our backs are large and strong (use at least 20 pounds).  Bring both arms up and back in a row at the same time, and remember to blow out air and use your abs as you do this.

Do 12 reps and 3 sets.

The tester (me) was able to complete the full workout in under 15 minutes; (I added in an additional rear delt exercise and was still within 16 minutes).  10 minutes warm-up and 5–10 minutes stretching rounded out the session.