Femme Fatale By Jamie Sawyer

There still seems to be a huge trend that women who want to get in shape should only run for long distances/times and do high repetition exercises. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Women can greatly benefit from strength training in a number of ways.
A change in body composition would be the ‘holy grail’ for most gym goers. Women who strength train will add more lean mass and lose more fat mass, therefore increasing their metabolism, turning their bodies into fat burning furnaces and ultimately changing their body composition to a leaner version of their former selves.

Women run a greater risk of developing Osteoporosis, especially in later years. This risk can easily be reduced through the execution of a strength training plan. The mechanical stress placed on the body structure during strength training (especially ground-based movements) will help to increase bone density, preventing calcium loss and bone fragility in later years.

These two main aspects alone should make strength training an obvious choice for the body conscious gym goer. By improving ones strength, every day activities will become easier, the walk to work, climbing the escalators in the tube, all will become more efficient and therefore create less fatigue.

As we all know when you are in shape and healthy, the world seems a better place, your clothes fit better, you hold yourself with a stronger posture. So we can see how the benefits of strength training improves self confidence and self esteem and dare I say, makes a woman feel sexier!

How women should train:

The differences between men and women strength training protocols are not a million miles apart, in fact they are closer than most would think.

Strength training parameters for men generally sit around 75-100% of the 1 rep max (1RM). Women should adhere to a slightly lower intensity of 70-95% 1RM.

Due to motor unit recruitment women should use slightly more sets and reps, so a set scheme of 4-6 and a rep range of 3-7 would be a typical starting place for most beginners to intermediate trainers.

There lies the basic difference between men and women in terms of strength training, frequency, duration, periodisation etc all remain the same for both sexes. A slight lack in the capacity to recruit motor units is the simple difference between the two.



Exercise choice:
When looking back, we note that weight bearing exercises are hugely beneficial not only in the combat against osteoporosis but also in changing body composition. The obvious choices are:
• SQUAT
• DEADLIFT
• MILITARY PRESS
• PUSH PRESS
• LUNGE

Less Weight Bearing
• BENCH PRESS
• CHIN UP

These exercises are obvious choices for two reasons:

A: They place huge metabolic demands on the body evoking large responses.
B: They create a major stimulation on the nervous system.

The final exercises to consider are ones that may not be seen at most gyms. With the influence of the strength and conditioning industry on the fitness world evolving, more and more people are implementing the use of these exercises....Olympic lifting!
At first these exercises may seem daunting; however, with a good teacher they are no more intimidating than a playful kitten.
One of the most common responses to the statement ‘women should strength train’ is the fear of bulking up. Olympic lifting exercises and their derivatives, in no way induce this bulk affect. It’s a common mistake that a muscle pump is associated with being bulky. Therefore psychologically, by doing exercises that don’t create a pump (e.g Power Clean), there is no association with that and muscle bulk. Now a pump is simply that, blood and glycogen being ‘pumped’ through the muscle, which in no way causes bulk, so there is simply nothing to worry about. However, the more we can do to maintain the separation of strength training and bulking up, the better.

I understand that pump doesn’t equal bulk but surely lifting heavy and getting stronger will make me bigger?!
The nature of strength training creates more motor unit activation which manifests itself in an increase of strength. Therefore the muscles under stress are not necessarily getting bigger, but denser. A big muscle is not always a strong one and vice versa. The rep and set scheme allows for an increase in the density of the muscle not the size, so bulking is avoided.

Another aspect that can play a role in putting women off of strength training is the ‘I don’t want to look like a man’ response. Now I’m not saying women can’t build muscular physiques but the main reason why men create different physiques to women is down to men producing up to 10 times more testosterone than women. Testosterone increases protein synthesis and muscle size, therefore women are much less likely to build up huge bulky muscles.

Conclusion

Female Strength training will always have a stigma attached to it; therefore many women will be afraid to lift heavy weights. This needs to change as there is no need to fear heavy lifting, in fact it should be embraced, encouraged and utilised to create a body to be proud of. The aerobics DVD’s need to be left in the bargain basement bin and the lifting platform needs to become your new home.

Discuss on the MP forum.