94: Myths & Fallacies, Women & Strength Training

Sports Mastery

The #1 lie you've been told...

Lifting weights will make women bulky. One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding females and strength training involves the notion that lifting weights will make them appear bulky.

Unless females take anabolic steroids or double their clean food intake, that simply won’t happen. Hormones factor heavily in determining an individual’s size. According to Medline Plus, women naturally produce about only 5-7% as much testosterone as men. That means men produce 14 to 20 times as much testosterone as women, so women won’t increase muscle mass at nearly the same rate unless they supplement with steroids or other performance enhancing drugs.

They can work at the same intensities as men and build lean, slender physiques like fitness models instead of massive bodybuilders. This is absolutely possible, but the bulk thing? Not so much.

According to a 2004 study by Dr. Andrew Fry, “In general, females do not exhibit as great an absolute hypertrophic response when compared with males, although relative gains may be similar” (Fry, 2004).

Ladies aren’t going to throw on big slabs of muscle even if they exert the same level of effort as men. Whether this is good or bad is for you to decide, but being informed of facts, not opinions or anecdotal case studies of one, is necessary. If women want to build muscle while losing weight, they should focus on maintaining a negative energy balance and burning off more calories than they consume. It doesn’t get much simpler than that. And guess what? That same tip can be used for men!

To take it to the next level, females should work on reducing stress and getting a requisite amount of sleep per night. Again, this is not rocket science, but it has been shown that getting decreased number of hours of sleep reduces anabolic hormone levels and increases catabolic hormone concentrations (Cook, Kilduff and Jones; 2004). While the very word “anabolic” may scare some women, it’s actually an important hormone for building lean muscle and burning fat. You’re either building muscle or losing muscle, and you definitely don’t want to decrease muscle mass because muscle burns more calories than fat.

So if females want to remain lean, they had better prioritize staying in an anabolic state.

That means ladies should aim for at least seven hours of sleep per night and consume plenty of high quality, unprocessed foods like lean meats, vegetables, fruits and nuts. And yes, it can be that simple.

Master the basics to move your goals forward.

In this episode, we discuss:

Strength Training for the Female Athlete

1. Why is there such a stigma when it comes to strength training with female athletes? First, we must to look at the historical aspects. Past mindset and views

2. What are the strength training guidelines when it comes to training female athletes.

3. Is the female strength training program different from that of males? Yes and No

4. What are some specifics to consider when training the female athlete? Posterior chain work. Q angle

5. What can be done to make strength training more acceptable with female athletes? Education of athlete, parent and YES, some coaches.

Nutrition is an important aspect of training. It’s the fuel we need to optimally perform. What needs to be considered when addressing this topic with the female athlete? Be mindful about what you say that could lead to eating disorders

Are there psychological aspects to consider when training female athletes?