- Females should train more frequently for optimal results. Women can generally tolerate more work than men, so instead of the common two or three days per week of training woman should aim for 4 – 6 days per week. I can already hear the recovery zealots crying that’s too much! However, I train two Canadian Junior Champions in their respective disciplines, one ranked 6th and the other ranked 3rd in world, so I have an idea or two about optimal training frequency. The average woman who works full time (inside or outside the home) should consider 3 days of strength training and 3 days of some other activity such as tennis, walking , running, or yoga – any activity that you enjoy and gets you moving.
- A women’s training session should consist of more volume in a given training session. This means more sets or reps depending if your goal is strength or to look good in a bathing suit. Most of the time a woman’s goal includes looking good in a swimsuit and with the popularity of CrossFit strength and performance is also becoming an important consideration.
- Most women don’t want or care about having a jacked upper body. They want to look good, lose fat, have a flat stomach and nice lean arms with no flab on the back of the arms. The best way to achieve arms like President Obama’s wife is to do hip dominate work like deadlift variations along with pressing movements. Women should be including both pulling movements and pressing movements in every workout. Yes, every work out!
- Keep the rest periods short depending on the fitness level and strength of the trainee. You can start with 2:00 rest between each set and then decrease this by 15 seconds every workout. My programs for females often include rest periods of just 15-30 seconds between sets. This is not optimal for strength but it has a powerful metabolic effect.
- Get your female clients to do chin-ups or pull-ups. Being able to do these exercises is very empowering for women and once they achieve this you will likely have a client for life.
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