During my athletic years and throughout the history of my experience as a Personal Trainer, I have continuously heard females associate their disinterest of weight-lifting with a fear of “getting big.” Today, I want to discredit this myth by explaining just how difficult it truly is for women to put on quantity muscle mass.
1) Women do not produce enough testosterone.
Testosterone is the primary hormone responsible for muscle mass gains.
From pre-pubescence to full maturation, the testosterone of a male shifts from a range of 20-60 ng/100 ml (pre-pubescence) to 600 ng/100 ml (full maturation). This 10-fold increase in male testosterone production accounts for the noticeable muscle mass increases in males. Increases in muscle mass in males can be seen between ages 18 and 25.
On the other hand, from pre-pubescence to full maturation, the testosterone of a female remains unaltered at 20-60 ng/100 ml. It is only the increase in estrogen production, during puberty, that accounts for increased body fat, breasts development, and hip-widening. Although females also tend to develop muscle during puberty, they will acquire far less than males and will do so at a far slower rate. Peak increases in muscle mass in females can be seen between ages 16-20.
- Conclusion: if a woman and a man trained exactly the same, then their bodies would still appear very different. Both would gain quality muscle, but women would develop far less of it
2) Females have fewer type 2 (fast twitch muscle fibers) than males in their upper bodies.
Type 2 muscle fibers are very much responsible for one’s ability to develop strength, power, and muscle mass.
Since females have fewer of these fibers in their upper bodies, they usually cannot develop equivalent strength and muscle size in their upper bodies, compared on an absolute basis to the ability of males. Think about it: how many women do you see benching or pulling up their body weight? The answer is probably few.
On the other hand, Females and males have similar quantities of type 2 fibers throughout their lower-bodies. Therefore, a female’s legs are much more likely to possess equivalent strength and muscular potential to males. A woman may not have a very difficult time developing the strength to squat or dead-lift her body weight because of this.
- Conclusion: Females and males have an equal potential of developing lower-body strength and muscle mass. Compared to males, females cannot usually develop equal upper body strength and muscle mass.
3) Males have a larger cross-sectional area.
A larger cross-sectional area means that the muscles are thicker.
Thicker muscles have a greater force-generating potential. The ability to generate force is directly associated with the ability to produce muscle mass. The muscles enlargement that results from resistance training is called hypertrophy and is primarily the result of an increase in the cross-sectional area.
- Conclusion: Females are not usually capable of reaching equivalent thickness to the muscles of males. Females have less ability to generate force, and therefore, less ability to gain muscle mass.
4) By nature, females have a higher percentage of body-fat, primarily due to increased amounts of estrogen.
- Conclusion: Additional body fat will make it harder to see any quality muscle gains in females (compared to males).
To every woman who associates their disinterest of weight-lifting with a fear of “getting big:” Get over your misperceptions and get ballsy with your free-weights (no pun intended).
To gain quality definition, you must train with intensity! A minimum of 5 hours of cross-training per week (cardio and weights) along with maintenance of a healthy and calorie-specific diet will allow females to “tone-up” efficiently without looking huge ☺
To gain quality definition, you must train with intensity! A minimum of 5 hours of cross-training per week (cardio and weights) along with maintenance of a healthy and calorie-specific diet will allow females to “tone-up” efficiently without looking huge ☺
For Information regarding calorie-specific dieting, visit:
http://laurenkern.com/nutrition.html
For Information regarding calorie-specific meal plans, visit:
http://laurenkern.com/contact.html
