Maddie Do you want to use strength training to lose weight but don’t know where to start? And have you ever felt completely lost when you try to create a workout routine for yourself?
If you’ve been faced with any of the above questions, don’t fret. My name is Maddie, and I am a strength athlete as well as an ACE-certified personal trainer.
I’m hopeful that this blog post will allow you to become more confident with creating both fun and effective weight loss workouts, as the content below reveals my top tips for creating an effective workout routine!
This post is all about the BEST way you can use strength training to lose weight.
*Note: This post includes several Amazon affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my link (at no extra cost to you). Please read full disclosure here. Also, I am not a doctor or dietician. I am a personal trainer. It’s always best to speak with your doctor before making any changes to your diet and/or lifestyle.
What we’ll cover…
- Workout frequency
- Structuring your workouts
- Compound vs. isolation exercises
- How many exercises in each workout?
- How to program reps, sets, & rest
- Progressive overload
- Home workouts
- A sample workout
After reading this post, don’t forget to check out…
49 Awesome Fat-Burning Exercises: What Exercises Burn the Most Calories?
3 Insanely Important Powerlifting for Weight Loss Factors You NEED to Consider
6 of the BEST Exercises for Strength Training
“How often should I strength train each week?”
In terms of strength training for weight loss beginners, you can make great progress while weight training only two to three times per week. Let me elaborate: I’ll use myself as an example.
If I am completely new to exercise, my muscles aren’t used to any kind of regular stress, meaning adaptations will occur quickly. As I get stronger and my muscles become more accustomed to that stress, I’ll have to increase the number of days I’m in the gym to continue making progress.
But for now, don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to work out every day; try staying consistent two to three days a week and see what happens. Also, be sure to enjoy the newbie gains period while it lasts!
“What kind of exercises should I be performing together?”
The program that you’ll follow is called a workout split, and within your workout split, muscle groups should be arranged together by similarity.
However, this doesn’t necessarily apply if you plan on weight training twice a week. In that case, you will benefit most by doing two full body workouts, ideally leaving at least one day of rest between.
If you instead decide you want to work out three times a week, you can split up certain muscle groups into days (examples below). Full body workouts or not, you should incorporate both compound and isolation exercises into your workout routine (see next point).
Here are two examples of a 3-day split.
Example split #1:
Monday–chest, triceps, & shoulders
Wednesday–quads, hamstrings, & glutes (plus calves if you must, LOL)
Friday–back, biceps, & core
Example split #2:
Monday–chest, triceps, & quads, (calves)
Wednesday–shoulders & core
Friday–back, biceps, hamstrings, & glutes
*These are just a few examples. You can structure your workout routine however you want, as there are lots of possibilities! Although, try to space them out with at least a day of rest between to allow for adequate muscle recovery.
Compound vs. isolation exercises
As stated above, the exercises within your split should be a good mix of both compound and isolation exercises (if your goal is to lose weight strength training, you should consider having compound-dominant workouts).
Compound exercises are movements that involve more than one muscle group at a time, whereas isolation exercises are the opposite: they only target one specific muscle group.
Compounds are known to have the most “bang for your buck“–burning more calories and building greater strength overall, but isolation exercises do have their own benefits as well.
Generally speaking, you’ll start your workouts with compounds and end them with isolation movements. Here are several examples of specific exercises within each category.
Compound exercises:
- Squats
- Bench press
- Deadlift
- Barbell shoulder press
- Push-ups
- Pull-ups
Isolation exercises:
- Bicep curls
- Tricep kickbacks
- Dumbbell lateral raises
- Calf raises
- Chest flys
- Hamstring curls
WF Athletic Supply Dumbbell Set
This awesome dumbbell set by WF Athletic Supply is PERFECT for home workouts!
It offers a dumbbell rack as well as 5-25 pound dumbbell sets!
“How many strength training exercises should I do per workout?”
Anywhere from five to eight strength training exercises per workout is ideal–any more than eight can be overkill.
Just starting out, there is no reason you need to spend more than an hour doing your strength workout. Given this, you can also base the number of exercises on the time you spend at the gym (30-60 mins).
It might just be up to trial and error at first.
Sets, reps, & rest periods
A rep is defined as the number of times you perform a specific exercise, while sets represent how many times you’ll repeat the number of given reps.
If you see something like “3×8,” it indicates 3 sets of 8 reps (normally sets will always be followed by reps).
As a general starting point, 3 sets of 8-12 reps are perfect for each movement. If you cannot do 8 reps with good form using a certain weight, lower the weight slightly. If you can do more than 12 reps with good form using a certain weight, raise the weight slightly.
The amount of rest between sets depends on your goals and the movement itself, but assuming you’re a beginner just getting into it, I would rest 30-90 seconds between sets (probably on the longer end for compounds and on the shorter end for isolation exercises).
Just remember–you always want to be challenging yourself!
“How do I make sure I am continuously progressing my workouts?”
This is known as progressive overload, and it is a very important factor to consider if you want to make strength gains long-term. You can’t do the same weights and rep/set ranges forever–you would never see any progress or get any stronger.
There are multiple ways you can ensure progressive overload:
- Increase the load (weight)
- Bump up the number of reps
- Increase the number of sets
- Decrease rest periods
- Increase time under tension
- Increase amount of time/number of days at the gym
For now, we’ll stick to the top four bullet points.
Point 1 (increase the load): If you can easily perform 3 sets of 12 reps on a given exercise, increase the weight.
Point 2 (bump up the number of reps): If you can easily perform 3 sets of 8 reps on a given exercise, increase it to 10 reps. If you can easily perform 3 sets of 10 reps, increase to 12 reps.
Point 3 (increase the number of sets): If there is an instance where you would prefer to increase the sets instead of the reps, it is a great way to apply progressive overload also. For example, if I don’t want to bench press above 8 reps, I could (instead of 3 sets) bench press 4 sets of 8. Or I could just go back to point one, increasing the load. Either way, you would be applying progressive overload and that’s all that really matters.
Point 4 (decrease rest periods): If I had been resting 90 seconds between hamstring curl sets, I could instead rest 70 seconds–I would be giving my muscles less time to recover between sets, making the next set more difficult.
“What about strength training to lose weight at home?”
You may be asking yourself, “can I do all of this at home?” Yes and no. There are compound exercises you can do within the comfort of your own home, but (unless you have a rack and platform) they won’t be nearly as effective.
I highly recommend taking advantage of a gym’s equipment if you have the resources to do so.
But if not, you can still make progress at home and being a beginner makes that progress happen a lot easier. There are some good bodyweight exercises, although I would have at least a few sets of dumbbells at a variety of weights.
Home workouts should still follow all of the principles mentioned above.
(RELATED POST: Working Out At Home For Beginners | 6 Things You NEED To Know)
Pulling it all together
Now that you have a deeper understanding of the specifics, I will put together an example workout incorporating all of the elements we’ve discussed so far.
Below you’ll find strength training exercises and gym workouts to lose weight strength training:
| SETS/REPS | EXERCISE |
| 3×8 | Barbell Bench Press (90 sec. rest between sets) |
| 3×8 | Strict Press (90 sec. rest between sets) |
| 3×12 | Incline Dumbbell Press (60 sec. rest between sets) |
| 3×12 | Skull Crushers (60 sec. rest between sets) |
| 3×12 | Shoulder Flys (30 sec. rest between sets) |
| 3×12 | Cable Tricep Pushdowns (30 sec. rest between sets) |
| SETS/REPS | EXERCISE |
| 3×8 | Barbell Squats (90 sec. rest between sets) |
| 3×8 | Deadlifts (90 sec. rest between sets) |
| 3×12 | Barbell RDLs (60 sec. rest between sets) |
| 3×12 | Leg Press (60 sec. rest between sets) |
| 3×12 | Leg Extensions (30 sec. rest between sets) |
| 3×12 | Hamstring Curls (30 sec. rest between sets) |
Wellness Planner & Food Journal
We SWEAR BY this incredible wellness journal by The Legend Planner Store!
It allows you to keep track of your lifestyle, nutrition, and workouts. All of which are crucial for strength training for weight loss female at home!
The takeaway
Here are the most important things to remember in regards to strength training to lose weight women:
Start by strength training two to three times per week; choose either full body workouts or a split dividing up similar muscle groups.
Your plan should include both compound and isolation exercises, and compounds should come first in your workouts, followed by isolation work.
When strength training to lose weight, your workouts should be made up of predominately compound exercises. Each workout should contain five to eight exercises.
Doing 3 sets of 8-12 reps is a good starting point. 30 to 90 seconds of rest between sets is ideal.
Be sure to check out Lifting Weights for Women | 12 Important Tips from a Strength Athlete as well! It provides advice about strength training in general and important lifestyle factors to consider.
And that’s it, folks! I really do hope this information was of benefit to you, and that you now know exactly in terms of strength training to lose weight.
