Top Six Total Body Workout Exercises for Women

These six surprising moves will help you stave off bodyfat as you build a leaner, stronger body.

By Taylor Ryan

Do you spend hours in the gym and wonder why you aren't getting the results you're striving for?

Barbell Bench Press

Or are you stuck wanting to take your workout to the next level to see great results, but just don't know what to do or where to start?

After all, it seems like every magazine, commercial, fitness pro, and book tells you to do something different, gives you different exercises, and offers different theories on programs. Who can you believe?

Simple. Find someone who's been where you are. Someone who follows her own advice. Someone who performs the same exercises she recommends, eats the way she recommends, and lives the healthy lifestyle she professes. In short, someone who talks the talk and walks the walk and who's also enjoying results.

That's why you can trust me and my advice for women and fitness strength training. Because I follow my own advice. If you walk into my gym, you'll find me doing the same exercises I am about to recommend to you.

The Best Workout Advice for Women

Barbell Squat

If you're looking to lose bodyfat, get toned muscles, lean lines, and definition, and feel better than you have in years, then I recommend total body workouts. Sure, most bodybuilders around the gym often do split workouts (arms on Monday, back and chest on Tuesday, etc.), but when you want to make the most of the time in the gym, there are more efficient ways to get results. Especially for those of us women with super tight schedules!

So for the best results, fast, I'm all about having a great total body workout.

That means working out just three days a week with weights (never on back-to-back days). And each workout lasts no more than 45 minutes. How can you get results with so little time? Well, total body workouts are shown to burn more calories and build more muscle than the smaller split workouts because you are spending time on bigger movements. That is, the ones that work big muscle groups and several muscles in each exercise… or composed of mostly compound exercises (which just means exercises that involve more than one joint—like the elbow and shoulder or the hip and knee).

Now let's get down to the meat of the exercises and how to put them all together…

What Are the Best Total Body Workout Exercises for Women?

These are the best exercises I've found for women. They're moves I do and that my clients do, so I know they work. Heck, I base my figure competition training on these important moves! Here they are:

1. Bench Press
   
   Lay down with your back on a flat bench with your knees bent and your feet firmly planted on the floor. Solidly grab onto the barbell with your hands about shoulder width apart. Press the barbell up off the stand and lift it so it's directly over your chest. Slowly bend your elbows, lowering the barbell all the way down to your chest. Pause and then push the weight straight up. Then slowly lower the barbell again and repeat for the number of reps specified (below).
   
   
   
   Dumbbell Lunge
2. Squat
   
   Stand with your feet hip width apart with a barbell placed across your shoulders, resting on your upper back muscles, just below your neck. Keeping your abs and lower back tight, bend your knees and lower your butt so it's in line with your knees. Focus on keeping the weight on your heels, and ensure your knees don't travel past your toes. Pause and then explode upward until your legs are straight but don't lock your knees out. Repeat.
   
   
3. Lunge
   
   Start with your legs together, holding a dumbbell in each hand. Take a large step forward with your right leg, and bend both your legs simultaneously down to a 90% angle. Straighten your legs as you return your right leg back to the starting position, and repeat with your left leg.
   
   
4. Shoulder Press
   
   Hold a dumbbell in each hand. Bend your arms and lift the dumbbells, so they're at your shoulders. Straighten your arms directly over your shoulders, pushing the dumbbells up slowly and in control. Then bend your arms again, returning the dumbbells to just above your shoulders. Repeat.
   
   
5. Deadlift
   
   Stand facing a barbell, placed on the floor in front of you. Bend your knees as you been forward at the waist, and grasp the barbell firmly with both hands. Holding the barbell directly in front of you, stand up, straightening your knees and waist. Again, bend your knees and your waist to slowly bring the barbell back to the floor, and repeat.
   
   
6. Pull-up
   
   
   
   Dumbbell Shoulder Press
   Stand below a pull up/chin up bar. With your arms overhead and facing away from you, reach or jump up until you're holding onto and hanging from the bar. Bend your arms and pull up using your back muscles until your chin is over the bar. Slowly lower your body and repeat. This can be a very challenging exercise, so you may need some assistance, either from a pull-up machine or from another person.

Even better, there are numerous variations to the exercises above to help switch it up and keep your body and your mind guessing.

If you are looking at these moves and thinking, "I thought this was an article for women. These are for guys! I'll get big and bulky." Then stop worrying. First of all, we women don't have the hormones that men do. In fact, we have 30 to 70% less muscle-building hormones than men, so it just isn't in our cards to get big and bulky.

But what you will get is this: decreased bodyfat, increased metabolism, toned and lean muscles, and if you work hard enough and combine your training with a smart nutrition plan, you'll even find yourself with a tight, lean midsection.

I mentioned above that you can do variations of the exercises listed. Well, here are a few great ideas to keep your workouts from getting boring, keep your results from plateauing, and keep you motivated.

Switch out exercises every four weeks with a few of these!

Bench press: dumbbell bench, decline bench, incline bench, stability ball bench, dumbbell flies, and the cable bench press

Squat: sumo (plie') squat, barbell squat, Bulgarian squat, one-legged squat, and the prisoner squat

Lunge: reverse lunge, lunge off box, walking lunge, barbell lunge, and side lunges

Shoulder Press: Cable shoulder press, barbell shoulder press, reverse curl to press (with barbell), and clean and press

Pullups/Chinups

Dead-lift: Barbell dead-lift, dead-lift off a box (advanced move), straight-legged dead-lift, and good mornings

Pull-ups: Assisted pull-ups, chin-ups, assisted chin-ups, reverse rows, one handed chin-ups or pull-ups

It's pretty cool how six awesome exercises can give you over a dozen new moves to keep progressing and keep seeing results from your workouts. So give them a try the next time you walk into the gym, and you will immediately feel a difference between these big calorie burning, muscle toning exercises and the little small isolated moves most people do.

You Know the Move, But When and How Much?

Now that you know the exercises, the next step is how much should you be doing? If you're aiming to gain muscle, then keep the rep count down to six to eight reps with just three to four sets. Really put on the weight and see how strong you can get! You should not be able to get to nine reps.

But if your goal is to lose fat, then the best workout is two to three sets of 13 to 15 reps. Of course, the weight will need to be dropped, but you still shouldn't be able to get beyond the 15 reps.

Whatever your goals are just remember to push hard! Working hard is the only way to see the big changes in your body!

Do YOU have a favorite workout? Come share it with us and others on our lively message board. Or, find even more effective workouts from other professionals, like Shari Friedman, and inspiring women like Kim Bowser.

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