Exercise Schedule for 16yr Old Female?!

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Machines really aren't the right way to tone up your legs - free weights are. Machines generally only work a few big muscles and don't do anything for the tiny little stabilizer muscles you have all over your body. A 16 year old girl should not be on machines - you're inviting injury by building up muscles while not doing much of anything for connective tissue or the small stabilizer muscles. You end up literally with too much muscle for your body to handle. Free weights promote flexibility, balance, and a strong core.



For legs:

Try doing squats with dumbbells - hold the dumbbells at your sides with your feet about shoulder width apart and squat down. Your toes should be pointed a little outwards and your knees should bend directly over your toes (they should NOT go beyond them). Keep your heels on the ground - do NOT come up on your toes. Focus on keeping your knees from bowing out or collapsing in - you want your knee to be working in only one direction. Your lower back should be tight and arched inward, with your shoulders back, and you should be looking directly forward throughout the exercise, never down. You probably don't need a lot of weight - indeed, you may not need any at first, particularly if you find it hard to stay on your heels.

For legs and upper body strength a great compound move is the power clean and press. Put two dumbbells on the floor next to your feet. Squat down exactly as described before, grip the dumbbells, and then in an explosive move, stand up while pulling the dumbbells up to your shoulder. Then press them overhead. (In the video I've linked, he holds the weights rather than putting them on the floor.)


Keep in mind that there's no such thing as "toning" muscles, that's a myth. You're working out your muscles just like everyone else. Try to do about 6-8 reps at a time, 5 sets apiece. Use a weight where you're really working hard on the last rep of a set, but you're not losing your form. If you do this regularly and eat plenty of protein, your muscles will be nice and toned, particularly those all-important butt muscles.

(Girls often worry about somehow gaining giant bulging muscles from working out with weights - it can't happen unless you're taking steroids or working ludicrously hard. Men's muscles look different than women because of hormones, not because we exercise more.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEXe15Gus… <-- clean and press
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brl9XEe_X… <-- squat (female instructor)

first of all, for the diet, all you have to do is dont eat junk. and when eating carbs like rice and bread, make sure you choose brown rice, or wheat bread.

as for the gym, i suggest you workout around 3 to 4 times a day. do whole body split per day. meaning, you give each muscle one exercise per session.

when you do your workouts, you should choose a weight that is heavy/light enough that will make you only do around 12-15 reps, 3 sets, have 1 rest in between. (thats the ideal reps and rest for toning muscles, not building mass)

you should start with your upper legs. like Squats or lunges

then your upper body in between, like, pushups, then dumbbell rows for back, then lat raises for shoulders

then do your abs, swiss ball crunches, then leg raises, 30 reps, with 1 minute in between. 3 sets

some days, youre done after that. but on some days, end by working out your calves, calf raises

when you do any kind of exercise you automatically use your stomach muscles to help move/hold up your body. i would do this::

do an ab workout 4 times a week. it doesnt have to be too long either, depending on how tones u want to be. i would say do 10 minutes of an ab video 4 times a week (look on youtube for ab videos they have great ones)

as for toning your legs, what works VERY well is using the tredmill on an incline, meaning walk up hill on the treadmill, your gym tredmill should have that setting. or you can use an eliptical machine and set the resistance to where its less fast and harder to do, that will definately build muscle. and eat meats to help build the muscle, also...eat fruit after you workout it will nourish your muscles alot and help with muscle fatigue! good luck hun! :)

also- do squats to lift ur bum!! :) and percy...ive been using machines since i was 14 years old and in great shape..no muscle damage whatsoever

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