Sunday, February 24, 2013

Women vs Men in Training



I train with my husband. We do all the same exercises. Granted my weights are lower but basically we train the same. So when I would read about how women needed to be trained differently, I scoffed. However, recently one of my favorite fitness professionals, Bret Contreras, did a post on differences he had found in training women. When Bret writes something I read it and pay attention. He is one of my must read blogs.

The list is rather long but I highly recommend reading it. Just remember it is written for other trainers and not everything is true of every women.

Here are a few of the items that made me stop and think:

1."Women utilize a variety of lumbar-pelvic strategies when lifting and often resort to overarching (excessive hyperextension) the spine during planks, push-ups, pull-ups, and deadlifts."  I notice myself doing this on Glute Ham Raises. If I'm not careful I arch my back to get up rather than using my hamstrings.

2. "Bodyweight exercises for the upper body are much harder for women compared to men."  As a person that has struggled to do an unassisted pull-up, it was good to hear that I'm not just a weak person. It took me a year to do a Chin-up and I hope to get a pull-up under my belt this year.

3. The vast majority of women will never have “too much booty” as in gluteus maximus musculature no matter how much resistance training they perform. I was glad to read this as I don't find the Kim Kardasian look attractive. Plus, I don't want to have that much trouble finding jeans/pants.

4. It is common for women, however, to have poor ankle mobility – just as it is for men. I have noticed this and think it is directly related to wearing heels. I love my 4 inch heels but they leave you in a position that shortens the Achilles for long period of times.

5. Women often struggle to load and unload plates off of barbells properly due to pulling or positioning them off-track rather than centering them perfectly and pushing/pulling straight-on. Being short as well, this is always an issue for me and probably why I dropped that weight. I now ask for help with larger plates above my waist.

6. Some women experience urinary incontinence when exercising, and the likelihood increases after giving birth. Ladies, go to the bathroom before maximum lifts. Contrary to some people's belief it is not cool to pee while lifting!

7. Women tend to prefer different training music than men. While I understand the love of rap and death metal the guys have while working out, it would be fun to hear some dance music sometimes.

8. More women than men attempt to chat during lifts, and they’ll even do so with maximal attempts (men instinctively shut their traps and focus on the task at hand when maxing out). I'm trying really hard to stop this as it drives my husband nuts. But I really don't understand what the problem is with it.

9. If you let them, many women would perform their entire workout as one giant circuit (therefore you have to teach them to rest adequately for strength gains) This is totally me! I have to set a timer to slow down. I think it has to do with thinking I should be exhausted at the end.

10. Women require smaller jumps in progressive overload – smaller plates are therefore critical (example 1.25-2.5lbs), as are smaller barbells (and smaller jumps in db’s, kb’s, and bands). I quickly found this to be true and got a set of Fractional weights. They have been very helpful and I highly recommend them.

There are many observations that I don't necessarily agree with. I think most men tend to start out with more knowledge then women, so women appear to have a steeper learning curve. If you took a man that had never been exposed to weight training and put them in the gym, I think most of the observations would be the same. Well, maybe not the stress incontinence  

Have you noticed any way women are different?
Here is Bret's article: Strength Training for Women

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