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What's inside
Wondering how Amanda Elise Lee actually trains for her shape? You’re in the right place.
Amanda Elise Lee is a trainer known on social media for her glute and lower body workouts, and Muscle & Fitness has profiled her as a social media fitness star. In this article, we’re covering what she’s actually said about how she trains, in her own words, and then turning it into a 5 day week you can follow at the gym.
We’ve kept those two parts clearly separate. Plenty of articles online list dozens of “Amanda Elise Lee workouts” without a single source. Here, everything we attribute to her links to where she said it.
How she started
Here’s something that might surprise you: Amanda Lee didn’t start out trying to slim down. She started out trying to build.
In an interview with Muscle & Fitness, she said: “I started a training routine because I was super thin… In high school, I weighed 98 pounds and I was always really self-conscious about it.”
Her mom, who was into fitness, showed her the basics around college. “Then, I started working with weights, building up a little bit of muscle, eating more protein, and I started to gain a little bit of weight and felt much more confident.”
She’s also been open that building muscle has never come easily to her: “I started out skinny, so my body type is not necessarily super muscular and it’s a challenge for me to build muscle.”
That’s really encouraging if you’re naturally slim and want more shape. Her approach is built for exactly that!
How she trains her lower body
In the same interview, she described training her lower body three times a week, up from two. She described two kinds of day:
A heavy day. “Squats, leg presses, and walking lunges holding weights or curtsy lunges with a weighted bar.”
A lighter, cardio-style day. “Step-ups, side-to-side steps and jumping, such as jumping lunges and frog jumps or stairs.”
Her favorite exercise? The walking lunge: “I always feel them the next day.” And the moves she calls essential are squats, lunges and the Romanian deadlift, with weighted deadlifts a favorite for her hamstrings.
She didn’t describe her third lower body day or her upper body training in that interview, and she didn’t give sets and reps. So the plan below fills in those gaps, and it’s clearly labelled as ours.
A week built from her approach
This is Exercise With Style’s plan, based on what she’s described: three lower body days (two heavy, one lighter and jumpier) and two upper body days. The sets and reps are ours.
| Level | Intermediate (comfortable with squats and lunges) |
| Days | 5 a week |
| Session length | 45 to 60 minutes |
| Rest | 90 sec on heavy lifts, 45 to 60 sec on everything else |
| Equipment | Commercial gym |
| Day | Session |
|---|---|
| Monday | Lower, heavy (squat focus) |
| Tuesday | Upper |
| Wednesday | Lower, light and conditioning |
| Thursday | Rest |
| Friday | Lower, heavy (hinge focus) |
| Saturday | Upper |
| Sunday | Rest |
Monday: lower, heavy (squat focus)
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Barbell back squat | 4 | 6-8 |
| Leg press, feet high and wide | 3 | 10-12 |
| Dumbbell walking lunge | 3 | 10 each leg |
| Curtsy lunge with a barbell or dumbbells | 3 | 10 each leg |
| Cable kickback | 3 | 12-15 each leg |
Tuesday and Saturday: upper
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Lat pulldown | 3 | 10-12 |
| Dumbbell shoulder press | 3 | 10-12 |
| Seated cable row | 3 | 10-12 |
| Incline dumbbell press | 3 | 10-12 |
| Lateral raise | 3 | 12-15 |
| Plank | 3 | 30-45 sec |
Wednesday: lower, light and conditioning
Do this one as a circuit, or a set of moves done back to back. Do each move once, then rest for 90 seconds. Repeat for 4 rounds.
| Exercise | Reps |
|---|---|
| Box or bench step-up | 12 each leg |
| Lateral band walk (side-to-side steps) | 15 steps each way |
| Jumping lunge (or reverse lunge) | 8 each leg |
| Frog jump (or squat to calf raise) | 10 |
| Stair climber or step machine | 2 minutes |
Friday: lower, heavy (hinge focus)
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Romanian deadlift | 4 | 8 |
| Barbell hip thrust | 4 | 8-10 |
| Dumbbell walking lunge | 3 | 10 each leg |
| Lying leg curl | 3 | 10-12 |
| Hip abduction machine | 3 | 15 |
How to progress: once you hit the top of the rep range on every set for two sessions, add the smallest weight step. And every 6 to 8 weeks, take a lighter week with half the sets to let your body catch up.
Is three leg days a week too much?
Not if the total amount of work is sensible. Research on training frequency found that when weekly work is equal, how many days you split it across makes little difference to muscle growth.
So three lower body days just spreads the work out. Each session is shorter, and you can train harder in it.
The catch is recovery. That’s why the plan keeps one of the three days light, just as she described. If your legs are still sore on Friday, drop Friday’s sets from 4 to 3.
Eating like it
Lee credited “eating more protein” as part of how she gained weight and built muscle. If you train, a useful target is 0.6 to 0.9 g of protein per pound of bodyweight a day (1.4 to 2.0 g per kg). For a 132 lb (60 kg) woman, that’s about 85 to 120 g.
If, like her, you’re naturally slim and want to build shape, you’ll also need to eat a little more than you burn. Our guide on how to gain weight in your buttocks and thighs covers the food side.
Questions people ask
Is this her exact routine?
Not exactly. The lower body structure and the exercises come from what she’s said. The sets, reps, upper body days and the full week are ours, built around that.
I’m a beginner. Can I do this?
Start with a 3 day plan first, like the women’s full body gym workout, then move on to this after a couple of months.
Can I do it at home?
The Wednesday circuit, yes! The heavy days need a gym.
What else trains glutes like this?
Take a look at the hourglass workout, the slim thick workout, and using the leg press for glutes.
Happy lifting, and enjoy those walking lunges!
This article is for general information and is not medical advice. Check with a doctor before starting a new training plan if you have an injury or medical condition.
