Train like A Woman! Part I

What comes to mind when you think of women’s fitness? How about pink weights, step classes and cardio machines? Anything to keep you from building too much muscle, right? These stereotypes and excepted training modalities make it seem that heavy weights or intense exercise will build massive amounts of “ugly” muscle. Because of this, women’s fitness has been in serious suppression for pretty much its whole existence. For the sake of all you fitness enthusiastic women out there, I would like to expose a couple of myths.

#1: Heavy weights = large muscles

Genetics and hormones dictate muscle growth. Simple as that. Sure we can help the process by maximizing our training, nutritional, and supplemental schedules, but if momma and papa don’t have the “jacked” gene in them, chances are you won’t either. That goes for males and females. Now males can certainly build muscle mass through hard work even if they don’t have great genes (I am the perfect example). Males have much higher levels of testosterone, which is an anabolic hormone, that helps repair and build muscle tissue. Women on the other hand have much higher levels of estrogen which does the complete opposite, it reduces muscle mass. They can still build muscle and strength, but if you are a female looking for a 250 pound frame that resembles The Hulk, I think you will be disappointed.

So as you see it is virtually impossible for women to become muscled to the extent that is most often feared. In fact being as women have small upper body structures genetically, weight training will not put on very much “mass”, but more likely develop an aesthetically pleasing upper body. In addition, the knees and hips in women are often weaker due to their alignment. Proper strength training, like squat and deadlift variations will help to strengthen these areas and develop a well shaped lower body. Compound movements like the squat, deadlift, squat to overhead press, pushpress, pull-up and push-up all utilize the most amount of motor units. Therefore they will elicit the greatest benefits when building a strong, shapely body. In addition to that, the more muscle groups that are used in compound lifts the more calories will be burned for energy. This is easily proven. Take a dumbbell and do 8 bicep curls with it. Now use just your bodyweight and do 8 pushups. Pushups use more muscle groups than bicep curls. Which leaves you more out of breath? So what are the benefits heavy compound lifts are significant on the female body.

-Increased fat metabolism
-Increased cardiovascular health
-Increased muscle, bone and joint strength
-Enhanced muscle coordination
-Higher good cholesterol


#2: An hour on the treadmill is the best and only way to a sexy body

Exercise burns calories. That is well known and I am not here to prove that idea wrong. Whether you are walking, jogging, sprinting, hiking, riding a bike, or circuit training, you are going to burn calories. When trying to pick exercise modalities that will have the best “bang for their buck”, you must look at their efficiency. Does an hour on the treadmill burn a lot of calories? Sure, but it takes an hour and is boring. Does taking a bike ride help cardiovascular health, definitely, but there is not very much change in your heart rate to shock your metabolism. These are certainly good low-level, recovery types of exercise, but to get truly amazing results your training must be both intense and explosive. Your body has three different energy systems that the body pulls from to provide the fuel for exercise. The ATP-PC system, the Anaerobic system and the Aerobic system all provide energy to our muscles. At all times they are all contributing at least a small amount towards energy production. However, different exercise intensities and lengths will draw more dominantly from different energy systems.

-Short explosive movements like weight training or jumping draw from the ATP-PC system. This energy is stored in the muscle and liver so that it can be accessed immediately when it is needed.
-Short duration exercise that lasts less than 2 minutes like longer sprints or the movements involved in team sports draw from the Anaerobic system.
-Long duration exercise of 5 minutes or more is dominantly aerobic, such as long jogs or bike rides.

By choosing multiple variations of length and intensity you can keep your body from adapting to the stress of exercise. Being as it will not be under the same amount of stress throughout your training it is constantly in a state of catch-up. This state of catch-up continues for a length of time after your training has ceased that is determined by the intensity. This is known as Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC). During EPOC the body is trying to rapidly replenish its energy stores to keep the body functioning optimally. This requires energy in itself, which is why post-exercise nutrition is so important, but that is another topic for another article. EPOC keeps your metabolism on high for a greater amount of time than just during the workout, thus burning more calories. The more intense the exercise, the higher the EPOC will be. By performing only steady aerobic exercise like jogging on the treadmill for an hour, your body constantly is making new energy thus never maximizing the EPOC phenomenon. This type of training should be used only on light or recovery days.

Now assuming you are a healthy female capable of heavy exercise, it’s important to pick exercises that utilize many muscle groups. Also pick some types of training that will provide you with changes in heart rate and target multiple energy systems. In Part II we will go over, different ways to exercise efficiently to maximize your muscle development and fat burning potential.

Top Ten Fitness tips

1. Exercise every day. There is more than enough research that shows the benefits of daily exercise. It does not have to be a full-on workout but do something everyday that utilizes your muscles strength and flexibility, as well as increases your heart rate.
2. Make it make sense. Always figure out why you are doing an exercise. If you don't know ask a professional. Do not just do something for the sake of doing it.
3. Change up your rep/set scheme. The body adapts to stresses fairly quickly. If you keep doing the same sets and reps for weeks on end you will either plateau or overtrain yourself.
4. Train for the long haul. Regardless of the type of training you are doing, it is to increase your performance on some level. To maximze your performance you must have a healthy, well functioning body. So make sure that your training program is not going to work against that by including dangerous exercises or bad technique.
5. Do the benefits outweight the risks. This goes along with the previous tip. Look at all of the exercises that you are doing. Do the benefits of this exercise outweight the risks? If not, get rid of it.
6. EAT WELL. With all of the nutritional information out there, there is no excuse to not supplement your hard training with a well balanced diet.
7. Use different exercise tools. Physio-balls, medicine balls, resistance bands, dumbells, kettlebells, barbells all have benefit an exercise program in their own way. If you have access to any of these tools I suggest learning to use them.
8. Take active rest days but don't take time off. The body needs proper recovery from stress via nutrition, sleep and low stress activity. Doing nothing is not a good way to recovery because it decreases bloodflow and does not allow muscles to work in a full range of motion. Low stress activities like walking or golf are great ways to let the body recover while not letting it shrivel up into a useless, prune-like, shell of a body.
9. Learn. Learn as much as you can about nutrition and exercise so you can decipher fact from fiction.
10. Keep track of your stats. The only way to you will know if a routine is working is if you see results from it. Every month test your body fat, weight, flexibility, and strength. The flexibility and strength test must be constant. For example, pushup and pullup repetition tests are easy because you just try to beat your previous score.

Static Positioning

I have begun to introduce a new training method with my clients that has brought great results…I call it static positioning. It is basically specific training to establish stability in a movement at its position that usually has the worst mechanics. In many training movements there are parts that much of the population has trouble maintaining proper mechanics. By getting into a correct position and holding it for several seconds, the nervous system can adapt and remember that position and the stabilizer muscles can be taught how to maintain contraction to allow for proper mechanics. This type of training is done best with a professional trainer watching to reinforce proper positioning.

For instance in the squatting movement many people have trouble keeping their knees from drifting far in front of their toes, which often brings the heels off the ground causing a lack of balance. Also the knees tend to drift inward due to lack of glute activation causing stress on the knee joint. The following can be done to correct this:

3-tier Iso-squat

The first tier is when the thigh has about a 45 degree angle with the floor and is held for 5-10 seconds. The next tier is at a height about 2-3 inches below the first tier which is held for another 5-10 seconds. Get into the deepest squat position possible in which the hamstrings are not touching the calves and the lumbar spine can maintain a flat position. This is the third tier which should be held for 5-20 seconds. Use common cues to maintain position:

• Feet flat


• Feet shoulder width


• Feet at a 30 degree angle (from a top view)


• Hips back


• Knees directly over toes (both from a front and side view)


• Slight forward torso lean


• Upper back arched


• Chest up


• Hands behind head

Another commonly flawed movement is the pushup. A proper position is with the elbows in, hands directly under the shoulders and a straight line from heels to shoulders. The following can be done to train proper mechanics:

3 Tier Iso-pushup

This is more difficult if strength is lacking in the core muscles around the hip and abdominal area but can work if trained properly. The first tier is begun at the top position and held for 5 seconds. The second tier is when the upper arm is at a 45 degree angle with the floor and held for another 5 seconds. The third and final tier is when the elbows are next to the rib cage and the upper arm is parallel with the floor. This can be done in three separate sets if muscle endurance is lacking. Use the following cues to maintain proper positioning:

• Hands directly under shoulder joint


• Elbows directly over wrists


• Upper arm close to upper torso


• Hips form a straight line from heels to shoulders


• Shoulder blades are retracted and pulled together (except at the top position they are pushed apart)

*This can be done from a modified position in which the knees are on the floor until strength is acquired

By holding these positions the body and mind can "memorize" it and establish the position as natural while developing strength in the needed muscles. From here the movements can be pieced together to form a full movement quicker than just diving right into it head first, literally.