While men and women have physical differences, that doesn’t mean they can’t benefit from the same type of education. There is no reason for women to avoid lifting weights and lifting heavy – in fact, they can lift more for their body weight than men.
However, there are certain aspects of training that can be adapted to the female body to produce optimized results.
Women and men benefit from the same Guys of the Exercises
Muscles are muscles. No matter whose body it is, a tricep is a tricep and a quadriceps does what a quadriceps does. There is no reason for women to have resistance training programs that are wildly different than men, as the idea behind training programs is the same for both sexes.
The same main lifts (deadlift, squat, lunges) and exercise types benefit both sexes, and the weights can be loaded relative to the individual’s challenge level. However, women looking to build specific body parts, such as their butt, may want to incorporate more glute-targeting exercises, such as Romanian deadlifts or hip thrusts.
Contrary to popular opinion, you cannot specifically target fat loss (where you lose fat first is primarily genetic), but you CAN target and develop specific muscle groups with intensity and frequency.
Subtle physiological differences between the sexes can be affected How You should train
While women and men can benefit from the same types of exercises, there are some physiological differences between the two sexes that can be taken into account to optimize training.
For example, men are physically larger than women. Men are generally bigger, taller and more imposing more muscle mass as a percentage of their total weight (although there are many exceptions, such as when we compare a tall athlete with a high percentage of muscle mass to a short man who does not exercise, we compare men and women of similar activity levels and average structures for their groups).
As you may have learned during eighth grade science class, a taller person has to do more work on each repetition because they have to move a weight more during each exercise.
Due to the fact that men are usually taller, a man should do more work on average in a squat than a woman, even if the weight of the bar is the same. Of course, if they are the same height and weight, this can be ignored.
Since men typically have more muscle mass relative to body weight, which means they not only do more work (being taller), but also break down more muscle fibers during exercise. This is why most men will require one longer recovery period between tough workouts by a woman of similar fitness level.
Women and men also have different concentrations of muscle fiber types. Women have a higher proportion of type I muscle fibers compared to type II fibers, which makes them more resistant to fatigue.
Additionally, since women generally have less muscle mass, they require less recovery time between sets for muscle recovery and have greater endurance during weightlifting sets compared to men.
Postural differences
The pelvic shape more common in women can lead to an excessive arch in the lower back, which is known as lumbar lordosis. When your pelvis tilts too far forward, it can put extra pressure on your spine, which is further aggravated by lifting weights.
All of this means that when lifting weights, women need to be extra careful with their posture. Of course, while this is more common in women, it can happen to men too.
What does this mean for women’s strength training?
Simply put, the above physiological differences mean that women can:
- More sets
- More reps per set
- More overall volume
- Work at a higher relative intensity
Women don’t have to worry as much about overtraining because of their faster recovery times. For example, it may only take a day for a woman to recover from an intense squat session before hitting the squat rack again, compared to 2-3 days for a man.
Adaptation Training to the Female Body
As we’ve discussed above, women don’t need to avoid lifting heavy. are able to train with heavier weights relative to their one-repetition maximum (1RM) than their male counterparts.
For example, a woman may be able to lift 90% of her one repetition maximum more times than a man at the same percentage. They can also train muscle groups and movements with greater frequency than men.
However, watch your posture and if you feel pain, don’t ignore it – see a chiropractor or get it checked out by another doctor if it gets worse.
