Free Weights or Machine Weights
Many women prefer to use machine weights rather than lift dumbbells and barbells. While machine weights are not necessarily bad, dumbbells and barbells should make up the majority of the exercises in your full body workouts. Lifting dumbbells and barbells activates the stabilizing muscles of your joints, increasing your joint stability and reaction. Furthermore, free weights impose forces on the bones making up your hip, knee and spinal joints, increasing their strength even though you are focusing on toning or building your legs, arms and shoulders. Begin your routine with free weight exercises and incorporate machine weights toward the latter half of your session, adding variety to your workouts.
Super Sets
Full body workouts should be used when you cannot get to the gym more than twice per week or when you need a few weeks off of your normal, three- to four-day weight training routine. If you are also short on time once you are at the gym and the gym is quite busy, use the super set method of training to work all of your muscle groups with little chance of losing your workout space. Pair a chest with a back exercise, a quadriceps with an abdominal exercise, a hamstring with a shoulder exercise, and a biceps with a triceps exercise. A super set means you do one set of a chest exercise then one set of a back exercise, repeating these sets for three to four rounds.
Circuits
Another method of working your full body is to do the exercises in a circuit, repeating the circuit three or four times. The downside to circuit training is you may not be able to get back on the machine when you come around again. If you exercise during the non-busy hours of your gym, a circuit including multiple machines might be feasible. Otherwise, you can certainly do a full body circuit workout using dumbbells and an exercise bench. Include flat dumbbell presses, one-arm dumbbell rows, dumbbell sumo squats, one-leg dead lifts, dumbbell curls, one-arm dumbbell triceps extensions, dumbbell shoulder presses and double crunches.
Considerations
If you need to use an exercise bench and a pulley machine, roll the bench to the pulley machine. Place all the dumbbells you need to use for every exercise pair in one area and ensure you have your keys or your water bottle to mark your space. You may include body weight exercises like pushups, pullups, triceps dips and walking lunges as part of your full body workout. Ensure you have at least two days between each session so your muscles can recuperate. Gradually increase the weight you are using to become stronger and more toned and to burn more calories.
