3 Ways Women Should Train Differently from Men

IronPlayground

Sohee Lee writes good stuff.

She isn't saying that women shouldn't do the same type of strength training as men. All she is saying is that the focus can be tweaked a bit.

http://www.fitocracy.com/knowledge/3-ways-women-should-train-differently-to-men/

In general, there’s not much that sets women and men apart when it comes to the way they should train. A chick and a dude can follow the same training program and both experience positive results. Assuming a sound and effective program, both will get stronger, experience hypertrophy, and all-around become more badass.

Obviously there are factors that set them distinctly apart – namely female vs. male psychology, expectations, gender stereotypes, etc. We won’t be discussing those things for the purposes of this particular article.

A training program tailored toward both sexes can be good. But if you want to take a program from good to great, there are a few things you should know about women. These are merely suggestions, of course, so take from this what you will.

1. The answer to, “Does this make my butt look big?” used to always have to be a resounding no regardless of whether or not a woman’s skirt was ripping clean down her rear end. Nowadays, it’s a little different: chicks want big butts (and they cannot lie). More specifically, they covet the shapely derrieres that come only with either rare genes (damn you, Kim Kardashian) or heavy glute-focused strength training. And since training programs should be tailored toward an individual’s goal, this means that women’s training programs should by and large have a greater focus on lower body work than on upper body work. Bret Conteras, the Glute Guy himself, will be quick to say that some women even request that they devote all their training time toward their glutes exclusively – and while this is not the norm, it says a lot about how highly we women value Dat Butt.

Of all the ways to skin a cat, the best movements that women should incorporate regularly into their training include: hip thrusts (bilateral and unilateral), glute bridges (bilateral and unilateral), reverse lunges (regular and deficit), and weighted hyperextensions, to name a few. Be sure to mix in both low rep and high rep work to really get the most out of your training also.


Does this make my butt look big?

Does this make my butt look big?

2. Relatively speaking, women tend to have weaker upper body strength as compared to men. This means that prescribing something like pull-ups for reps of 6-8 simply won’t make sense for women because many have difficulty performing even one. For cases like this, regressions are always recommended: band-assisted pull-ups, half-kneeling 1-arm lat pulldowns, inverted rows, and the like. It will take women longer to get stronger on these upper body movements, so more patience will be required to build up the necessary muscles to perform a strict bodyweight pull-up.

Similarly, pushups tend to be another weakness for women. Rather than watching in horror as they grind out snake-ups, the pushups should be regressed to be performed against a wall, on a bar, or against a bar. Just because they can’t do them – yet – doesn’t mean they shouldn’t do them at all.
Regressions, regressions, regressions.

For those not aware, A regression is a less advanced variation of a particular exercise that’s used when an individual is unable to perform the original exercise for any reason (be it injury, mobility restrictions, or simply lack of strength). Resorting to a regression does not in any way imply that you are weaker or inferior to others; all it means is that you’re making your own safety the top priority and maximizing the effectiveness of your time in the gym at the current level of fitness you’re at.

So for example, if an individual has never hip hinged before, it would make sense to learn the basic hip hinge movement pattern via mobility drills, cable pullthroughs, and the like before moving onto trap bar deadlifts, then sumo deadlifts, and finally conventional deadlifts (the most technically difficult to master).

3. Women tend to recover faster than men and can handle higher volume training. Now, this isn’t to say that women have the green light to train six days a week (not that we really see that anyway). Rather, rest periods can be a little shorter, or perhaps some active mobility work can be incorporated into a training session to keep a woman from getting bored as she keeps an eye on the clock. It’ll help pass the time and also make her minutes in the gym much more well-spent rather than scrolling away on her iPhone (which I am often guilty of.)

So maybe something like the following:

A1. Hip thrusts 4 x 6-8

A2. Bodyweight lateral lunges 3 x 10 each side

And piggybacking on point #1 above, faster recovery means that it’s okay to hit the lower body more frequently throughout the week. A well-programmed 4-day full body split is completely feasible for women, and they will have no issues whatsoever with overtraining.

______________

Now, depending on how nitpicky you want to get, we could discuss additional differences such as Q-angle, muscle fiber types, and how the ladies probably spend less time pretending to wipe the sweat off their foreheads with their T-shirts in order to get a peek at their abs. But I think that’s far more myopic than we ever really need to get.

When it comes down to it, all you really need to remember are the basics that hold true for both sexes: compound lifts over isolation exercises, heavy weight selection (ie. constantly challenging your body’s muscles), more pulling than pushing movements, and more posterior chain exercises.

Besides that, train hard, eat big and sleep well.

And log your workouts on Fitocracy, duh.

usmcmp

I was going to come in here and argue, but that's a pretty good article. Some women can do pull ups (like me) just like some men can't. For all people it's a matter of progression.

IronPlayground

I was going to come in here and argue, but that's a pretty good article. Some women can do pull ups (like me) just like some men can't. For all people it's a matter of progression.

Completely agree. She normally writes pretty good stuff.

NicoleisQuantized

There are many men who cannot do pull-ups or push-ups. As already mentioned, these are things that every individual must work towards, regardless of gender. I rarely like articles that make generalizations on the basis of gender, and this was no exception.

Cr01502

Very good article.

Thanks for posting

IronPlayground

There are many men who cannot do pull-ups or push-ups. As already mentioned, these are things that every individual must work towards, regardless of gender. I rarely like articles that make generalizations on the basis of gender, and this was no exception.

You missed the point. Article was written by a woman, BTW.

Leadfoot_Lewis

When I saw the thread title I thought "Uh-oh", but honestly it's a really good article. Thanks for posting!

NicoleisQuantized

There are many men who cannot do pull-ups or push-ups. As already mentioned, these are things that every individual must work towards, regardless of gender. I rarely like articles that make generalizations on the basis of gender, and this was no exception.

You missed the point. Article was written by a woman, BTW.

Yes, I know it was written by a women. Again, regardless of gender, many people cannot do certain moves at the outset of a new training regimen.

IronPlayground

There are many men who cannot do pull-ups or push-ups. As already mentioned, these are things that every individual must work towards, regardless of gender. I rarely like articles that make generalizations on the basis of gender, and this was no exception.

You missed the point. Article was written by a woman, BTW.

Yes, I know it was written by a women. Again, regardless of gender, many people cannot do certain moves at the outset of a new training regimen.

Best of luck on your goals!

NicoleisQuantized

There are many men who cannot do pull-ups or push-ups. As already mentioned, these are things that every individual must work towards, regardless of gender. I rarely like articles that make generalizations on the basis of gender, and this was no exception.

You missed the point. Article was written by a woman, BTW.

Yes, I know it was written by a women. Again, regardless of gender, many people cannot do certain moves at the outset of a new training regimen.

Best of luck on your goals!

Ok bro, whatever....

ninerbuff

I likes. Good article and perspective.


A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

billsica

There are many men who cannot do pull-ups or push-ups. As already mentioned, these are things that every individual must work towards, regardless of gender. I rarely like articles that make generalizations on the basis of gender, and this was no exception.

You missed the point. Article was written by a woman, BTW.

Yes, I know it was written by a women. Again, regardless of gender, many people cannot do certain moves at the outset of a new training regimen.

Best of luck on your goals!

NicoleisQuantized Destroys goals. Really about the only thing I can't do is a keggle, and I'm not sure I want to. Other than that bit, I'm not sure what a woman can't do. No offense but it doesn't hold a lot of water with me.

HannahJDiaz25

Great Article! Thanks

Oh and why is everyone so terrified to say that there are differences between the AVERAGE male and female body?? Good Grief! Since when does political correctness mean we have to be blind? When I look at all the women here in my office I can clearly see that in general their strength is focused in the lower body and the opposite is true with most the men here! So whats wrong with the generalization?
Sure there are some women who crank out some pull ups (GO Them!!! Someday I will too!) and there are some men who couldn't do even one...but this is not the norm!

YAY for political correctness forcing us all to pretend we live in some made up world where men and women identical in every way except sexual organs (because that seems to be the politically correct thing to pretend these days!) :noway: :noway: :noway: :noway:

saxmaniac

There are many men who cannot do pull-ups or push-ups. As already mentioned, these are things that every individual must work towards, regardless of gender. I rarely like articles that make generalizations on the basis of gender, and this was no exception.

Some generalizations are true, though. The typical man will have more upper body strength than the typical woman. The strongest men in the world are stronger than the strongest women -- otherwise women would be in the NFL.

So go ahead, light me on fire.

That doesn't mean women can't be strong in general, and it doesn't mean a woman can't be stronger than a men, or even most men. More power to ya - I'm definitely PRO-lifting for women.

Where generalizations become stupid is when we try to apply them to a single person. Obviously wrong.

Good article!

DontStopB_Leakin

Agreed and concur with pretty much everything in the article. Very well written. Thank you for posting.

SquidgySquidge

Bump to read later, thanks

NJL13500

I have heard that it is better for a woman to do as much as she can of the more difficult exercise than to crank out modified versions of something. I used idea this with my pushups. I used to do "girl" pushups on my knees and I could go forever. I started to do "full" pushups with good form and could only do a couple at first, but now I have progressed to being able to do 3 sets of 10 with my hands on an upside down bosu ball. I still have to use the weight assisted machine for pullups, but hopefully one day I'll get there. Lots of my MFP friends who are female can do full pullups. They are badass for sure.

Interesting article. Thanks for posting.

Abells

article was written based on certain goals -- it seeks after the weaknesses of the gender world which is good.....lots of women can't do pull-ups -- I used to not recently and now i can do strict cause I worked everyday to achieve it and did regressions. Women are more built to handle heavier weights using the legs and hips where men are not.

The article bounces a little bit but regressions are key to help build those weaknesses.

LittleMiss_WillLoseIt

Love this Mike!! Definitely something I needed to read today.

Cr01502

There are many men who cannot do pull-ups or push-ups. As already mentioned, these are things that every individual must work towards, regardless of gender. I rarely like articles that make generalizations on the basis of gender, and this was no exception.

These are just simple facts and not meant to be gender discrimination.

The fact is that if you were to compare an untrained man and an untrained woman the man would naturally have more upper body strength than the untrained woman. That's not to say that a trained woman can't have upper body strength.

For example there's a girl at my gym who is a far better athlete than me. She squats more than I do, she deadlifts more than I do but when it comes to bench, OHP, and Pullups I've got he beat.

I think the article did a very good job of stating the facts.

KimberlyDCZ

Bumo to read later

Ely82010

bump

shanster23

Faster recovery? Awesome!

nicarey19

At first I was thinking....oh no here we go. But actually a very good article. Thanks for posting...maybe someday I will be able to do a pushup, but probably never a pull up. I am whimpy in my upper body strength, but slowly working on it. And I love faster recovery! Nice, but really does make sense.

Barbell_Jules

Great article. Thanks for posting Iron. I am currently working on dips and pull ups. Right now they are band assisted but I am happy with my progress already. Can't wait until I have the strength to do them without the band. :drinker:

RoseTears143

Great article! thanks for sharing.

budru21

I have heard that it is better for a woman to do as much as she can of the more difficult exercise than to crank out modified versions of something. I used idea this with my pushups. I used to do "girl" pushups on my knees and I could go forever. I started to do "full" pushups with good form and could only do a couple at first, but now I have progressed to being able to do 3 sets of 10 with my hands on an upside down bosu ball. I still have to use the weight assisted machine for pullups, but hopefully one day I'll get there. Lots of my MFP friends who are female can do full pullups. They are badass for sure.

Interesting article. Thanks for posting.

Agree. I wasted 18 months on an assisted pull up maching, trying to do a single pull up. Eff that. I started jumping up on the bar and lowering myself as slowly as possible, holding it as long as possible. Eventually, I was able to jump only half way, then pull myself the rest of the way, etc. Now, I am doing 3-4 sets of 4 hanging, no kip pull ups. The same applied to push ups. I could only do a few push ups when I started. I did the knee ones to failure and got no where with regular push ups. I used the same technique with push ups and can now do 35-45 (depending on how rested I am) full tits to the floor push ups. High reps of modified push ups and pull ups didn't work for me.

Great article!!

always_smiling_chachita

Very informative article... I give it a like - at least for the beginning stage of anyone's "health/exercise path"

ItsCasey

Great Article! Thanks

Oh and why is everyone so terrified to say that there are differences between the AVERAGE male and female body?? Good Grief! Since when does political correctness mean we have to be blind? When I look at all the women here in my office I can clearly see that in general their strength is focused in the lower body and the opposite is true with most the men here! So whats wrong with the generalization?
Sure there are some women who crank out some pull ups (GO Them!!! Someday I will too!) and there are some men who couldn't do even one...but this is not the norm!

YAY for political correctness forcing us all to pretend we live in some made up world where men and women identical in every way except sexual organs (because that seems to be the politically correct thing to pretend these days!) :noway: :noway: :noway: :noway:

This.

I don't know why some people think that the acknowledgment of any difference between males and females automatically means we are saying one is better than the other. The author's point was not "Women can't do 6 to 8 pullups, and men can." It was "Most women, at the outset of training, cannot do 6 to 8 reps in one set, but that does not mean those women shouldn't be doing pullups at all. It means they should be doing them in a different way, e.g. with assistance bands, negatives, etc., until they CAN do 6 to 8 reps in one set." If you can already do it, then obviously she is not talking to you.

woodsygirl

Thanks! I did regressed push-ups for a long time before I did them on the floor.

AllonsYtotheTardis

IN for faster recovery. I like the sound of that.


I like how the article discusses regressions - they are a useful way to built up to the full exercise.