Strength training in women – part 6

The end of the journey…or a wonderful beginning!

We have finally come full circle on this great and exciting topic ofwomen’s training.

Speaking of the women’s world, we will not find anything specific in texts or reports on strength training, written by the great trainers of the strongest weightlifting teams worldwide. We have only, on the one hand, what we have seen so far, which is scientifically proven, and, on the other hand, the immense experience of great trainers among the world’s leading schools.

Theexperience of great coaches teaches that women have:
– better volume tolerance;
– a better and faster recovery capacity, both between training series and between training sessions;
– the need for a shorter unloading period, both in the cyclization of training programming and in the pre-competitive period (tapering).

What about the intensity?

Women tend to be neurologically less efficient. In practical terms, this means lower maximal strength, relative to muscle mass, than men, in addition to the ability to perform more lifts at a given percentage over maximal.

To clarify, a man is able to perform 3 reps of squat at 90%, while a woman, at the same percentage, can get up to 6 reps. A woman, however, has a very hard time approaching percentages of work too close to the ceiling.

In training protocols, experience teaches to maintain alower intensity than in men by about 3-5%, with a small exception in women beginners: to stimulate type II fibers it will be necessary to maintain a higher intensity because, in 75% of women, these fibers are smaller in size than type I fibers, as we saw in Article 2.

In addition, in a woman, upper-body bodybuilding sessions are necessary not only for beginner but also for advanced female athletes to improve strength and hypertrophy deficits in that area of the body.

What about mobility?

One factor that should not be underestimated is that women tend to be more mobile than men. Mobility will not be a primary concern for new female weightlifters, a problem that often exists for males.

What about Coordination?

This is a disputable characteristic, and I would accept the objection on the grounds that there is no scientific data to back up my argument: what I rely on is only my experience, which teaches me that women are much more coordinated. Therefore, teaching them a new gesture turns out to be much easier than teaching it to a man.

They often have a greater perception of their bodies; perhaps because since childhood they have been taught to take more care of movement to make it more graceful? Or perhaps because, less strong than men, they use their bodies strategically and more efficiently? I don’t know, if I have to choose between a male and a female beginner to teach a skill, I choose a woman

But is that all there is to it? Does it all come down to metabolism, volume, intensity, mobility, coordination, hormone levels? No-there’s more to it than that, the good stuff comes now!

The real difference: emotionality

Yes, women are generally more emotional or, at least, express their emotionality more than men. This can manifest in a variety of ways: from how an athlete behaves in the gym or in competition, the nature of the coach-athlete relationship, and the response to one’s coach.

It can also be seen simply in the different way of expressing an emotion, in the type of emotional expression (e.g., in the same situation a woman may cry while a man throws his belt and kicks the wall like a child whose parents said no).

From a coaching perspective, however, the way you communicate to a person must differ depending on whether it is directed at men or women. Because women tend to be more emotional where men tend to be more rational.

For example: if emphasis is repeatedly placed on a particular technical element within a training session, it seems fine for men, while for women it can become extremely frustrating, because they perceive the repetitiveness as a disappointment to the coach, when in fact the purpose is simply to emphasize a certain technical element in order to improve it.

But the woman experiences criticism as criticism!

While this may be true in general, no special or different treatment should be applied to female athletes. The coach must simply pay close attention, analyze how any athlete, male or female, responds to different postures, and adjust accordingly.

On this basis, it is understood that a woman is best provided with positive encouragement and reinforcement in addition to any technical improvement; that is, where men are more receptive to technical correction, even without associating it with emotion, women may respond better if such correction is accompanied by praise.

There will never be a riser that is completely wrong: no matter how many elements the coach may decide to correct, it is not difficult to find a good point to emphasize as praise before making a correction. In fact, this approach is great for men, too, anyway, if you realize that, for everyone, they like to be told they did a good job.

Athletes … Not Men or Women

Men and women respond and adapt to training. They may respond to a given stimulus at different levels and at different rates, but you are going to get the same basic result, which is increased strength and improved technical gesture. And this is where individualization, not schematization by gender, has value.

Woman’s victory: mental strength

If nature has been stingy with women on the dose of testosterone, it has given greater mental strength in return.

“Among the level-headed and motivated women, in a similar training program, I never had to ask them more, while I had to push the men to work harder. I have seen women many times training with incredible pain and serious injuries, while men afflicted with the same condition are in a corner crying. This toughness of theirs goes beyond physical pain and applies to all kinds of discomfort in and out of the gym. There are a lot of ‘Crybaby’ women out there, but not weightlifters.” (Greg Everett)

“Women also respond well in team training because of women’s strong sense of competition. It’s like a chain reaction. When newcomers catch up to the leaders, the leaders try to maintain their position. This ultimately gives results.”(Alex Bakhirev)

“My interest in women’s weigthlifting began in the fall of 2007. After seeing a female weightlifter’s workout in the warm-up room at the 2007 World Weightlifting Championships, I looked around the room to see who was still warming up before I left. Seeing “only” women weightlifters I was about to leave, when I noticed the training of the Chinese women. The latter have been the best team in the world since the first women’s world championships began in 1987. For the first time I saw a psychological strength, a stubbornness that I had never seen before in sports. Women weightlifters had been there for 20 years, but, I for one, had never bothered to take them very seriously. This experience convinced me that women weightlifters are unique phenomena.”. (Andrew “Bud” Charniga)

In short, women are proof that strength is mostly in the head!

And when nature has given you less muscle, less testosterone, smaller hands to grip the barbell, you just have to put in all you have left: psychological strength! Strength is patience, perseverance, aptitude for fatigue, resistance to pain, positive mental posture.

Strength is what you have left when you don’t stop persevering.

Sources and bibliography

Science and practice of strength training
Valdimi M.Zatsiorsky, William J. Kramer