WHY SHE
SHOULD LIFT
STRENGTH TRAINING YOUR FEMALE CLIENTS
By incorporating strength training into your female client’s programming, you can help
her improve functionality and defend against injury while achieving her goal physique.
WORDS: SUSY NATAL
or many years, women were
encouraged
by
fitness
professionals to focus on aerobic
exercises
and
were
not
typically
recommended resistance training. There
was a fear that women would become
‘excessively’ muscly if exposed to weights,
in particular heavy weights, and this type of
training was usually not deemed necessary
for females. Apart from generally being
F
smaller in build, however, the musculoskeletal system of males and
females is almost identical, so it makes little sense to assume that
they would have such divergent needs.
More recently, research has demonstrated that women can obtain
many benefits from weight training, and that they will not easily
become ‘overly’ muscular. The shift in thinking has seen strength
training increase in popularity among women. Even government
guidelines recommend a minimum of twice-weekly muscular
strengthening exercise, with no differentiation between the sexes.
These are all important factors to bring up with a client if she is
apprehensive about commencing strength training.
The incredible bulk?
Clients can benefit greatly from being educated about body
composition, and on the differences in density between muscle
and adipose tissue. Some clients may cite anecdotal ‘evidence’
of someone they know who became so much bigger after starting
strength training. In this situation it can be helpful to point out
how strength training can increase hunger, and that if somebody
is increasing their calories drastically then they may increase their
body fat deposits in addition to gaining muscle, which will definitely
make them look larger. If, however, the same individual were to
eat the correct amount to maintain or even lose body fat, then this
‘bulkiness’ as it is typically named, will not eventuate.
As strength training has increased in popularity, cardio has been
unfairly demonised by many health and fitness professionals and
media platforms. Cardio is beneficial, and a combination of both is
12 | NETWORK WINTER 2017