Click Here to Start Your Free 6-Week Program
What is a Swole Sister? If you ask me, she’s a badass at heart. She loves lifting heavy, testing her limits, and wants her physical body to reflect every last ounce of her badassery.
She might be nineteen or 79. She might be a working mother of three or a single girl just starting out her adult life. She may be a college athlete or maybe has never done anything athletic in her life. Until now.
RELATED: The New Mid-Life Crisis: Testing Our Limits
Get Started on the Six-Week Swole Sisters Program
You can accomplish a lot in six weeks. You can lose fat, you can gain muscle, and you can build strength and stamina. But if this is your first attempt at lining up your nutrition habits with your workouts, you also must have realistic expectations. What will success feel like? How will I know that I am on way to Swoledom?
The first step to joining the program is to take two full-length photos, one side view and one front view. We recommend wearing a sports bra and shorts (or bathing suit for those who want some hardcore accountability) so you can see your whole body. You will retake these same photos at the end of the six weeks.
“The scale can be deceiving. It is one valid and legitimate data point, but it doesn’t paint the whole picture.”
Why do we harp on the photos? Because it’s easy to dismiss actual results. The scale can be deceiving. It is one valid and legitimate data point, but it doesn’t paint the whole picture. If you have a way to get your body fat percentage calculated before starting this program, do that, as well. Between the scale, the body fat percentage, and the pictures, you will have more than enough evidence of your progress.
You Are Tackling Two Programs at Once
Doing a weightlifting program for six weeks is physically hard work. Doing a nutrition program for six weeks is mentally hard work. Doing both at the same time? It is a feat that should not be taken lightly.
RELATED: 4 Nutrition Lessons That Can Benefit Anyone
If now is not the time to take on this challenge, that is fine. We love you and still think you are awesome. And we’ll be here when you are ready. This stuff is tough and requires 100% commitment on your end.
But if this is the right time, then what’s the best way to ensure you can get through the whole thing? Join with a bestie. Someone who will hold you accountable to meal planning and meal prep, and to getting your workouts done and sticking it out for your accessory work. Find someone who can encourage you and remind you why you are doing this program.
Lifting Weights Leads to Looking Good
If we were honest, most of us would admit we join the gym for the purposes of looking good and feeling sexy. We have specific ideas and things we want to change about ourselves. We want to get rid of the flab under our arms, we are looking for a flat stomach and hopefully some abs, we want our shoulders to be defined, and what girl doesn’t want to firm up her booty?
“The majority of the female population fears lifting weights, lifting too often, doing certain types of lifts, or lifting heavy because they believe they will get ‘bulky.'”
Many women believe in order to achieve the results they are looking for they must run or do some type of cardio for as long as possible. On top of this, the majority of the female population fears lifting weights, lifting too often, doing certain types of lifts, or lifting heavy because they believe they will get “bulky.” And, even if a woman is curious about lifting weights, finding somebody to teach you how to do it properly can be challenging.
But if you want to lose fat and you want a “toned” body, perhaps there is a better way than just running your heart out.
We Need to Have Muscles
To have definition in our body, we need to have muscles. To have muscles, we have to build them through some type of strength training. If we want to define those muscles, we must work them at higher volume and at weights between 70%-80%.
RELATED: 2 Myths About Women and Weight Lifting Debunked
The more lean muscle mass we have, the more fat our bodies burn. Anaerobic exercise (weightlifting, interval training, sprints) not only burns more fat, but continues to burn fat long after your workout is completed. While aerobic exercise (low to moderate in intensity and long in duration, like jogging, biking, walking, or swimming) does burn fat and is beneficial for our health, but it is not the most effective way of training when concerned with physical features like defined arms, a nice round ass, definition in the quads, and a tight stomach.
Look at the body of an Olympic distance runner compared to an Olympic sprinter. If your ideal physique leans more toward the sprinter’s body, then Swole Sisters is the right program for you.
RELATED: How to Sprint Your Way to a 6-Pack
With that said, we want to make it clear we are not saying one training method is better or worse than another. We are simply saying each approach has its place and, depending on what your goals are, one program will be more effective for you than another.
The Swole Sisters Strength and Conditioning Program
The Swole Sisters strength and conditioning program uses weightlifting and short intense interval training to help women build lean muscle mass and lose fat. Although it can take months and years to transform our bodies, in six weeks you will see respectable changes. This program is meant to help women get comfortable with a barbell in their hands, and in the process you will find the confidence and the self-esteem that comes from being strong.
“Although it can take months and years to transform our bodies, in six weeks you will see respectable changes.”
Mondays and Saturdays are focused on the clean and jerk. On these days you will also see short sprints and accessory work to strengthen your core and hamstrings.
On Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, your strength workout will be a strict press, push press, or back squat. On these days your conditioning will consist of interval work. For example: 3 rounds of :30 max pull ups / :30 rest. This means you do as many pull-ups as possible in thirty seconds, then rest thirty seconds. During the time you work, you should push as much as possible while keeping the integrity of the movement completely intact. You should not finish a round thinking, “I could have done more.” And above all you should train hard, train safe and have fun.
“During the time you work, you should push as much as possible while keeping the integrity of the movement completely intact.”
On Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday the majority of your strength work is set up with dashes in between numbers. For example 5-5-5-5-5. The number indicates how many reps you do in each set before racking the weight and resting. The dashes mean you should try to move up in weight each time. These sets are considered working sets, which means each set should be at a challenging, almost maximal effort. You should not be able to jump thirty pounds between sets.
You will see the program suggests a percentage to warm up to. This means warm up to that percentage and then start your sets above that percentage. Again, you should go as heavy as technique will allow. Technique always comes before weight.
RELATED: Why Technique Matters in Olympic Weightlifting
Contact Us for Support
Throughout the program you are welcome to contact us with any questions or for support, both in terms of the workouts and the nutrition lessons. Feel free to comment on this article or on any of the workout and nutrition postings.
