{"id":9219,"date":"2019-09-22T19:59:54","date_gmt":"2019-09-22T19:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/?p=9219"},"modified":"2019-09-23T17:58:32","modified_gmt":"2019-09-23T17:58:32","slug":"weight-training-for-men-and-women-whats-the-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/fall-2019\/weight-training-for-men-and-women-whats-the-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"Weight Training for Men and Women: What\u2019s the Difference?"},"content":{"rendered":"

W<\/span>eight training is a fantastic form of exercise for men and women of all ages. However, using weight training as a way to maintain fitness is mysterious to many people. Men and women having different physiological structures is no secret. Hormones and anatomy, two key points that play a major role in being able to reach certain strength and fitness goals, are entirely different for each sex. This means that your approach to fitness training should depend on whether you\u2019re a man or a woman.<\/p>\n

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Photo: Unsplash, Victor Freitas<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Testosterone and Muscle Mass<\/h3>\n

Men typically have larger muscles than women. This isn\u2019t because of gender roles or because men are \u201cmore hardworking\u201d\u2014it\u2019s simply because men are more likely to gain a large amount of muscle mass.<\/p>\n

Although both men and women have a certain amount of testosterone, the hormone responsible for muscle gain, testosterone is the dominant hormone in the male body. So, because of men\u2019s significantly higher levels of testosterone, it\u2019s easier for them to gain muscle mass.<\/p>\n

Different Fitness Goals<\/h3>\n

Another reason that men and women tend to need different workout routines is that they often have different fitness goals.<\/p>\n

For many men, training is a way to gain size or strength. Meanwhile, women are often less concerned with strength training and are more concerned with getting toned. because society has not told them that they need massive, bulging biceps to look good (quite the opposite, in fact: a lot of women will be put off weight training because they\u2019re told that being muscular will make them less attractive to the opposite sex.)<\/p>\n

This means that many women will go to the gym to \u201cfeel the burn\u201d and get toned, while men will go to the gym to lift big weights and become \u201cripped\u201d.<\/p>\n

Of course, much of these assumptions are based on myths and social stigmas because weight training doesn\u2019t automatically mean you\u2019ll end up looking like a young Arnold Schwarzenegger. Body building is completely different from weight training and involves changing your diet and introducing intense weight training and supplements.<\/p>\n

\"\"What Do These Differences Mean?<\/h3>\n

In general, men end up being stronger and leaner than women because of their larger frames and higher testosterone levels. Men with larger frames will also have larger lungs and hearts than women, which can make cardiovascular exercise a lot easier for them.<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s bodies tend to store fat more than men\u2019s bodies because their primary hormone is estrogen. This serves the biological function of assisting with childbearing but can be an issue for women who are trying to become leaner.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not all bad news if you\u2019re a girl. With exercises that involve flexibility, many women can outperform their male counterparts because women tend to have longer, more elastic muscles. Tasks like pigeon stretches, squat depth, and forward folds are often a lot easier for female athletes.<\/p>\n

Burning Energy<\/h3>\n

While men\u2019s bodies tend to need lots of carbs combined with fat and protein to gain energy, women\u2019s bodies often use fat as their energy source. This is why, especially for women, nutrition is such a vital component to losing weight.<\/p>\n

Differences in Training<\/h3>\n

There are some key points that are worth remembering if you want to avoid injury, whatever your fitness goals.<\/p>\n

Whenever training, women athletes will often be more quad dominant than male athletes. This can make women susceptible to \u201cvalgus knee movement\u201d (knees collapsing in), which can lead to injuries during exercises like squats. The best way to combat this is to stretch your adductor muscles and strengthen your glute and abductor muscles through exercises like one-legged glute bridges, banded squats, and banded clamshells.<\/p>\n

Many injuries in male athletes tend to come as a result of their reduced flexibility, which can stop them from achieving proper body positioning and form in more complicated poses. The best way to work through this is to spend more time stretching or to take up yoga, which can increase the range of motion and elasticity in your muscles.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a man who\u2019s interested in learning more about weight training, you should check out Need2Know\u2019s Essential Guide to Weight Training for Men<\/em>, which can help you to build a leaner, stronger physique, and it can support fat-loss goals.<\/p>\n

The Essential Guide to Weight Training for Women<\/em> fills the gap by targeting beginners who are in need of expert guidance. Both books are written to help anyone from 18 to 80 years old quickly reach their optimum fitness level with a targeted workout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tips on weight training <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9233,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[113,115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2019","category-fall-2019-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9219"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9526,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9219\/revisions\/9526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}