Women and Weight Training: Countering Myths and Misperceptions
Richard A. Winett, Ph. D.
Because most women have no interest in becoming big and muscular, women believe their training programs should be quite different from men's programs.
From this key concern -- becoming too big -- a number of myths and misperceptions have evolved about women's weight training. Such myths and misperceptions have kept many women from weight training or training with any degree of effectiveness. Most women are, unfortunately, not doing the one activity -- weight training -- that can truly shape their bodies in a highly attractive way, greatly improve their health now and in the future, and markedly improve strength.
This article counters myths and misperceptions about women and weight training and makes the case that in most instances the training programs for women and men will be virtually identical.
Moreover, the principles of training governing these programs are the same. There are not separate training principles for women and men because training principles are universal.
Let's first examine a number of these myths and misperceptions and then provide principles and prescriptions for successful training applicable to both men and women.
Myths: The chief concern of women is that by weight training they will become big, muscular, and highly defined. This is a myth and misperception because few individuals of either sex have the genetic endowment to develop a large, defined musculature.
Women and men possessing these characteristics seem to be more the norm today only because bodybuilding for women and men has become more popular and, hence, visible in print and electronic media.
A safe bet is only several women out of 10,000 could ever develop the appearance of a top bodybuilder. Unless a woman reading this article is one of those several out of 10,000, becoming too big and muscular is not a concern of the other 9,996 women!
Taking a quite different tack, many women believe they are incapable of gaining much strength and thus restrict themselves to using light weights, high repetitions, and high sets. There also may be a fear of injury if heavier weights are used.
Many women cannot lift as much weight or move as much resistance as men simply because women tend to have less lean body mass than men and few women have trained seriously for any length of time.
Actually, on a basis of lean body mass, many women are capable of proportionally becoming as strong as many men. Thus, Jane may have 100 lbs of lean body mass at a total body weight of 125 lbs and do squats with 150 lbs. John may have 170 lbs of lean body mass at a total body weight of 200 lbs and do squats with 255 lbs. The proportion of weight used in the squat to lean body mass (1.5 to 1.00) is the same. Both Jane and John will profit from the same program based on the same principles, and neither will risk injury if they train correctly.
In this example, notice that Jane at 125 lbs is still not a large person. She is very unlikely to develop large legs even by being able to squat 10 to times with 100 lbs because the genetic traits necessary for developing large muscle are exceedingly rare.
Based both on the fear of getting too big -- which is an unreasoned fear -- and the quite contrary belief that women can't get very strong, many women adopt a training program revolving around the notion of "toning" plus a large amount of aerobic training.
The purpose of this regime is presumably to remain "small", keep weight under control, and maintain a "fit and feminine appearance". Thus, another myth and misperception is that toning and large amounts of aerobics are the smart training choices for women. Let's see why this is, indeed, a misperception.
Toning is a term that has no scientific basis. It is not a term that appears in exercise physiology books. It's a made-up term. But what does toning mean in popular parlance? The term implies using light weights or other resistance presumably to derive some small muscular effect -- for strength and appearance. With toning, the idea seems to be not to put forth much effort (intensity) but to do a great deal of work (volume) -- many sets, many repetitions.
It's been known for at least 50 years that this is an ineffective training method. Here's why.
According to the well-established size principle, muscle fibers are recruited -- this means the order they "fire" or work - based on the intensity of effort. Smaller slow-twitch fibers will be recruited for lower-intensity efforts, while more and other fast-twitch fibers are only recruited with higher- intensity efforts.
Simply put, lower-intensity toning does not effectively work the muscles. But what about doing many repetitions and many sets? Such training practices are not only ineffective, they are a total waste of time. They wear you out and give you nothing in return.
In fact, Master Trainer has reported many times on research comparing the use of single sets for each exercise and multiple sets. There is virtually no evidence to support the common practice of doing multiple sets for each exercise. That is, there is no additional benefit of doing two or three sets let alone the many sets of one exercise that many women do. It is basically a waste of time and effort and can actually reduce the quality of the workout. That's because doing a great deal of work is exhausting, time consuming, and undermines the ability to recover and adapt from a workout. Rather what is effective is using one high intensity set for each exercise.
Intensity: As soon as the word "intensity" is introduced, most women become intimidated and turned off because they equate the term with using a great deal of weight or other resistance, something they fear or see on an absolute basis they can't do as well as most men. Intensity, however, does not signify any specific weight or resistance or, for that matter, a specific number of repetitions. The weight or resistance used is relative to the strength of each individual, and the specific number of repetitions used is somewhat arbitrary.
Intensity does mean the degree of effort you are putting forth at a given time. The surest way to effective weight training for women or men is training with high intensity in a progressive manner.
Richard A. Winett, Ph. D.
Because most women have no interest in becoming big and muscular, women believe their training programs should be quite different from men's programs.
From this key concern -- becoming too big -- a number of myths and misperceptions have evolved about women's weight training. Such myths and misperceptions have kept many women from weight training or training with any degree of effectiveness. Most women are, unfortunately, not doing the one activity -- weight training -- that can truly shape their bodies in a highly attractive way, greatly improve their health now and in the future, and markedly improve strength.
This article counters myths and misperceptions about women and weight training and makes the case that in most instances the training programs for women and men will be virtually identical.
Moreover, the principles of training governing these programs are the same. There are not separate training principles for women and men because training principles are universal.
Let's first examine a number of these myths and misperceptions and then provide principles and prescriptions for successful training applicable to both men and women.
Myths: The chief concern of women is that by weight training they will become big, muscular, and highly defined. This is a myth and misperception because few individuals of either sex have the genetic endowment to develop a large, defined musculature.
Women and men possessing these characteristics seem to be more the norm today only because bodybuilding for women and men has become more popular and, hence, visible in print and electronic media.
A safe bet is only several women out of 10,000 could ever develop the appearance of a top bodybuilder. Unless a woman reading this article is one of those several out of 10,000, becoming too big and muscular is not a concern of the other 9,996 women!
Taking a quite different tack, many women believe they are incapable of gaining much strength and thus restrict themselves to using light weights, high repetitions, and high sets. There also may be a fear of injury if heavier weights are used.
Many women cannot lift as much weight or move as much resistance as men simply because women tend to have less lean body mass than men and few women have trained seriously for any length of time.
Actually, on a basis of lean body mass, many women are capable of proportionally becoming as strong as many men. Thus, Jane may have 100 lbs of lean body mass at a total body weight of 125 lbs and do squats with 150 lbs. John may have 170 lbs of lean body mass at a total body weight of 200 lbs and do squats with 255 lbs. The proportion of weight used in the squat to lean body mass (1.5 to 1.00) is the same. Both Jane and John will profit from the same program based on the same principles, and neither will risk injury if they train correctly.
In this example, notice that Jane at 125 lbs is still not a large person. She is very unlikely to develop large legs even by being able to squat 10 to times with 100 lbs because the genetic traits necessary for developing large muscle are exceedingly rare.
Based both on the fear of getting too big -- which is an unreasoned fear -- and the quite contrary belief that women can't get very strong, many women adopt a training program revolving around the notion of "toning" plus a large amount of aerobic training.
The purpose of this regime is presumably to remain "small", keep weight under control, and maintain a "fit and feminine appearance". Thus, another myth and misperception is that toning and large amounts of aerobics are the smart training choices for women. Let's see why this is, indeed, a misperception.
Toning is a term that has no scientific basis. It is not a term that appears in exercise physiology books. It's a made-up term. But what does toning mean in popular parlance? The term implies using light weights or other resistance presumably to derive some small muscular effect -- for strength and appearance. With toning, the idea seems to be not to put forth much effort (intensity) but to do a great deal of work (volume) -- many sets, many repetitions.
It's been known for at least 50 years that this is an ineffective training method. Here's why.
According to the well-established size principle, muscle fibers are recruited -- this means the order they "fire" or work - based on the intensity of effort. Smaller slow-twitch fibers will be recruited for lower-intensity efforts, while more and other fast-twitch fibers are only recruited with higher- intensity efforts.
Simply put, lower-intensity toning does not effectively work the muscles. But what about doing many repetitions and many sets? Such training practices are not only ineffective, they are a total waste of time. They wear you out and give you nothing in return.
In fact, Master Trainer has reported many times on research comparing the use of single sets for each exercise and multiple sets. There is virtually no evidence to support the common practice of doing multiple sets for each exercise. That is, there is no additional benefit of doing two or three sets let alone the many sets of one exercise that many women do. It is basically a waste of time and effort and can actually reduce the quality of the workout. That's because doing a great deal of work is exhausting, time consuming, and undermines the ability to recover and adapt from a workout. Rather what is effective is using one high intensity set for each exercise.
Intensity: As soon as the word "intensity" is introduced, most women become intimidated and turned off because they equate the term with using a great deal of weight or other resistance, something they fear or see on an absolute basis they can't do as well as most men. Intensity, however, does not signify any specific weight or resistance or, for that matter, a specific number of repetitions. The weight or resistance used is relative to the strength of each individual, and the specific number of repetitions used is somewhat arbitrary.
Intensity does mean the degree of effort you are putting forth at a given time. The surest way to effective weight training for women or men is training with high intensity in a progressive manner.