Female Training

One question that I get all the time from parents and even coaches is, "what should our female athletes do?" It is true that most of the focus of strength and conditioning is on males, but I don’t think it should be that way. It is necessary for all athletes to strength train, and the training of men and women should not differ to the extent that most think it should.
Muscle fiber is inherently the same, without regard to typing, regardless if it comes from a male or female. This was shown in a study done by Fleck and Kraemer(3) stating, "Female muscle has the same physiological characteristics as male muscle and, therefore, responds to training in the same fashion." The main difference is the amount of response that comes from training. When I coach, my main goal is to increase the strength of the athlete. Some athletes are not allowed gain weight and others do not want to gain weight. This is reflected in females, who frequently give their excuse for not wanting to train as, "I don’t want to look like a guy." What a load.
I hear this all the time, as I assume any other person working in the profession does, but what it comes down to is that this just will not happen. In my research I found a host of articles that showed little or no increase in muscle size and still having significant increases in strength(3). The reason that men grow so much larger than women is due to higher levels of male hormone. Hormones such as testosterone are produced at amounts of 5-10 mg/day in men and 2-4mg/day in women. Testosterone is one of the main hormones responsible for protein synthesis and the increase in muscular size. In addition to this, female hormone levels do not peak following a training session the way that men's do, explaining why women gain strength slower(4). So ladies not only would you need hormone supplementation (which is illegal), but you would also need to take in an equivalent amount of calories to that of a mans diet, which I also think is unlikely. Lastly on this topic is the fact that you will not wake up one morning and be huge. It takes time and I think that if you feel that you are getting too large you can slow down, although I doubt this will ever come up.
OK, I think that I have exhausted that subject and need to move on to the "meat and potatoes" of the article, and that is "why should women strength train?" There is a plethora of information out there showing the increases in sports specific movements in women due to strength training. Some examples are increased muscular strength and power, increased vertical jump, improved standing jump, improved agility, and increased sprinting velocity and acceleration(5). So our main reason is that women should strength train because it will make them a better athlete, and in my opinion if you don’t want to be a better athlete, don’t play at all. When an athlete is reluctant to begin a strength training regime I will ask them if I gave you the ability to jump higher, move faster, and control your body better would you take it? This is exactly what strength training will do, amongst other benefits.
The next reason is prevention of injury, and specifically injury to the ACL. Women are predisposed to greater trauma to the ACL than men, and it is partially due to a greater Q-angle. The Q-angle is the angle that the femur makes as it comes down from the hip to the knee. The problem is made worse because women also typically have a muscle imbalance between their hamstrings and quads. This problem can be easily remedied from strength training, and studies show that the functional ratio between the two muscles can be brought to 1.0 with in 6weeks of training(3). I stress the training of the posterior chain to all of my athletes, but for these reasons it is even more important for females.
In recent years there has been a surge in female athletic participation; it is time that the training of females makes a similar surge. Females must prepare for competition the same, if not more than their male counterparts, but we need to move past the stereotypes and focus on the benefits.
"Females can still train like Tarzan, yet look like Jane" Joe Defranco


1. Defranco, Joe. (2007) Should Females Train Differently Than Males? www.defrancotraning.com.
2. Holcomb, WR et al. (2007) Effect of hamstring-emphasized resistance training on hamstring:quadriceps strength ratios. J Strength Cond Res. Feb 21(1).
3. NSCA (1989) Strength training for female athletes: A Position Paper: Part I. NSCA Journal 11(4).
4. NSCA (1989) Strength training for female athletes: A Position Paper: Part II. NSCA Journal 11(5).
5. Peterson, MD et al. (2006) The contribution of maximal force production to explosion movement among young collegiate athletes. J Strength Cond Res. Nov 20(4).