The best advice for exercising women

We reached out to fourteen experts who gave us their best advice for women in the gym. Some of the points can certainly inspire men too.

Dr. Sarah Ellis Duvall - Physiotherapist

You need to understand the goal of each of your exercises.

Think about the muscles you are supposed to feel during the exercise. This will help you to be stronger and it will also prevent injury.

Let's say a lady wants to do more push-ups and strengthen her back with them. However, she only feels the work in her arms and shoulders. Just concentrate on the place where you have to feel the work. You should feel the squat in your glutes, not just your thighs and hip flexors, the deadlift in your hamstrings, not just your lower back. This is the best way to prevent injury.

Bret Contreras - strength coach

Don't overdo it.

I've been training women for twenty years, and their biggest problem is that they do too many exercises. There is an optimal volume of work, and it shouldn't be gone beyond that.

You're not supposed to correct bad eating habits with exercise. And don't try to become a top exerciser in the gym, in pilates, in running, in HIIT and in self-weight training all at the same time. You'll be mediocre at all of it. Finally, adding in the gym is good up to the point where you can't recover from the workout.

Most of my mentees do about 50 work sets a week in the gym and almost no cardio. One week a month is rested. It works because the other three weeks we go for the max, ideally for personal bests.

Many women work out too much, and it holds them back from improving.

Keli Keyes - Nutrition and Strength Coach

Lifting is not about how much pain you endure. It's about how much you lift without pain.

No pain, no gain we all know. Pain is a big concept in the weightlifting world. I'm not talking about muscle soreness, I'm talking about the condition where you can barely get out of bed.

Lifting through pain is a bad idea. I know from personal experience. Years ago, I lifted through lower back pain. I got to the point where I couldn't even train clients, let alone get out of the car in the morning. Of course, it took me out of training for a long time.

I guess I expected the pain to magically disappear with training. That was nonsense. Today I'm much smarter (and just a little older), and I know that lifting must not hurt uncomfortably. I lift a lot more today than I did then, and the only pain I feel is the pleasant one following a good workout.

TC Luoma - author from T-Nation

Exercise your abs like a woman, not a man.

Before you accuse me of sexism, let me explain. If you're a female triathlete, you really should train like a man. Likewise, if you are an athlete who wants to improve your performance through training. And last, if social conventions leave you cold and you want to be strong like a man, again, you can train like them.

However, most women desire a wasp waist, and train it really hard. Spending too much time on the midsection is a problem. I see women doing hundreds to thousands of crunches. Plus, they start adding weights over time. However, they forget that the abs are a muscle like any other, and they grow in volume in response to the load.

Many women and even men are sure that thousands of reps or heavy weights on the abdomen will magically make it a different muscle than all the others, or that it will fade, not grow, with exercise.

You might make that sixpack with that kind of training, but you probably won't be able to see past the fat you forgot to lose, or it'll be some seriously hideous, big man bricks. And you're probably not looking for that.

Remember, if you don't want to look like Frank "Cannonball" Richards, you shouldn't train like him. Train your abs like a woman, with minimal to moderate load, reps between 15 and 20. And do it for 10 minutes, not 60.

And the rest of your body? You should train that like men.

Abby Keyes - Nutrition and Strength Coach

Exercise to get better, not to look like someone else.

Exercise shapes your body. It will make you sexy. But don't create false expectations. You will always be limited by genetics. Exercise won't change your somatotype. You can only develop what you've been given.

I've had this conversation with many of my clients. I was born small, with narrow hips. I have muscles, but I'll never look like the Hulk. One of my clients who had a Jenifer Lopez body told me she wanted to look like me. I, however, looked more like a 12-year-old boy than her. I never squeeze into those curves, and she, on the other hand, never squeezes out of them.

You can't change genetics. Exercise creates a strong, resilient version of what you were given. Add a good diet, and you'll get results, but don't expect the impossible.

Bronwen Blunt - triathlete, nutritionist and strength coach

Go into every workout with a goal, even if it's something very small.

Going to every workout doing the same exercises, with the same load is not ideal. If you're not making progress in the gym, you can't expect miracles in appearance. Even if you were to add just a pound every week, it will do wonders in the long run.

I like to plan my workouts into 4 week blocks. So I always go to the gym with a plan, and try to constantly outdo myself.

Also, be aware of your menstrual cycle, as it can greatly affect the quality of your workouts. Listen to your body and stick to a good diet. During that week my joints were pretty sore and I was tired, so I trained with a lighter load.

Jade Teta - doctor, trainer

Control the B's and Hooks.

If women are interested in appearance, they need to know the B's and H's. The best workouts have these four key parameters:

• Breathless.
• Burning.
• Heavy.
• Heat

Most exercisers practice only one type of workout. Only cardio, or only high repetitions, or only strength training. It is most effective to have all four components in your workout. To achieve this, train at a fast pace and only rest when necessary.

People think that training and working out are antithetical, but their relationship is actually synergistic. The more you rest, the more you can work, and the more you work, the more you need rest.

Women should simply work out while they can, and rest until they can't again. They should choose moderate weights and not set fixed breaks. That way they will be constantly out of breath, it will burn them, it will be hard, and they will be hot.

Another little known fact is that men respond better to training with testosterone, whereas women respond better with growth hormone. For this reason, intensity is key for women. This approach to training will multiply the GH response, which will help women burn fat and build muscle at the same time.

Example - choose four complex exercises such as:

• Squat
• Bench Press
• Bench Press Bench Press
• Push Press

Do 12 repetitions of each exercise in a circle, resting only when absolutely necessary. Set your workout for 20 minutes and do as much work as you can. Use a medium weight, somewhere between 15-20 1RM. This will be the most effective for you for body changes.

Charles Staley - strength coach

Measure your training progress.

When it comes to the feeling of training, women are very good. But they often underestimate the role of numbers and forget that the foundation of successful training is progressive overload.

Destroying yourself in training is a good strategy in the short term. But training is a process. It must include constant, measurable challenges.

No one gets stronger (or grows) by accident. We have to force ourselves to do it, and women even more so because they are at a hormonal disadvantage compared to men. So if you managed 80 kilos on the 4x8 last workout, make sure that today any combination will be more.

Paul Carter - strength and bodybuilding coach

Stop obsessing over the weight.

Poor diet, training, too much cardio, that magic number on your scale is to blame for all of this.

Men are always telling me how big their pants are or how you can suddenly see the vein in their biceps. Women always talk about weight. Once it doesn't drop, the motivation goes away. It doesn't matter that they're wearing a size smaller dress, their weight hasn't dropped.

Women need to understand that the scale can't show changes in fat to muscle ratio. Men look in the mirror. Women also need to stop looking at that artificial number on the display.

I'm not banning the scale entirely, but get out the tailor's tape measure too, write down your clothing sizes, and get a good fat measurement. Progress can be evaluated from many angles.

Michael Warren - Strength Coach

Get your butt in order.

I have one piece of advice that will help with two of the most common requests from my clients:

• How to make a nicer butt?
• How to lift more weight?

Ladies may know there's the squat and deadlift, but they only feel the quadriceps from them. It's even more of a problem if the client thinks she already has big thighs.

Research even shows that quadriceps activation for squats is 70%, whereas it's only 20% for glutes. So it would be better to include a thrust for example, where we know that glute activation will be much (twice) higher.

After incorporating the weighted thrust, many of my clients have added new personal power in their core exercises. They had a better deadlift, better stability on the bench, and their squat improved from the bottom. And actually, it's not just those three exercises, my clients improved in all exercises after adding the thruster.

The glutes are an indispensable muscle for athletic conditioning and there are many isolation exercises for them. You can't do without them when sprinting, jumping, climbing, throwing, kicking, twisting, squatting, lunging, bending - just about any athletic movement.

My charges have further noticed the influx of compliments on their new backgrounds. They even recommend me because of it. So by incorporating thrusts, you not only get a more functional body, people will also notice you more.

Eric Bach - Strength Coach

Push yourself.

Squats, deadlifts, rows and push-ups are the best exercises for building a chiseled, muscular physique. But they're not enough on their own. You need to push the saw and overload the body.

Remember, it doesn't want to change. You have to force it to change. You'll have to improve your strength and increase the volume of work. That's all that matters in the gym. Take one of the hundreds of good programs we have here and force your body out of its comfort zone.

Too many exercisers fall in love with the newest machine, the best method, or the sexiest exercise, and forget that it's all about making yourself like the discomfort.

Dani Shugart - T-Nation author

Don't follow any program blindly.

Your body is your laboratory and no expert can tell you with accuracy what's going on in it. Trainers are not psychics. This is true no matter what you are training for or following any program.

If something doesn't feel right, and you do it anyway, you risk injury. And if you repeat it often enough, you will develop a chronically weakened immune system. And that's pretty hard to get better with.

Some people just insist on making others happy. They work hard and they follow instructions. Oblivious to their feelings, they just do what they're told.

If you are like that, learn to speak up. You are the boss. You do it for you. You probably don't have Olympic ambitions or success in training dependent on your job. Conditioning and success in the gym shouldn't destroy you. You're supposed to feel better after a workout, not worse.

If you are paying someone to train you, you might as well fire them. Try to tactfully remind your gym pedant of this from time to time. Don't make yourself their trophy. They work for you.

There are many excellent trainers out there who want to help their clients. Find one. He or she will trust you, and you will do your best, regardless of the training model. If you already know how to do something, you probably won't need a completely military type of trainer standing over you. Well, the classic upstart type, nobody needs that.

John Romano - competition coach, performance enhancement specialist

Don't train like a man.

What do I dare, right? I'm telling guys how they should train? Actually, I do. When I look at the way we train, I can't help but think of the image it creates.

We just care about other people's opinions. Otherwise, those fancy gyms where real training is taboo wouldn't be able to thrive. Of course, most of the bad impression that real training leaves on people, I'd say 92%, are men. But women can also contribute when they imitate the bad habits of men.

And who cares? Why should a girl who's loaded 190 on the squat care what anyone else thinks? In an ideal world, she wouldn't care. But that's not where we live.

Do we really need a girl who's 5'6", 85 pounds, stuffed into size XS leggings, wearing bandages, jerks, and a thick belt, which together ensure that the bend of her elbows and hips follows a trajectory of about three inches? She looks stupid, is covered in magnesium, sweats, has acne and wheezes like a diesel locomotive. Just like a man. What a sight.

If I'm talking about the exact opposite, Dana Lynn Bailey immediately comes to mind. She's a strong woman who doesn't look like a man in the gym. I remember her before she was famous. She lifted hell weights, not just for her size and gender, but hell weights for a lot of guys. Dana, however, lifts like a woman. A strong woman. And that's what made her famous.

My advice to women who train, especially newbies, is to find a woman you can admire for her looks and her training, and train like her. Just don't work out like a guy.

Christian Thibaudeau - strength coach

Don't train like a fitness competitor.

We like to emulate the ones we want to be. Ladies see a fitness competitor and assume it's good to copy her.

The truth is that most of these women look so good because their will to look good overrides their desire to enjoy life. They are good at following diets that are pretty close to starvation. They often take medication and have no problem compromising their health for the long term.

I know many who do 90-120 minutes of cardio first thing in the morning and 90-120 minutes in the gym in the afternoon. I admire that dedication, but not many women can handle that kind of life. I train a lot of female crossfit competitors, and on average they usually look better and have more muscle than such fitness posers.

In fact, look at any female athlete. They will also look better than the fitness posers. And that's without horrible diets and all year long, not just three months before a competition.

I'm not saying all ladies should get into crossfit. It has its downsides. Take my wife, for example. She loves crossfit. She hasn't wanted to work out any other way since she started. The problem is, she hasn't worked out for more than three weeks at a time in three years. Then she always gets injured. So it's hard to get better.

The solution? Train for performance. Crossfit for inspiration. That's kind of what it would look like:

• Condense your training units (short breaks, complexes, or circuit training).
• Use mostly compound exercises: squats, front squats, deadlifts, military press, push press, and so on. Don't be afraid of heavier weights, as long as you maintain technique.
• Learn weightlifting exercises.
• Work on mastering unassisted push-ups and push-ups on the bars.
• Carry weights. Push and pull weights if you can.
• Train full body or split top/bottom.
• Forget about splits divided by body part.

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Source: www.t-nation.com
Author: T-Nation.com team
Translated by Jaromír Uhlíř (Cha Cha)
Original article title: The Best Advice for Women Who Lift