Q and A: Female Training

Q: Danny, I am just getting back into working out.  My goal is to get more toned, without the bulk.  Since I don’t want to get too big, what do you recommend? 

A: Man, if I had a nickel for everytime I had a female tell me they, “don’t want to get too BIG,” I’d be a VERY rich man!  One of the biggest myths in this industry is the fact that so many people think that weight lifting will make a women basically turn into a man.  Now, notice I say most people, not just women.  I have husbands tell me this all the time; “I’m lifting the big heavy weights, because I want to get HYOOGE!  But I have my wife lifting the pink dumbells, because she just wants to tone.”  Come on now dude, stop it!  On one hand it frustrates the heck out of me.  But on the other hand, my calmer, more logical side takes over.  After all, men usually want a lot of muscle, and girls don’t.   So it seems to make sense to keep the ladies over in the 2.5 pound dumbell section.  A women sees a picture of a lady that is a pro bodybuilder, and thinks that if she lifts heavy weights, she’ll turn into this…

So I get where this myth stems from.  But don’t worry about it.  The “lady” above is heavily assisted.  She is all juiced up.  She is good friends with the sauce.  Know what I’m saying?  If you’re not sure what I am getting at - I kinda, sorta think that she is using steroids.  Now, I don’t want to accuse anyone of anything, but something tells me that my hunch is correct.

A lot of this line of thinking from above comes from a lack of education, and preconceived ideas.  So, how ’bout we see if I can do a little educating, and help you squash the thought that heavy lifting will turn you into He-Man.

When I train myself, and many of the guys that I work with that are looking to add size, we scratch, claw, and fight for every ounce of muscle that we build.  That also means we eat like a horse to support this attempt to gain muscle.  The fact that a female is afraid that she is going to all of a sudden get 20 inch arms because she went from the 5 pound weights, to the 7.5 pound weights, is an insult to us guys that put all of our efforts into adding muscle.  (But again, I’m not mad at you. Society has painted the picture that all females are frail little weaklings, and that is just the way it is supposed to be.)  Lets look at some of the reasons that heavier lifting won’t make anyone wonder what a guy is doing in the ladies room, when you’re in a public restroom.

Hormones

Another reason females do not  need to worry about getting all big ‘n buff, is the fact that their hormone profile is not as condusive to adding as much size as their male counterpart.  We guys, have about 10 times more testosterone flowing through our body.  This is a very important hormone for stimulating hypertrophy. (muscle growth)  The picture of the guy girl above is a picture of a person that has added a great deal of testosterone to her body, allegedly.  So, unless you decide to go the steroid route, most of you ladies will have to go WAY out of your way to truly get, “too big.”

Nutrition

Nutrition is by far the key when it comes to adding size, or losing size.  Think about food like bricks to a house.  If you want to make the house bigger, you need to add bricks.  If you want to add size, you need to eat more food.  If you don’t want to add size, make sure your nutrition strategy supports your goals.  So, if you are a lady that is truly carrying more muscle than you’d like, the first thing to look at is your food intake.  This may mean you need to eat more often, (smaller portions at each meal) eat less overall calories, and/or make better food choices.

Weight Lifting

You now see that adding a little weight to the bar is not going to be the reason that you are “too big.”  More often than not, (not in every case) if a women was to look down at her legs and think they are too big, it is because there is too much fat covering them, not too much muscle.  Use weight training as a tool to burn more calories.  And that means lifting as much weight as possible for a given rep range.  Think about it this way, if you were to do lunges with 10 pound dumbells in your hands, you’d burn X amount of calories.  But if you worked on getting a little stronger and started adding some weight to the dumbells, like 20 pound dumbells, you’d start to burn more calories per rep, per set, per workout.  That my friends, is an efficient use of your time.  Remember, your body doesn’t want to change, you must give it a reason to change.  And if the 10 pounders are no longer challenging you, it’s time to progress and start adding some weight to each and every exercise.  Check out this recent post I made about how to make sure you are getting the most bang for your buck with your weight training sessions – when fat loss in your primary goal.

Cardio

Speaking of efficient use of your time, I prefer intervals, or “metabolic training,” over steady-state training most of the time.  So, focus on progressively improving your numbers in the weight room, and make metabolic training the staple in your cardio plan.  If you decide you need to add in some steady-state work, feel free to add a day or two.  But more often than not, I’ve that found that a few full body weight training sessions, consistent clean eating, and a 2-3 metabolic days per week get the job done without having to do much, if any steady-state work.

Summary

As you can see, even if a female was going to try to “bulk up,” it would be pretty difficult.  It would take purposeful overeating.  If you still feel you are carrying too much muscle mass, make adjustments in your eating plan.  Ask yourself if you are using steroids.   Hahahaha.  If the  answer is yes, make adjustments.   But please don’t blame your lack of “tone,” or lack of “definition,” on the fact that you are lifting too much weight, causing you to be too bulky.  With this new information, (new for some of you) the next time your boyfriend, husband, or brother tells you that, “since your goal is to tone-up, make sure you are not lifting too heavy,” be sure to forward this article on to him and smack him in the face with a 25 pound dumbell. (as opposed to those 3 pounders you used to use)  

Q and A: Fat Loss…

Q: Danny, I’ve lost about 20 pounds thus far, but my results have really slowed.  I still have about 45 pounds
to go to reach my goal.  I am currently lifting 4 days per week.
Day 1 – Chest, Back and Shoulders.  Day 2 – Legs, Biceps and Triceps.
Day 3 – Chest, Back and Shoulders.(different exercises than day 1) Day 4 – Legs, Biceps and Triceps.
(different exercises than day 2)  Do you like this set-up?  Is this the best way to help me achieve my goals?

A: First of all, congratulations on losing your first 20 pounds!  You should be proud of that.  However, if you
were my client I would make some changes.  I am definitely not a “full body guy,” an “upper/lower
guy,” or a “body part split” guy.  To see my full thoughts on training splits, check out my previous article.

When I work with people that have a ways to go to hit their fat loss goals, I’ve found that full body training is
the best way to go.  Full body sessions will burn the most calories per training session, and keep your metabolism elevated for hours after the workout is over. (This is known as EPOC)  At the end of your full body session, I would then have you go into “metabolic training.”  Like full body training, metabolic training will keep your metabolism elevated far longer than steady-state aerobic would.  If you are very busy, like many of my clients are, I’d do your metabolic training right after your weight training session.  If you have the time, you can do it on your non-lifting days.  I’ll talk more about metabolic training below. 

Basic Guidelines to Full Body Training

-Make free weight, compound movement the staple in your program. (i.e. choose bulgarian split squats over leg extensions; rows over bicep curls)
-For the majority of your exercises work in the 8-12 rep range.  To maintain your strength, you can pick one or two exercises, to start off each session, in the 4-6 rep range.  And occasionally it is ok to go into the 15-20 rep range.
-Try to go back and fourth between upper and lower body movement. (i.e. pushups supersetted with deadlifts)
-Keep the rest intervals as short as possible while NOT letting your performance drop too much.  Your heart should be pounding the entire workout.

I’m not saying that you should do no “isolation” work, like bicep curls.  But with your goals, exercises that are not targeting a large number of muscles at once, should make up a very small percentage of your program.  This is the reason I’m not too thrilled with your current program – a leg, bicep, and tricep day would have you doing too much volume of isolation exercises.  This is not an efficient use of your time.

Metabolic Training Ideas

The video below is just an example of some exercises that you can use as part of your metabolic work.  It is a beautiful day here so I thought I’d record it outside.

-Jump Rope – I did “double-turns,” you work at your level. It may be more advanced than my example, it may be less advanced.

-Squat and Press – Squat down as deep as your mobility allows while keeping your chest up and your weight on your heels. Then rapidly stand up and push the dumbells up over your head. Use a weight that makes the exercise harder, but not so much weight that your shoulders and triceps become the limiting factor. The only weights I had on me at the time were 10 pounders. I usually use 100’s, but sometimes you got to go with what you have on hand. Ok, that’s a lie.

-Bench Jumps – Just spring back and fourth over a bench in your gym. (or at a local park)

-Moutain Climbers – Keep your abs tight and drive your knees towards your chest as fast as you can. Try to keep your back flat. Mine was slightly rounded – shame on me.

Again, these are just some examples. To save time, I did not rest between exercises in the video. I suggest you pick 4-5 movements and do each movement for 20 seconds, then rest for 20 seconds. Then move on to the next exercise. (i.e. 20 seconds of jump rope, then rest 20 seconds before moving on to the squat and press, etc. etc.) Get in as many rounds as you can get without letting your form break down or your intensity drop. So if you feel like you are not going as fast on round 6 as you were going on round 1, do NOT do a 7th round.

To make your cardio extra “fun,” you could just go to the park with a partner and run pass routes. But to get the fat burning that you are looking for, make sure you sprint back to the line of scimmage when it is your time to play Drew Brees. I think Carson throws a pretty nice ball for a 9-year old.

Wrap up:
-3 FB sessions/week
-3-4 cardio days/week. (with the majority, or all of them in the form of metabolic training. (fast paced, high intensity work followed by a brief rest interval) If you have the time, feel free to throw in a steady-state session lasting about 30 minutes.

Nutrition

Of course, I can’t make a fat loss post without at least bringing up nutrition. This is BY FAR the key to reaching your ultimate goal! No matter how hard you work during your training sessions, if you are not eating a lot of clean food, you’ll be spinning your wheels. I’ll address some of the nutrition “musts,” in posts real soon here. So be sure to check out the nutrition “category” in the near future.

Best of luck in achieving your goals.! I hope this helped a bit.