10 exercises with weight plates to tone the body: training for women

Weight plate exercises for women are very healthy, despite what many people believe. That is why it is essential to break the myth that training with weights will give you a masculine body, since it all depends on the intensity and frequency with which you train. Moderate exercise will not affect your physique, but it will improve your health, making you feel much better. Weight exercises help speed up your metabolism and turn you into a fat-burning machine, but also protect your bones, improve sleep quality, reduce stress levels, and keep your mind sharper.

Next, we explain the 10 best weight plate exercises for women. Keep reading to get informed and start training with weights! 

Benefits of exercising with the weight plate

Although we have already mentioned some of the benefits of doing weight plate exercises for women, it is important to emphasize them to eliminate taboos and encourage all of you to practice them. These are just some of the advantages of doing weight exercises:

• Burn calories: Weight exercises help burn calories even when you rest and, of course, to lose fat since it replaces fat with muscle, helping you reach your ideal weight by boosting metabolism.
• Strong heart: The heart also gets trained when you lift weights since it is a resistance routine that lowers blood pressure, at least if practiced twice a week as a minimum.
• Relaxes and helps you sleep better: Weight training will help you reduce stress by releasing the anxiety of daily life as it helps produce a neurotransmitter known as norepinephrine that influences relaxation. Additionally, you will release serotonin, which will help you sleep better.
• Toned body: When training with weights frequently, you will be able to appreciate how your body changes and your muscles gradually grow, allowing you to tone your body. That said, it is advisable to combine exercise with a balanced diet.

Exercises with weight plates for women

Once the benefits of training with weights are clear, we can move on to recommend the 10 best exercises with weight plates for women. Our recommendation is that you try the bumper plates (or weight plates) which are also available in various sizes, materials, and different weights. Exercises with weight plates are very simple and you can practice them comfortably at home or in the gym whenever you want, even increase the intensity with repetitions if you prefer or combine several of them to create different exercise sets.

1. Front plate lift

This exercise is very simple. All you have to do is firmly grab the weight by the edges and lower it in front of the body. You must lift the plate above the arms extended to the elbow and lower the plate with control. You can do about 2 sets of 10 repetitions.

2. Squats with weight plate above the head

This exercise consists of doing squats, like traditional squats, but with the difference of including a weight plate or bumper plate in the routine. The process is very simple, you must lift the weight with your arms fully extended upwards while holding the weight, and when lowering into the squat try to keep the weight as horizontal to the floor as possible.

3. Truck driver with weight plate

This exercise is very beneficial for the arms and shoulders. The idea is to hold the plate from the sides in a position where it is in front of the body (with elbows fully extended). Then you have to turn the plate to one side, so that one hand will be on the top and the other hand on the bottom. Next, return to the starting position and then turn again, but in the opposite direction, as if it were a truck steering wheel. You can start with 2 sets of 20 repetitions.

4. Backward lunge with weight plate above the head

Keep the weight plate above your head with your arms fully extended upwards. Then, take a backward lunge by stretching one leg back and resting the tip of the foot to bend the knee (and lower your body). Do 10 repetitions on one leg and repeat the process with the other.

5. Weight plate pull

The exercise consists of hold the weight disc from the top with both hands. Then you must lower it in front of the body by extending the arms downward. To raise the disc, pull it up to chin height and lift the elbows higher than the hands. Pause and squeeze the shoulders. We recommend you try 2 sets of 15 repetitions.

6. Lunge with chest press

The lunge in this case should be done forward, stretching one leg and bending the knee until it almost touches the floor. The back must remain straight at all times. The weight disc, on the other hand, must remain close to the body while you are upright (with elbows very close to the sides) and extend it at the same time you take the lunge. Do 10 repetitions for one leg and repeat the process on the other.

7. Front lunge with twist

To perform this exercise you must adopt the same posture as in point 6. The difference is that at the moment of taking the lunge you must turn the shoulders and the disc in the same direction as the leg with which you take the lunge, contracting your core. Hold the position for a few seconds and return to the original posture by pushing with the other leg. Do 3 sets of 10 front lunges and twists for each leg.

8. Squat with front raise

To do the squat with front raise, open your legs wide and extend your arms as much as you can while holding the weight disc. When you squat down, lower your arms and place the weight parallel to the floor. Then return to the original position.

9. Push-ups with disc on the back

Do push-ups and place the weight disc on your back. It is most recommended that you do them with the legs fully extended, although if it is very difficult for you, you can bend and support your knees to reduce the intensity.

10. Spring with one leg

The spring with one leg is practically like swinging using the weight of the disc. It's about holding the weight with relaxed, hanging arms, and stretching one leg back while you let your body go down (the part from the waist to the head).