DEC-18 LADIES #HyperWorkouts – 8w Gym Workout Plan

4x DAY High-Volume Hypertrophy Training Block – 3 sets of 7x Exercises per day, including a blend of compound, isolation and multi-plane movements. 3x Pure Strength Days scheduled.

Here’s the last 8-Week #HyperWorkouts training programme of 2018, that Michelle is personally following December through to end of January 2019. Phased-programming to follow throughout the year.

Read on for the LADIES DEC-18 Programme that contains 4x 60-90min Weight Training Workouts, an optional Yoga/Spin day, plus an intermittent Strength Day. There are 5x 1min YouTube guide videos and workout lists for each day, as well as links to each of the exercise vids.

The videos are live-footage of Michelle’s actual current workouts – real weight and no demo sets. #RAW!

In addition to the Training Videos, you’ll find:

• Training Block Objectives & Who it is suited for
• Useful Resources for further reading, depending on goal & current knowledge
• Mobile-friendly Downloadable Copies of Training Block & Training Sessions
• Option to Import Training Block directly into HeavySet Weight Training iOS App & try for free!
• And for the gym geeks, the Design Principles and other Training Pointers

3rd BLOCK FROM THE BREAK-THE-MOULD BODY PLAN!

If you haven’t already, you should definitely check out the BREAK-THE-MOULD Body Plan article series, that breaks a few eggs in an attempt to show a different, more exciting and sustainable plan to building your best feminine body ever.

OBJECTIVES OF THIS TRAINING BLOCK 

Read BREAK-THE-MOULD Part 4 for the overall Training programme design, that includes flexibility and options to include a Yoga-style session and one class-based aerobic session.

1. 4x 60-90MIN SESSIONS – Consisting of 4 Hypertrophy Weight Training Sessions per week
2. PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD – requiring more volume to be achieved from week to week to illicit muscle and strength gains
3. BODY-PART SPLIT – There are 2x Full Body and 2x Upper/Lower Body-Part Splits
4. HIGHER-REPS, MORE MOVEMENT – A focus on Hypertrophy, which means muscle growth favoured over raw strength. Higher reps, more variation movements and focus on hitting key muscle groups from multiple angles
5. LIGHTER COMPOUND LIFTING – There’s still a focus on the big compound multi-joint lifts that provide best bang for your buck, but weights are lowered this Training Block
6. FEMALE-CENTRIC – Emphasis on development of Glutes, Thighs, Arms, Shoulders and Back, whilst de-emphasising Traps, Chest, Obliques and Calves
7. 3x STRENGTH TRAINING DAYS – scheduled throughout the 8-weeks, these will keep familiarity and practice up on the big lifts

IMPORTANT: Can be used for Lowering, Increasing or Maintaining Bodyweight. The critical factor to which path you take on this programme will be your diet plan.

WHO IS THIS PROGRAMME FOR?

Anyone can pick up this programme and benefit. Whether it’s ladies wishing to lose weight and tone up, beginner female gym-goers who wants to develop a more toned physique, or for seasoned intermediate lifters who want to develop greater strength and more muscle mass. No age or capability bias here – anyone can make progress with this well-rounded programme.

Whilst gents can equally benefit from this training block, there have been a number of adjustments to better suit most ladies physique goals. As such, for guys, i’s worth looking at the general DEC-18 #HyperWorkouts Training Block.

What’s Critical to Note is this…

You can’t out-train a bad diet, and any physique goal must be paired with a diet plan/approach that helps support either Muscle Growth OR Losing Fat (you have to choose, unfortunately).

You can use this Strength Training block as part of a Calorie Surplus to build stronger curves through adding a little extra lean muscle – the reality of ‘toning up’. You can also use this Training Block as part of a Calorie Deficit (a Cut), to help retain your muscle tissue as you lose body fat, and as a great means of increasing your overall energy expenditure (TDEE).

A. Learn How To Best Leverage Your Monthly Cycle

Check out Cycle With Your Cycle – How To Phase Your Training & Nutrition With Your Menstrual Cycle for an understanding of each menstrual phase, identifying similarities in your feelings and energy, and practical training and nutritional guidance to take full advantage of your bodies hormonal changes.

B. Understanding The Importance Of Progressive Overload

If you want to double-click into Progressive Overload, then check out this Podcast – #34: What Is Progressive Overload & All The Ways To Do It.

There is a ton other useful discussion on Training & Nutrition related topics on the AdapNation Podcast – check it out on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.

C. If You Want To Lose Weight (& not necessarily put on muscle size)

Listen to this 2-Part AdapNation Podcast – 101 on Losing Fat for GOOD! Revisited, or read the associated 3-Part Article – Losing Body Fat For Good – Here’s All You Need To Know, and follow this Training Programme. You will see results you want. Strength training is that versatile.

D. If You Want Guidance On Eating To Thrive AND Look Good

Then you’ll want to read up about AdapNation’s IIFYM+ Thrive Eating Approach, as well as check out the 90+ (and growing) exciting meal ideas at AdapNation’s Food Diary. Lastly, check out this Article or Podcast, if you want some practical selection, prepping and cooking tips from Michelle.

This Is Not A Magic Training Programme, But…

There is no such thing. Nor is it a programme that will deliver results for all eternity. You will need to mix it up, to create new stimuli, hit different muscle fibres, and practice other functional patterns.

That said, this is a great place to start for the uninitiated, and is a great alternative to your current training for the more experienced trainers. It will garner results as long as you respect the intent, your diet and proper rest and recovery (rest is critical to results – check this Article out).

You could, if you wish, just do this programme for the next year and continue to get results, assuming you are progressively overloading (see below). Alternatively, and more likely, you will cycle through the #HyperWorkouts every eight weeks, as part of an annual phased programme. For Michelle, this approach helps keeping it fresh, gives her milestones to hit, helps her try new movements, and of course provides the plateau-breaking new stimuli.

THE LADIES DEC-18 TRAINING BLOCK

DAY 1, LOWER BODY

To see all the Exercise Vids for this day, check the DEC-18 LADIES SESSION 1 Instagram Post.

DAY 2, FULL BODY

To see all the Exercise Vids for this day, check the DEC-18 LADIES SESSION 2 Instagram Post.

DAY 3, UPPER BODY

To see all the Exercise Vids for this day, check the DEC-18 LADIES SESSION 3 Instagram Post.

DAY 4, FULL BODY

To see all the Exercise Vids for this day, check the DEC-18 LADIES SESSION 4 Instagram Post.

OPTIONAL: DAY 5/6, Yoga and/or Spin

STRENGTH DAY

Three sessions, scheduled week 2, 5 and 8. Replace either Day 2 or Day 4 for the below Strength Session.

To see all the Exercise Vids for this day, check the DEC-18 STRENGTH DAY Instagram Post.

IMPORT & Start Training Right Away!

If you don’t measure, you can’t manage. Plus, if you want to efficiently get started and blitz through these workouts, there is no better solution than to get this entire Training Block loaded up into HeavySet with just a couple clicks.

Here’s what you need to do:

STEP 1: Install HeavySet iOS App and accept terms (you can perform 2x workouts for free)

STEP 2: Press the button below to load data into HeavySet

STEP 3: Open up the HeavySet app, where it will recognise the routine to import. Click Import and Choose.
STEP 4: Train! Just click on the imported Folder, and select Day 1. Hope you’re in your gym gear already…

For some people, they just want to know what to do and go do it. Others prefer to know why they are doing it. Then there are those who want to not just know why, but what other tricks can they implement. I’m the latter. 🙄 If you’re interested, read on. If not, just get on with the training!

1. Do Not Compromise Form with all this Volume! – there is an incredible amount of volume here. Pick your weights carefully, so you can hit within the Rep Range 8-12 , 12-15 or 15+ as per the programme, without reaching Technical Failure. You’ll get stronger, train just the muscles and will mitigate the risk of strain/ injury, With all these reps, there’s a increased chance of sloppy form causing an issue. Be smart.
2. The Focus is Muscle Growth through High-Volume – This next 8 weeks will not be the time to bust out a new one rep max. That said, all this volume will strengthen and develop lagging body parts that will pay dividends to your strength goals in the long run. In the short term, you may find the first week back to Strength work a bit of a slog. The goal is to increase muscle density and tone with more body part focus, more reps, and greater control.
3. 3x Strength Days Scheduled to Keep Strength Consistent – In order to not lose ‘muscle-memory’ and your ability to command your full CNS into action to lift heavy, there are three Strength Days scheduled through the 8 weeks. The goal in these sessions is to challenge yourself to your 4-6 Rep Maxes, and acts as a useful contrast.
4. Body Part Split with Bias Towards Leg & Bum Toning – Whilst there is a clear split in this training block, the overwhelming focus is still on legs and glute development and tone In doing so, it will also maximise calorie burn per session. This is typically what most women would prefer.
5. Two Ab Super/Giant Sets – You will get a lot of core activation, isometric holding and general training as part of the main working sets. However, we’ve loaded in two Abs finishers to replace the cardio warm down on Day 1 and Day 4. This will help you work on some loaded crunch work and getting increase abdominal volume.
6. More Angles and Dynamic Movements – Introduced into this training bock is a little more variety of movements that target and focus on developing glutes and legs from a range of different planes, angles and rep ranges. These exercises will burn due to the high volume, but you will be able to recover quickly in between sets.

GENERAL WEIGHT TRAINING PROGRAMME GUIDANCE:

1. Progressive Overload is the Most Important Thing – The name of the game is to progress in some fashion every week. This creates a stress response that results in muscle damage followed by repair and body adaptation. So, always aim to improve each lift from week-to-week. Whether it’s more weight (with good form), another set or a couple more reps. Ultimately, you’re looking for more volume from week-to-week (Volume = Weight x Sets x Reps). This Podcast walks you through Progressive Overload and all the ways to do it.
2. The Non-Essential Mobility & Pre-Activation/Power Drills are designed to be completed in 5-10mins Max – You don’t need to do them per se, as they are not core to you burning calories or taxing your body. They are there to prime your body for the functional movements of the day. I personally always do them, but if you feel good to crack on as soon as you walk through the gym, then go for it. You can also do these in between your sets, should you feel a bit tight or are missing mind-muscle connection.
3. Warming Up Recommendations – I would always do 5-10mins of walking or light cycling to get the blood flowing and raise my body temperature before getting started. In addition, I recommend completing a few escalating Warm Up sets ahead of your big Compound Lift for the day (no. 4 & 5). It’s a bad idea to get straight into the maximum weight without a few lighter practice sets.
4. The Role of Cardio – For a deep dive into the pros and cons of cardio, I would recommend you list to this AdapNation Podcast – #4: Cardio Pro and Con Deep Dive. In summary, if you are not training to be an endurance athlete, and cardio is purely a means to burn calories for you, then for the most part you can switch cardio for resistance training. You will see there is a Finisher/Conditioning section per day – it includes just 5-10mins of moderate steady state cardio (or you can do HIIT cardio). The emphasis here is more about active recovery after weight training and getting some stress-relieving deep breaths in, versus the calorie burn.
5. Increase your NEAT for greater Calorie Burn & Weight Loss – instead of doing loads of cardio exercise, I would generally recommend you increase your NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis). Basically, your moving around during the day. Go for walks, stand up regularly from your desk, do housework, yoga, get your steps in etc. You have the chance to burn significantly more calories through NEAT than pounding the streets for 30-60mins.
6. Expect a 250-450 Calorie Burn, plus More! – On average, Michelle burns about 300-400 calories per training session. Lighter folk or those with less muscle will burn less, naturally. Moreover, there then is the recovery energy needed to repair which is yet more calories burned. Even better still, the more lean mass on your frame, the higher your BMR is – as in, you burn more calories every day just by having more muscle. It’s a beautiful thing!

ENJOY! 💪🏻