Warm up reps and PC suggestions for my Wife

[ironsickel]

Hey Andy,
My wife decided to start lifting with me a month ago and I have been following the SS progression with her with the suggested changes for women. I'm a novice myself, so we're just kind of plowing through this best we can. It's been a lot of fun.

She's 37, 5'8" and 135lbs.

Two issues we've run into:
1) Warm ups. I have been trying to follow a similar style of warmup as recommended for men, but that seems to be too much volume by the time she's ready for her work sets. I want to make sure she's properly warmed up, but don't want her fatigued. Is there a general warm up guideline for women? (If it's in the books and I've missed it, then I apologize for being an idiot)

2) Power clean. She's just not getting it. The motion seems too complicated for her. Given her age and very basic non-competitive goals (she just wants to "look and feel better"), should we continue to hammer the Power clean until she "gets it" or should we substitute a different exercise?

Thanks for your time!

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

1. Read my article: How to Warm Up on my blog. Guidelines are really much different for women than men. Sometimes I take women a little closer to their top weight, but it's not universal

2. She doesn't need to clean. If I made all my female clients clean, I'd have a lot less female clients. Some like it, some don't. Don't force the issue.

[ironsickel]

1. Read my article: How to Warm Up on my blog. Guidelines are really much different for women than men. Sometimes I take women a little closer to their top weight, but it's not universal

2. She doesn't need to clean. If I made all my female clients clean, I'd have a lot less female clients. Some like it, some don't. Don't force the issue.

Awesome! Thanks.

Re: powerclean, thank God for that. I'm apparently one of those tiny minority who can work out with a significant other and I certainly didn't want to press my luck.
Do you have a specific recommendation for a substitute or just drop the PC off the workout and call it a day?

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Many females recover better than males so doing things like Stiff Leg Deadlifts can work as long as the low back recovers. If not, then upper back stuff rows, chins, pulldowns, etc are fine.