Articles
Dumbbell Goblet Squat: Overview, Proper Form & Tips
The dumbbell goblet squat is one of our favourite exercises to program for women who want to build muscle. While it’s primarily a lower-body exercise that works the quads, glutes, and hamstrings, it’s also a compound full-body exercise. It’ll also hit the spinal erectors, shoulders, and anterior (front) core because the weight needs to be held up and is in the front of the body. That means the goblet squat will not only help women get the lower-body work that they want to develop a curvier, more attractive body, but they’ll get an athletic and balanced one too. Let’s take a look:
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Dumbbell Step-Ups: Full Guide for Women
Looking for a good exercise that will help you build a strong and toned lower body? The dumbbell step-up is a great choice. This simple but challenging exercise is a great addition to any workout, hitting the quads, glutes, and hamstrings. Let’s take a closer look.
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The Best Women’s Workout Program for Building Muscle
If you’re a woman who wants to build muscle, finding the right workout program can be tricky. Most workout programs aren’t designed for you. Only around 3% of people are trying to gain weight, and most of them aren’t women.
Even if you search “female muscle gain,” you’re in such a small minority, and your goals are so diametrically opposed to the average woman’s that most of the workouts you find will be written for someone else.
For example, the most common exercise routines are yoga, aerobics, and other types of cardio, all of which are great for improving your health and fitness. However, they all tend to lead to weight loss. You can offset the weight loss by eating more food, but the workouts still won’t help you build muscle. At least not very much of it.
For another example, consider something like “toning,” which implies losing fat to reveal the muscle underneath. If you don’t have enough muscle underneath, those workouts won’t work. You need a bonafide muscle-building program.
If you’re trying to build muscle, gain weight, and get bigger, you might have trouble finding good workouts. That’s why we wrote this article.
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The Bench Press Guide for Women
Shane wrote a deep bench press guide over on Outlift, but I wanted to write a bench press guide specifically for women. After all, men and women tend to approach this lift quite differently. Many women don’t do it at all, sticking to pushing exercises like push-ups.
The bench press is a powerful lift. If you’re a woman who wants to gain more upper-body strength and size, the bench press can be a great exercise to include in your workout routine, especially if you’ve already mastered push-ups.
After going over the basics of the bench press, there are some good progressions and assistance exercises you can take advantage of. Let’s take a closer look.
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Beginner Chin-Up Guide for Women: Get Your First Chin-Up
Shane wrote an extensive chin-up guide over on Outlift, but we also wanted to write a beginner guide for women. Many women struggle to get their first chin-up. There are reliable ways to get you there.
There are few exercises more impressive than being able to do a full chin-up from a dead hang. We’ve been helping women learn how to gain muscle for ten years now, and we can’t tell you how many times we’ve been asked for directions on how to do a full chin-up.
Most female beginners can’t do any chin-ups. They have impressive mobility and often quite a lot of lower-body strength, but chin-ups are hard. They won’t be for long.
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Should Women Take Creatine?
Creatine is probably the most popular supplement aside from protein powder. It’s commonly used by athletes and bodybuilders to improve muscular performance and muscle size.
But is creatine supplementation right for women? Like all supplements, creatine has some benefits and tradeoffs. Let’s take a deeper look.
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How to Build Muscle at Home—Beginner Guide for Women
I wrote a detailed bodyweight workout guide on Bony to Beastly, along with another article about how to build a home gym. I wanted to write a third guide specifically for women. After all, many women have different goals, different struggles, and different questions.
Many women want to lift at home. There are many good reasons for that: it’s private, it’s cleaner, it’s cheaper, and there’s no travel time. You can exercise while listening to your favourite music or watching your favourite show. You can do your workouts while supervising kids. Cassandra and I train at home, too. We totally get it.
But how can you build muscle at home? What equipment do you need to get started? Can you get results with your own body weight? What exercises are right for a beginner? What’s a good workout routine for women to follow? Let’s jump in.
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How to Build Muscle—Beginner Guide for Women
We’ve written a full guide on how to build muscle on Outlift, but we wanted to write an article specifically for women. After all, women often have different muscle-building goals, benefit from different exercises, and tend to have different questions.
If you’re just beginning, building muscle can be exciting but also daunting. You need to challenge your muscles and eat enough food to support muscle growth. That sounds so simple, but how do you do it? What exercises should you do, and in what order? How hard should you push yourself, and how often? And what should you eat, and how much of it?
For example, some styles of workouts are better for stimulating muscle growth than others. Strength training will challenge your muscles, but it’s designed to help you contract your muscles more forcefully, making you stronger for your size. It’s not designed to help you build muscle, making you bigger and stronger. There’s nuance here.
Inside, we’ll cover everything a woman ought to know about working out, nutrition, and recovery.
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Hip Thrust Alternative: Other Solid Exercises to Strengthen Your Glutes
If you’re looking to mix up your lower body lifting routine, you might want to consider some alternatives to the hip thrust exercise. While the hip thrust is a popular exercise for targeting the glutes, it’s not the only glute-building exercise. Let’s explore some alternatives.
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Weight Gain Meal Plan for Women: Full Guide
Gaining weight can be hard for naturally thin women. It’s even harder if you’re trying to gain weight in a healthy and sustainable way. We’ve been there. We’ve helped thousands of other women through it, too. It’s hard, but you can do it, and this guide can help.
One of the hardest things about gaining weight is finding a good meal plan. Most meal plans are designed for women trying to lose weight. Your goal is the opposite of that, so you need a radically different approach.
In this article, we’ll talk about how to eat a healthy weight-gain diet. We’ll break down the best foods, how to eat a balanced muscle-building diet, what schedule to follow, and how to build a meal plan that works for you, your goals, and your lifestyle.
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