[quote]dankid wrote:
Well there is no reason she cant do training that emulates yours. If you both have the goal of building muscle and losing fat, then you both shoul be training in a pretty similar manner. Males and females need to train almost the exact same way. The only difference I can say from experience, is that females tend to not use enough weight, and males tend to use too much weight.
So most of the time you should use less than you think you need to, and she should use more. Typically for females this comes down to them doing more reps with a given load, or really forcing them to go heavier. (For example, I might struggle to get 5 reps with 85% of my 1rm, but my gf can probably get 7-10. And if I tell her to pick a weight that she can only do five times, she’ll stop at five but I can almost guarantee she could have done a few more)
Also, her exercise selection may be different than yours. It really depends on where she needs to put on muscle the most, but many times females struggle more with upper body than lower body. So, while squats, deadlifts and lunges may be enough for lower body for her, she may need bench, rows, shoulder press, pullups, tricep ext, curls, shoulder raises, etc. for upper body.
But this really depends on HER needs. My gf actually has developed her upper body much faster than her lower body, so she needs to put less emphasis on the upper body.
Whether your male or female, there should always be emphasis put on progression. I know its not always the case, but my experience with females is that a lot of times they dont think they need to get stronger. They fail to see the benefit of increasing their squat by 50lbs or by being able to double their reps with a given weight on DB presses. Cardio MAY help burn some fat, but weight training and diet will help build muscle and get lean.
So my recommendation for cardio? Its the same as for you. If she’s trying to build muscle, she can do cardio, but only as long as she’s able to progress on the weights. If she; or you, start to stall on the weights, then the cardio would be the first thing to cut out. If her; and you, aren’t building muscle, but are trying to lose fat, then its a litte different. You’ll be in a calorie deficit, and weight training is still important, but you might not be expecting to make gains.
Instead, the goal might be to maintain strength, while adding cardio (or metabolic type resistance training) It depends on the person, but for me, I have found that trying to “train to lose fat” is very innefective. And that dieting to lose fat, while trying to maintain muscle and strength is much better.
Also, check out T-Nation’s other site figureathlete.com There are many good articles over there catered to females and figure athletes. And there is nothing wrong with you doing some of the stuff over there as well. Check out the articles on X-frame, and “wasp waist” and some of wet wolf’s stuff.
Hope this helps.[/quote]
Ha! You make a great point on the females never doing enough. This is so true… I try to push her to find out what a real 5 rep max is, but she always says it’s one thing than on the 5th set she some how does 11 reps??? Makes little sense, other than their threshold for pain must be vastly different. She always complains that preacher curls hurt her wrists too bad o even do. I am old school and just say “It’s supposed to hurt, now do it” but that’s just me.
She says it’s the heaviest she can do then in between sets she walks over to the dumb bells and starts doing hammer curls… Icaramba… I’m just glad she’s not lazy!
We’ll keep working this method with her and see how it goes. She refuses to listen to anything I say, but I’ll do my best.
Wish Me Luck!
