Why women should lift differently than men to grow muscle
Weds ◆ January 17 ◆ 2024
Hi Frens!
I heard a great quote the other day but I don’t know who the author is:
“Bees don’t waste their time explaining to flies why honey is better than shit.”
Today we’re talkin’ ‘bout solid sports science research that reinforces why biologically born women must train differently than men in order to increase/maintain bone density and grow muscle.
Have you ever seen women following men around the gym doing whatever workout the dude’s doing?
More power to ‘em if the goal isn’t actual strength or muscularity but for women who aren’t into spinning their wheels on the road to nowhere, it’s important to keep in mind that females are not — as Dr. Stacy Sims says - just smaller men.
This is why I program training so differently for you to achieve max results. There are too many so-called “professional” trainers out there programming workouts for women the same as they would for men.
They don’t take menstrual cycles, peri menopause, menopause or the most current data on intensity, fatigue accumulation or volume capacities into account.
What a ripoff and utter disservice.
There are so many women walking around who think it’s their fault they’re not at the level of fitness equal to their effort when really it’s the garbage weightlifting programs being given them by people who don’t bother with due diligence.
What women should take into account when designing training for maximal results
Women can perform 2-4 more reps of a percentage of rep maxes than men.
For example, if you’re a woman following the same 3x3 workout as a male, at 80% of a one-rep max intensity, you’re leaving gains on the table while the dude is getting the proper stimulus.
Women don’t accumulate the same amount of fatigue per set as men.
Rest times between sets should be shorter as women, on average, recover faster.
Most women are resting too long between sets thus leaving muscle size potential on the table (hypertrophy ain’t happening).
Women can handle much more volume per training session than men without form breaking down.
Women, on average, can normally perform ten more working sets per session than males.
Women recover faster from training sessions and thus can handle higher training frequencies of body parts than males per week.
Women don’t require deloads from training as much as males.
Women don’t accumulate the amount of central nervous system fatigue from compound movements (like squats, deads, benches, etc) as males.
If you’re a woman looking to grow muscle chances are you are not getting enough growth stimulus in this department. Males don’t have to do as much volume to achieve the same stimulus.
Women don’t - in general - bring the intensity per effort into each rep with force as males do.
This is why including degrees of perceived effort into the workouts is necessary or sometimes it gets overlooked.
This isn’t saying women don’t train as hard. It just means there is often a lack of awareness about how much effort should be invested into each rep.
Of course, there’s other things to consider, especially if a woman is still having her period (or not) and how to leverage training to take advantage of hormone cycles and prevent injury.
Did you know most female athlete knee injuries occur during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle?
So the bottom line is, don’t beat yourself up if you feel like you’re putting in a ton of effort without the results you feel you should be getting.
It’s most likely not you, it’s your strategy that may need adjustment based on the simple fact that you’re not a smaller man but a biological female.
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That’s it for this week, frens! Keep creating awesomeness for yourself.
If our minds can create insecurity, fear, doubt, cynicism, judgment, negativity, etc., they can also create inspiration, gratitude, acceptance, and awareness. Have faith and choose well. You are worth it.
Be the hero of your story,
Michelle
This made me smile as I find 2-3 minutes between sets to be an insanely long time... in the past workouts you wrote, it was usually no more than 90 seconds. Can I shorten the intervale in this program?