Best Women's Muscle Building Workout Routine at Home
By Marnie Kunz, NASM-certified trainer, USATF- and RRCA-certified running coach
I wanted to share the best women’s muscle-building workout routine at home that I’ve created to offer guidance to other women who are working on building lean muscle and improving fitness. As a trainer and running coach, I’ve experimented a lot with strength training, cardio, and home workouts over the years, and the pandemic gave me extra time to set up my home gym and develop a workout program to make great muscle gains in my own fitness journey.
I’ve also trained many women in NYC and developed this fitness program to help women build muscle. This program is for beginners but you can modify it for more advanced workouts by using a barbell or heavier dumbbells to add more weight.
Whether you want to step up your fitness in a certain area - such as making glute gains, building stronger arms, or strengthening your core, you can do so by following the principles of this women’s muscle-building workout routine at home. First, we will go over some basics on building muscle, and then get into a sample workout program you can try at home.
For the workout program, all you need are some dumbbells, preferably with at least two weight options, one for the first two weeks of the program and heavier dumbbells for the last two weeks. For advanced weightlifting, you can use a barbell or heavier dumbbells.
Muscle Building Principles for Women
If you want to build muscle, there are some basic training principles that will help you stay on track and make gains. Building muscle is often referred to as hypertrophy in the fitness world, which means training to build muscle (which is related to but different than training to get stronger.)
Hypertrophy, according to the National Academy of Sports Medicine, means "the enlargement of skeletal muscle fibers in response to being recruited to develop increased levels of tension, as seen in resistance training.” In other words, hypertrophy refers to increasing muscle size by using specific strength training exercises and principles.
Here are 3 core elements of hypertrophy training to keep in mind as you follow the women's muscle-building workout routine at home:
Eat enough protein. A lot of women I’ve trained over the years aren’t eating enough nutrients to gain a substantial amount of muscle. I usually have to sit down with clients and talk about how to eat more protein. Protein is the building block of muscle and is used in everything from building new muscles to repairing existing muscles. If you are trying to gain lean muscle and are following a weightlifting program, I recommend eating at least 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body weight each day. For many women, this translates to at least 100 grams of protein a day. You should also have 20 to 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of completing your strength training workouts to optimize muscle growth and repair. Some high-protein foods include nuts, lean meats, seafood, lentils, beans, tofu, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, and protein shakes. You can beef up your protein intake, get high-protein recipes, and learn more about protein in my article on Protein Smoothie Recipes for the Best Workout Recovery.
Take recovery time. A critical part of making progress in training is giving yourself enough recovery time. This means taking rest and recovery days and not doing intense workouts on the same muscle groups two days in a row. You can do some low-intensity cross-training for active recovery such as walking as well as take complete rest days when the program suggests. Also, listen to your body, and if you feel exhausted or it takes longer to recover from a workout, be flexible and take an extra recovery day.
Add weight gradually. Focus on your form foremost and once you perfect your form and are able to do all the reps of an exercise without problems, you can gradually increase your weight amount. People often get tempted to add weight too quickly and this can be a recipe for poor form, injury, and burnout.
Best Women's Muscle Building Workout Routine at Home
Here is my 4-week women’s muscle-building workout routine that you can do at home using just dumbbells. If you have a weight bench, that is ideal but if not, there are modifications you can do by doing exercises like the chest press on the floor or an elevated, flat surface. This is a beginning-level muscle-building workout for women that targets your full body to help you build lean muscle mass.
When you follow this workout program, use lighter dumbbells for the first two weeks, and then if you are comfortable and can maintain good form, use heavier dumbbells for weeks 3 and 4.
If you want to do a bodyweight workout program, join our Wolf Pack Membership for access to a new bodyweight fitness challenge, videos, and healthy recipes each month. For more advanced training and personalized training options, check out my training programs in the Shop. For exercise video demos and more, follow the @Runstreet YouTube.
Happy sweating to you, and may you make big gains!😊💪
Related Posts: 3 Best Glute Exercises to Get Results, Complete Guide to Fitness Over 40, 15 Best Strength Training Exercises for Runners, Protein Smoothie Recipes for the Best Workout Recovery
Marnie Kunz is a NASM-certified trainer and USATF- and RRCA-certified running coach and the creator of Runstreet. She lives and writes in NYC with her bossy rescue dog, Kiyoshi the Akita.
