Training a Women

[Nicko]

alright now my girlfriend wants me to train her in weight lifting, the problem is I have never trained a girl before, so I have been doing a lot of research, my first goal is to FORCE her to understand that she will not become me by lifting weights, then I am gonna develop her technique and introduce her to all the various exercises, I was hoping some people on this forum *cough* emma *cough* could help me out with some ideas on what has worked for females and what does not, I would think that heavy weights at low reps would be ideal since it builds strength and not mass, then once she gets to be at a nice strength switch to light weights and high reps, not ever touching moderate weights at about 12 reps.

I have read a few good articles, and one being from a female trainer who always has girls saying I just want to tone, I just want to tone, don't give me any heavy weights, I don't want to have a lot of muscle, but they don't realize that there is nothing really to tone since they don't have that much muscle (this is mostly in the arms here) most girls already have small arms, and if you were to strip away the fluff on them so only muscle remains they would probably rival the arm of a 10 year old boy, atleast that is what I think my girlfriend's arms would look like

anyhow any advice would be greatly appreciated, but I think the greatest difficulty will be getting her to actually work out and not do it half-assed.

[BabyArnold]

You have to remember that women's and men's muscle are the same. They work the same and grow the same under the same stress. The only difference is that women don't have as much testosterone as men naturally, so they won't get as bulky. To burn fat, you need to create muscle. Gaining lean muscle mass is the fastest way to burn fat. She should do the same excercises that you do, only she will use lighter weight, or weight that she can handle. Muscles work the same way for women as they do for men.
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I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

[Newfiechick]

I agree with you BabyA!! Funny how a lot of women (and men) think that women should train differently than you guys.

I train hard. Right now I am doing heavy weights, low reps.

And, ummm, no. Us women will not get bulky!!!! LOL

I posted a article on a few myths of womens weight training a long time ago....here it is.

http://www.schwarzenegger.ca/forum/about1882.html&highlight=myths+womens+weight+training

Nicko, have your girlfriend check it out and have her join the site!!

Anything you need...let me know.
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Discipline is the bridge between goals & accomplishments.

[Nicko]

I know that women will not grow nearly as fast as men but I am training for size at the moment, I just changed my work out slightly so that I train with very high inensity, and I have also turned off the fans to see if it has any differense, one thing is for sure though I am a lot more stinky lol, anyhow I am doing 24 sets of 12 in about 45 minutes and I am trying to shorten that time every single work out as well, and I fail on most every single set, I have seen great results in as little as 2 weeks

well there are just so many different types and styles of training, I was more so wondering if some type might be atleast favoured by a sex more, like one thing I know is that girls really like to focus on their thighs as well as ass, and do things like kick backs and the one where you strap a weigh to your ankle and move your leg laterally, where as guys for the most part don't care and squat, which does work the thigh and ass, so should I just get her to squat and lunge? anyhow I am trying to convince her to let me train her whole body equally which is another issue she kind of has but I think she is slowly swinging so maybe I will reference her to this site

anyhow I should have included you Newfie chick in my cough, but it kind of looks like you agree with heavy weight low reps, which was how I was going to train her, so what is your take on training for size rather then strength? have you done it or are you interested in doing it?

when I did go to a gym I would usually see girls with their trainers lifting very little weight, I don't really know how many reps, because i wasnt counting, but doing dumbell side raises with like 5 lbs has stuck in my mind, I myself personally think that although any exercise is atleast good in some way, you are not reaching the maximum benifts you could and for the girls training like that it is helpful but would be pretty useless as to what they could be doing, I just kinda think they don't want to get down and dirty in the weight room, but then again it could just be the trainer

apparently though, my girlfriend's mother had a female friend who did go to the gym and got a trainer to work her and apparently she ended up growing big muscles, so she left and went to a different gym and trainer and the trainer claimed that they did everything all wrong, (although all trainers say everyone is doing everything wrong since they all have their own method) so my girlfriend is kinda afraid of that, but after looking on the internet I found something and am kicking myself for not putting 2 and 2 together and that was a quote from an article saying "Muscles just don't appear over night" so now I kind of have to question that story

[fire23]

I have trained really hard.. and still cant get bulky.. like the peple in the Muscle and Fitness.. a female will most likely not get bulky..

[Nicko]

but everybody IS different which is one thing you really gotta take into consideration. anyhow fire you might want to look into a guy named Vince Delmote, I actually like his articles and what he says, he was a skinny guy who packed on a lot of muscle and he lives just over in Hamilton which is not that far away from me

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/vinced6.htm

there is one of the articles I like, it tells you to train like a barbarian and it really got me to boost the intensity of my work outs because I want to dress as a barbarian for this upcomming halloween

[BabyArnold]

Due to the fact that women do not and cannot naturally produce as much testosterone (one of the main hormones responsible for increasing muscle size) as males do, it is impossible for a woman to gain huge amounts of muscle mass unless anabolic steroids are used in conjunction with an extremely aggressive weight training program and bulking diet.

Women who conduct weight training without the use of steroids get the firm and fit cellulite-free looking body that they're looking for provided that they follow a good nutrition program and cardiovascular workout as well.

Women that only concentrate on cardio will have a very hard time achieving the look that they want. As far as the lifting of very light weights, this is just more nonsense. Muscle responds to resistance and if the resistance is too light, then there will be no reason for the body to change.
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I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

[Emma]

[Nicko]

I know exactly what you are talking about, pretty much people with skinny arms and legs but a belly as well

[fire23]

thxs Nicko.... I will read up on it