THE QUICK READ
• In the fitness industry, female biological
differences are too often either
dismissed or taken advantage of
• The female sex hormones oestrogen
and progesterone influence practically
every system in the body, including
bone health, body composition,
mobility, strength, mental health,
appetite control and cardiovascular
function
• Women respond differently than men
to loads and frequency of strength
training, utilise fuel differently
depending on the stage of the
menstrual cycle, and have different
tolerance for heat depending on
oestrogen and progesterone levels
• Trainers must also adapt training to
support a client’s body through the
hormonal shift of menopause
• Trainers need to teach female clients
how to make great lifestyle choices
for their bodies as often as possible,
because each decision impacts
hormonal profile and overall health
and wellbeing.
and focus they deserve.
On one hand, there is the school of
thought that says, ‘women are just like
men, train them the same way’. This way
of thinking underpins the majority of the
exercise prescription recommendations we
are currently using in the fitness industry.
Up until 1990, it wasn’t compulsory to
include female subjects in exercise science
studies. Therefore, a gender bias towards
male subjects existed (and still does); in fact,
the average man used in these studies was
white and 72kg. The idea was that the results
could just be extrapolated and made to ‘fit’
a female.
Given that females are, on average, smaller
than the average man, and have monthly
hormonal fluctuations, the recommendations
don’t neatly fit. For example, modern science
has shown that women respond differently
than men to loads and frequency of strength
training. Women are able to train at higher
percentages of their 1RM for a given number
of sets and reps than men. Another example
is the way in which a woman’s fuel utilisation
(fats or carbohydrates) changes depending
on what phase of her cycle she is in. In a
final example, a woman’s ability to tolerate
heat changes depending on her levels of
oestrogen and progesterone; this is true both
for menstruating women and those in their
later years.
38 | NETWORK SUMMER 2019
As trainers, we need to be aware of all
of these subtle, yet profound, differences in
order to maximise gains for our clients.
While women and men have the same
physical blueprint, i.e. we each have a
skeleton and our connective tissues are
made of the same compounds, the sex
hormones subtly impact the body differently,
resulting in the following issues:
• Women are more likely than men to
experience musculoskeletal issues such
as knee joint problems, shoulder
impingement, rotator cuff tendinitis and
feet problems.
• Women are more likely than men to
experience mental health issues, such as
general anxiety disorder and depression,
as well as hypertension which can lead to
heart disease, the number one killer of
Australian women (women are almost 3
times more likely to die from heart
disease than breast cancer – Source:
Heart Foundation).
• Women are 2.5 times more likely than
men to have IBS and have a more
sensitive gastrointestinal tract.
• Women have a lower eccentric loading
capacity
than
men,
which
has
implications for how plyometrics and
strength programs are designed and
implemented.
• Women who haven’t had children can still
experience pelvic floor dysfunction such
as incontinence, and are more likely to do
so than men.
All of these issues directly affect a woman’s
health, wellbeing and results, yet due to a
widespread lack of knowledge, they are
routinely ignored or dismissed. As trainers,
our number one job is to improve our clients’
health, while getting them results. Remaining
ignorant to the subtle but powerful impact
that female sex hormones have on her
body, throughout her lifetime, is doing her a
disservice.
On the flip side, from a social standpoint,
there’s a part of the industry that still preys
on women’s insecurities and counts on their
failures in order to profit. Historically, the
only goals that women have been ‘allowed’
to pursue have been ones to do with making
themselves smaller. Many fitness marketing
campaigns have centred around messages
such as ‘lose weight’, ‘drop a dress size’,
‘tone up’, ‘slendersize your muscles’, ‘get
bikini ready’, ‘lean up’, ‘shrink’, ‘detox’ and
‘sculpt’. These campaigns are accompanied
by images of small, lean women holding a
pastel dumbbell in one hand and an apple
in the other.
Thankfully the tide is turning, and a
concerted effort is being made to use
positive marketing messages that include
women getting ‘strong’, ‘fit’, ‘fast’, ‘bigger’,
‘confident’ and ‘powerful’. This is to
Results? That’s not how you do it.
encourage women to get into the gym and
not be afraid of doing resistance training or
lifting heavy weights. But there is still a long
way to go to help women overcome their fear
of ‘getting bulky’.
Understanding a woman’s beliefs, fears,
barriers and motivations is crucial if you are
to help her create sustainable change.
The later years
Like with the menstrual cycle, the peri-
menopausal and menopausal years are
rarely discussed, and if they are, are
associated with negative experiences.
Hot flushes, change in body shape, sleep
disruption, dry skin, change in emotions
and loss of libido are some of the signs and
symptoms that start to impact women as
young as 40.
It is a time of momentous change; her
reproductive functions start to wind down
and she enters her next phase of life. Often,
the signs and symptoms can be alarming,
and the woman can feel confused, upset
and frustrated by what’s happening to, and
in, her body. Society, in general, doesn’t like
to talk about these changes, and neither do
some individuals, but it’s important that we,
as trainers, are privy to her experiences.
It is up to us to adapt our training to
support her body through this hormonal
shift. If we keep throwing high intensity
exercise at her in order to combat her
mid-section fat gain, we can accidentally
cause the opposite to happen. This isn’t
to say that a woman in this transition can’t
do high intensity training, rather that – as
with everything we prescribe – it must be
personalised and tailored to her capability,
experience and lifestyle.
Lifestyle choices impact results
Many women today juggle the multiple
demands of careers, families and domestic
responsibilities, while also being bombarded