Should Women Workout Like Men?

There is much controversy on the subject of men and women training. One thing is clear – to build muscle there is a specific formula that must be followed. What about male verses female training in general?  Truth be told there are reasons women should train differently than men and I am about to give you the reasons why.

Men and Women: We’re Different. Use It to Your Advantage

Yes, yes. We’re equal. That doesn’t mean our exercise programs and fitness regimens should be equal. The fact is men and women are built differently. To get the best results possible, we need to tailor our movements to address the unique strengths, weaknesses and needs of our bodies.

What Women Have That Men Don’t

Women aren’t built like men. Our shoulders, wrists and other joints are smaller and have less strength. That means women are five to ten times more likely to suffer a stress fracture.

That’s not all. Because ladies have a larger “Q” angle, we’re more likely to suffer non-contact knee injuries and medial rotational instability. Poor diet and too much aerobic exercise makes 30-something women prone to osteoporosis and dowager’s humps (a rounded spine, at the base of the neck). Almost half the women over the age of 38 will struggle with some degree of incontinence.

Don’t worry though. Women have a particular advantage over men: We are 40% more energy-efficient than men when running the same distance.

In other words women have the energy, we just need to learn how to use it to our advantage.

What Women Really Need in Their Exercise Program

Ask long-time researcher and fitness expert Paul Chek and he’ll tell you women’s fitness routines should include four main exercise types: flexibility, stability, strength and power. And we need to include these four traits into our fitness routines the right way.

 

Free-Moving Muscles — Start by doing daily stretches and flexibility exercises to loosen muscles restricting your movement. This will give you the ability and freedom to work on the rest of your body without risking an injury.

Stability — Next build stability in your core, particularly the transversus abdominis (TVA) region. Why? It will prevent injury, improve incontinence, and build the muscles in your back, pelvis, legs and feet. Stability ball and free-weight exercises are perfect for this step.

Free Weights — Instead of sticking to the machines all the time, make sure you do some free-weight routines. Why? Free weights improve your posture and stabilization, rather than forcing you to do most movements in a sitting position. Not sure where to start? Try some lunges. And don’t be afraid of the weights either. Women have high estrogen levels and lower levels of testosterone (the hormone responsible for building large amounts of muscle), so you won’t start looking like a body builder.

Power and High-Speed Movements – If you keep doing the exercises in the previous steps for 8-16 weeks, you should be close to having full flexibility in your joints and muscles, not to mention more strength and stability. When that happens, it’s time to ramp things up a bit and boost the amplitude and/or velocity of your exercises. This will increase the force through the joints, muscles, and tissue. Just be aware that women are most at risk when performing these types of exercises, so don’t overdo it.

Beauty and Ideal Body Shape

What men and women see as their ideal body shape significantly influences how they exercise. After all, the whole point of doing all this work is to get the curves in the right places, right?

Women, for example, will exercise their obliques differently than men. And here’s why. Women want a small waists, so they won’t work all of their abdominal muscles and will avoid certain movements. They’ll also avoid using heavy weights on their obliques to prevent building muscle mass and expanding their waist.

Now It’s Your Turn

 

All you need is a bit of discipline and the right information. Well, you now have the information. All you need now is the discipline. And you’ve got that covered, right?

If you need a workout program that takes a womens’ need into account and haven’t tried FULL-BODY-LICIOUS, you can get it here: http://www.flaviliciousfitness.com/welcome-presentation.php. I have taken all four aspects of women fitness  and designed a program specifically suited for a woman’s body.

FULL-BODY-LICIOUS will create balance, flexibility, improve strength and power and will put the curves on the right place.

If you are a FULL-BODY-LICIOUS member let us know how it has helped shape your body below. All comments are welcome. Use your transformation to inspire others to do the same!