Thread: Are women's routines really different?

No, they aren't.

It's often a bad idea for those who are cutting to do a training program with lots of reps and high tempos. Cutting is hard enough and you don't want to add extra misery with a physically demanding workout. You generally want to try to keep the reps low, the weight high, and the workouts infrequent. The only reason you're going to the gym at all is to convince your body that it needs to keep all of its lean mass.

That said, if the person you want to help is new to training, teaching her how to perform the basic exercises like squats, deadlifts, presses, etc. is pretty much essential. You can have her run a caloric deficit in the meantime, but get her to perform these lifts the correct way (and consistently) before you even think about putting more weight on the bar.

Once she's confident with her exercise technique, get a base level of her strength by testing for 1RMs or 5RMs on the main lifts. Do workouts based on percentages of these 1RMs.

Originally Posted by gtbmed

No, they aren't.

It's often a bad idea for those who are cutting to do a training program with lots of reps and high tempos. Cutting is hard enough and you don't want to add extra misery with a physically demanding workout. You generally want to try to keep the reps low, the weight high, and the workouts infrequent. The only reason you're going to the gym at all is to convince your body that it needs to keep all of its lean mass.

That said, if the person you want to help is new to training, teaching her how to perform the basic exercises like squats, deadlifts, presses, etc. is pretty much essential. You can have her run a caloric deficit in the meantime, but get her to perform these lifts the correct way (and consistently) before you even think about putting more weight on the bar.

Once she's confident with her exercise technique, get a base level of her strength by testing for 1RMs or 5RMs on the main lifts. Do workouts based on percentages of these 1RMs.

Good Info.

Yea, workout should be same for male or female.

Originally Posted by Life

I've always wondered this. My girlfriend asked me to put something small together for her that she could do twice a week. I found myself at a loss because I've never trained or trained with a woman. Are the routines that different?

Nope. We both have the same muscles and our bodies move the same way, mostly. (our hips are a little different, which can affect certain movements a bit, but won't alter exercise selection)

Originally Posted by Life

I was thinking the only real difference would be the weight involved and the number of reps/sets but thought if I asked here Built would chime in

Training goal decides this, not the sex of the athlete. To maintain, eat at maintenance. To bulk, eat more food than required and train with higher volume. To cut, eat less food than required and reduce training volume as required. Try to keep the weights as heavy as used while bulking/maintaining.

Originally Posted by Life

She'll be using it for toning (fat loss) so I was thinking mostly compounds focusing on form with low weight and an up tempo speed.

Only if she's okay with dropping muscle and feeling very hungry.

There's really no such thing as toning. She wants to remain "firm" while dropping weight, and that means she wants to drop only bodyfat while not building any muscle size. This means she needs to eat less food than she requires, while lifting heavy, low-volume full-body workouts twice or three times a week (read the link in my sig on getting started, the protocol is identical for males and females, although females often feel better on higher fat, lower carbs, and fewer, but larger meals while cutting) along with some walking and perhaps a bit of HIIT (read "daredevils" in my sig.)

I realize this flies in the face of what most professional rep counters preach, but this is how it works.

Have her read this if she's interested: Got Built? » In the beginning…
and this: Got Built? » Keeping it going – the evolutionary process of fat loss

The main page of my blog reads like a book: Got Built? » Open Source Fitness – Get started here

Get her on fitday and lifting using the basic split in that homework 1 post while she reads through and digests her options.

Built, what kind of deficit do you run for people who do HIIT as described in your article? I assume it's not an extreme deficit like PSMF. Is it some type of carb cycling?

I guess I should have put toning in quotation marks :P I know it exists as a word only. I honestly don't think I'll get her to log her diet in fitday. I don't think she'll work out more than twice a week. She goes to school full time and works thirty hours a week along with a myriad of extra curriculum activities. God knows how she functions. That being said, considering how tight she is with her diet (She eats well, although maybe protein deficit in my book..) I think just adding some compounds twice a week will give her some of the results she is looking for. I want her to keep fat in certain areas ^_^

I had read a few places that women generally require more reps than men to see similar results (Sounded like broscience) which is why I asked :P

Thanks for all the replies!

For bulking, we do sometimes need more volume, since we cannot lift as heavy as a man of the same weight, and our CNS is slightly less efficient. For cutting, this is a moot point for the most part, and a full-body routine twice a week as outlined in that link on getting started - 3x5-8 reps each of squats, deads, chins, shoulders, chest and rows is plenty. Toss in a bit of walking and you're golden.

She can't be eating well if she's not eating enough protein. And if she's trying to drop fat, there is clearly something that needs to change in her diet. She can't exercise it off, I'll tell you that right off the bat. When women try to do this, it overstimulates appetite. Unless she digs feeling freakishly hungry, she'll gain instead of losing, and most of what she'll gain is fat.

Re HIIT a la daredevils - the dietary protocol is in there (and no, not on prolonged PSMF).. For more on cardio, read "How to do cardio if you must", on my blog. She could run about a 20% deficit if she likes. I wouldn't go over this for extended periods of time and yeah a carb cycle would work nicely. Scroll to the end of How to do cardio for one option.

Great thread! I hate when people think training a woman needs to be light. As if the big scary weights are too much for their fragile minds or something.

Tell her to get in there and pump some damned iron!

In my experience, i much prefer training women newbies to man newbies.

Men are so caught up in their egos and how big they want their guns to be that they slap a few hundred pounds on the bar straight away, or slap some curls on leg day when you're not around.

Women generally couldn't give a shit about the weight, but are really concerned they're doing the exercise right and actually listen to you. Its great!

for the most part the main difference between men and woman are the differences in outputs of the various sex hormones. besides that our bodies function exactly the same biologically.

Life, I should add something about starting weights, and Gaz kinda touched on this a bit. Not only are women generally concerned with doing it right, we are RIDICULOUSLY weak when compared with men of the same weight, certainly when we start. Take squats, for instance. I did 185 for three triples last Friday, but I've been lifting for almost ten years. When I started, my buddy had me "just" lift the bar. "Just" the bar still weighs 45 lbs and it was WAY too much for me to start with - four days later, when I was able to walk again, I used 8-lb dumbbells. I gradually worked my way UP to the bar, and this took me three MONTHS because by this point, I was freaked and didn't want to go through that much pain again.

Pick a weight you think will be too light for her, and then use half of that. Have her add a little heavier weight each time she trains; she'll quickly settle on a weight that's heavy enough for her to be an appropriate training weight.

Also, stick to multiple low-rep sets when you train her. It's better to do five reps, then a triple, then another triple, then another triple and get the form right, than do 8 reps where the first two are right and fatigue drives her to screw up - and subsequently practice wrong - the next six. Remember, she'll learn it the way she practices it the most. That's why it's best to keep it simple at first; six moves she'll practice two or three times a week will do more to prepare her for her future lifting than 20 moves she'll have to look up every time she tries to remember them.

Yeah thats about how I was planning to go about it. I was thinking of just starting her with 2x10lbs on squats. Shes pretty strong though, she did martial arts for four years. She can kick my ass until I get my arms around her :P

Sounds good. If she hasn't done squats before, use a 20-lb dumbbell, or a 25-lb plate and have her do goblet squats to learn the form. If her legs don't hurt too much after the first workout, she should increase the weight for subsequent workouts until she feels it for a day or two after she trains. Then leave it alone for a workout or two; when it settles down, increase it again.

Thanks Built I appreciate all the advice. I'm looking forward to seeing her walk around the house sore so I can make fun of her. Turn about is fair play after all.

As entertaining as that sounds, resist the urge to let her do this. She'll get spooked and quit.

Workouts for women should have some differences from men's..that's what I think.
It has something to do with the effectiveness and intensity of one's training.