Workout and Diet Advice for Women over 45

In Parts 1, 2 and 3, I covered the leg workout, the chest and front delts workout, and the back and rear delts workout respectively, 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 4, and the final of the four-part series.  And to reiterate  –  the split I use may seem  a little unusual, though by now I suspect some of you are waiting anxiously for the final part.   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.  Any and all feedback on this routine is welcomed.

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 ongoing workouts are all 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 pointers (repeated with each of the 4 parts):

• 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 4 –  Arms and Side (lateral) Deltoids in 15-20 minute workout : 

• Do Barbell curls using a weight that allows you to do 12 reps.   The grip is about shoulder-width.   
• Superset the curls with dips and use machine that allows assisted dips if necessary, as long as you use triceps and not chest.   If you prefer, you can do tricep pushdowns using the cables and a short bar; remember to do the exercise slowly.   Do 12 reps .   Do  3 sets of each exercise in the superset.

Then –

• Do dumbbell hammer curls.  (If your gym has the short hammer curl bar – use it; I love it.)   Work slowly – and no throwing your body into this.   Do 12 reps. 
• Superset with dumbbell lateral raises, keeping the shoulders pulled down for maximum value.   Do 12 reps.  Do 2 – 3 sets of each exercise, depending on how the time is going.

Then –

• Do rope cable pushdowns.  (Or if you did cables for triceps as the first exercise, then do single arm cable pushdowns with overhand grip. )  Do 12 – 15 reps. 
• Superset with lateral raises on one of the lateral raise machines.  Do 12 reps.  Do 2 – 3 sets of the superset exercises.

 The tester (me) was able to complete the full workout in under 15 minutes;  arms lend themselves to this time constraint – unless you find yourself resting longer than suggested.  (If I do find I am running tight with time, I will leave off the third shoulders set in favor of completing the 3 sets of triceps or biceps.  I.e. 5 sets instead of 6 in the superset.)  A 10 minutes warm-up and 5–10 minutes stretching rounded out the session.

I hope you have enjoyed the 4-Part series.  I have been asked about a 15-minute routine that people with little knowledge of weight-training could follow  –  and could use on an ongoing basis.  I am looking into that, so ‘watch this space!’