For most people when we walk in to the gym, we all want to improve a certain area of our body, at least a little bit; maybe its a defined stomach, firmer butt, a bigger chest or bigger arms.

But, what often happens you walk in and see all the equipment and  people doing all sorts of things. Your not sure what to, how to do,how many sets or reps etc.

The next couple of days,  I want give you a practical guide on how to build the muscle you want for the most popular body parts that you desire.

Part 1 Female

So females, I usually get that they want firmer legs, butt and toned arms. Although stomach is proabaly number 1 with females, most people just need to lock there diet in. It is not that often a muscle building thing.  Look at my other blogs for tips on that.

Before we dive in to how to develop these muscles. Here a few guidelines that super important.

-Make sure you do a proper warm up that mobilizes and activates the area you work on.

-A general rule of thumb is you should always lower the exercise under control trying to feel your muscle for 2 seconds, pause for 1 sec and explode up.

-The goal of strength training is to get stronger and build muscle. Rest for about 45-90 sec. Often females wont rest and rush through the exercise and sets. Yeah they might be tired but they losing out on the point, which stimulate max growth. Always have decent rest and if you find that you don’t need it, the weight should probably be heavier.

Exercise 1

Box squat –This is when you control your self to box and stay tight as you pause on the box before you explode up.

Work up to your heaviest set of 5-8 reps, so if the heaviest squat you could do is 150lbs, you might start with light sets until you get there example: 50lbs, 90lbs, 120lbs, 150lbs

Rest should be around 60-90 sec especially towards the heavier ones.

Bonus: something we love to do is once we hit that max, drop the weight by 15-30lbs and do as many reps as possible with it. This a killer!

What it works – butt & thighs

Exercise 2

Super slow split squats- I’ll have you elevate your feet on 6-12 inch box. Like a squat, push your butt back and bend both knees until your front thighs get parallel. Make sure your lower back stays flat and your front knee isn’t driving past your ankle or toe too much; then come up. We are going take 5 seconds to come down and then explode up, for 5-8 reps.

Use as heavy of a weight as you can, as log as you can keep good form.

Rest for 45-60 sec.

What it works – butt & thighs

Exercise 3

Hip thruster – This is when you elevated your back on 6-12 inch box or bench. Drive your hips up to the ceiling and squeeze your butt cheeks together as hard as possible for 2 seconds before lowering.  Also keep your knees apart and don’t let your lower back arch. You want to extend through your hips not your back.

For weight put a kettle bell or plate on your stomach or have barbell across your lap. As the weight gets heavier, you just want to pad your lap with mats.

Reps 8-20, I would start at a heavy weight for 8 reps and don’t go up in weight until you can do that for 20 reps.

Do this for 2-4 sets.

Rest for 45 sec -1 minute.

King of butt exercise and hamstrings.

Bonus- You can do super long hold on the last rep, so say you do 8 reps hold the last reps 10-20 sec.

Although I gave you specific exercise, doing the same stuff can get boring and variety can help build muscle, when your body get used the same movement. Here is simple template for your lower body

1. squat or dead lift variation

2 Any exercise on 1 leg 1 leg RDL (Romanian Dead Lift) , lunge, step-up etc.

3. Do hip dominant exercises, back extensions, hip thrusters, RDL’s

Super simple but it works awesome.

As far as arms girls usually tell me how they want toner arms with out getting bigger.  I would just add sets of push-ups and rows: 10-20 reps. Once they get easy, do a harder variation or add weight. That will do the trick. Example: Here’s how to add these into a workout.

 box squats 5rm

Super set do back to back

Elevated split squats 3 x 5

Push-up amp up to 20 reps x 3

Hip thruster 3 x 12

1 arm row 4 x 12

I hope this gives you a practical guide to hit the gym and build muscle in all the right places and get the results you truly desire.

If you are looking to build muscle,  but you have tried on your own with little to no success.; If you’re ready to commit and work hard, check out this program to get you on the right path

https://omrfallriver.wufoo.com/forms/28-day-fit-for-fall-women/

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