Train Like A Woman: Part II

In Part I of this installment I went over some myths about fitness training as it applies to women. A quick recap:

• Heavy weights DO NOT create huge muscles in women. It depends on your genetics and hormone levels. Females do not have high levels of testosterone like men; therefore they cannot become “hulk-sized”. To add to this fact, estrogen, which women have high levels of, is a major limiting factor for muscle size and strength.
  


• An hour of cardio everyday is the best way to lose weight. Not necessarily. It takes too much time out of your day and it limits the time you can spend on strengthening the muscles. Short bouts of high intensity work with intermittent rest periods create a deficit of oxygen, which the body will try to recover for hours after exercise. This burns a ton of calories.

So with that being said, what are some of the best ways for women to get the most out of their training? Well, it really depends on the person and any limiting factors, as it does with men as well. Given a healthy female here are some of my tips to maximize your training and most of all, results!

1. Target the hips: Women are known to have wider hips and knees that are closer together. This is known as the “Q angle”. This increases the stress put on the hip and knee joints because of the direction of the forces on them.


This increased stress makes it even more important for women to have strong hip abductors and adductors to stabilize the knee and hip. The gluteus maximus and medius, other external rotators, various adductors of the groin, and hamstring muscles should be the focus of work. Aside from the functional benefit of targeting these muscles, every girl wants a tight butt right? Several simple exercises can be performed to help achieve these goals. Squatting variations should be the main focus in hip training. Back squats, front squats and spilt squats are a great start.



When performing any squat, concentrate on driving the knees apart so that the knees remain over the toes at all times and the hips sit back over the heels. Also to maintain flexibility and strength through a full range of motion, make sure that your hips sit as deep as physically possible. Begin with light weight until flexibility and technique are acquired, then increase the weight gradually to further develop the muscles.


In addition to squats, deadlifts are another great exercise that targets the hips and low back. There are several variations that can be done such as single leg versions and deadlifting from different heights. Also, deadlifting with different angles at the knee can target the hamstrings to a greater degree.

Assistance exercises can be added to target certain areas. By training specific areas you can strengthen the main lifts such as the deadlift and squat thus increasing the affect of these exercises. Also you may have weaker areas, as stated above, that need to be strengthened to increase normal function.

Glute raise or hip extension variations can be done to activate the glutes and hamstrings.

Mini-band walks can be done to target the external hip rotators.

2. Get an "after burn": I got this term from a great fitness and strength coach Alwyn Cosgrove and it sure is a good one. After burn is basically the time after an intense conditioning session in which the body is in a state of energy catch up. This state requires energy to produce energy, thus the more demanding an exercise the more calories you will burn for a longer period of time. For example, compare two people:

Sally likes to run on the treadmill for an hour daily. She gets on and sets the speed to an even 5 mph and goes to town for an hour. Her heart rate gets amped up and remains at steady state for most of that hour. Her body is constantly taking in oxygen at a rate that supports new energy production so she is never in a state of catch up. When she is finished her body takes a short period of time to produce the needed energy to sustain normal function.

Pam on the other hand is a busy girl. She has a tight schedule between kids, her job and running an art club in the evenings. She prefers high intensity, short duration workouts to get her “fat-burning fix.” She does interval training which consists of a total body weight training circuit of 5 exercises and sprints on the treadmill. Her body goes through some intense heart rate fluctuations and never adapts to her type of training. The circuit is performed for 3 sets and takes no more than 20 minutes. Following her workout she is in an oxygen deprived state and never got a chance to produce the necessary energy to sustain full capacity function. Her after burn lasts anywhere from an hour to half the day. Her body is constantly regenerating energy as she consumes nutrients.

So you see that both types of training are effective at burning calories, but which one is more efficient?

3. Stay flexible: Everyone not just women need to train their muscles to function properly. It is a staple in a functional training program. Much of a muscle’s flexibility can be achieved with proper strength training, but stretching can be used as a recovery technique as well. After a muscle is used it remains warm and has increased blood flow to the area which presents the perfect time to try to increase flexibility. Also it has to repair itself for normal function. If proper stretching is not done it often heals in a shortened or protected state. Basically, the more a muscle is used the stiffer it becomes. By stretching post-workout, the muscle is lengthened and trained to be comfortable in a longer state than normal. Frequent stretching can help maintain proper lengthened muscles and a full range of motion.

4. Train for upper body strength: It is even more important for women to train upper body strength because they genetically have weaker upper bodies than men in comparison to the lower body. Exercises like the bench press, pull ups, rows and various assistance exercises, especially core training, should be performed fairly heavy to bring up the strength of the torso. Forget the pink 1 pound weights, you need to lift some serious weight to get your upper body to match the lower. Now don't buy into the "I'll get too big" stereotype because it is bogus as I went over in Part I. Strength is the key to a healthy body no matter how you spin it so pick up some weight and get started.

These are just a few of the many ways that you can maximize your training program to become and remain a healthy, fit woman.