Women's Resistance Training Tips (Men Take Note Too)!

These tips on resistance training reflect my own views and come from Australian Physio and international fitness presenter Paul Wright.

I think the role of resistance training for women is generally under appreciated and under utilised. Are you getting your weekly dose of iron!? Here are Paul's tips:

1. Use compound exercises such as squats, bench press, shoulder press, push ups and deadlifts to effectively stress the long bones and promote positive bone density changes that act to reduce the effects of osteoporosis and reduce fracture risk in later life.

2. Women’s self esteem can be predicted from upper body strength – for this reason it is essential that women place equal emphasis on upper body and lower body exercises in your overall resistance training program, and not just focus on lower body muscle groups.

3. Do a mixture of quality cardiovascular training to increase oxygen delivery and energy consumption, effective resistance training combined with a sensible eating plan to effectively take control of body fat issues.

4. Females typically lose strength faster than males during periods of de-training and rest – for this reason females may need to take shorter training breaks than their male counterparts to minimise strength loss when on holidays or away from the gym.

5. Train to relative failure with some reps of 8 –12 on most post warm-up sets.

6. Do not use BODYPUMP as your only weights workout. Bodypump is a great muscle endurance workout but you must also do some heavier resistance training to supplement the excellent gains you get from Bodypump.

7. Do 2-3 weight training sessions each week as a minimum.

8. Have any injury concerns fully assessed by a Physiotherapist before embarking on your weight training journey.

I'd like to add a few comments to this. I taught body pump for around three and a half years in Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill, Crawley, Copthorne and East Grinstead. I taught it a lot for a while there.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend a heavier free weight training session over and above a body pump class for better results and performance enhancement.

Alternatively, at least learn to work hard with heavier weights by seeking an experienced personal trainer. You will then be able to appreciate a far better technique and better feel for using the lighter weights should you wish to mix a body pump class into your routine.

Another alternative is a circuit training class (also think bootcamps), which is again an approach i would recommend over body pump. I prefer people to improve their movement, co-ordination, reaction, and explosiveness while getting fitter and losing body fat.

Is it bad? No. For most people it's going to be far better than doing nothing, and if you enjoy it - go for it. But take a look around at what you could also be doing to get even better results.

Finally Paul recommends resolving any injury concerns by seeing a physio first. Good advise, and i'd further add that a good personal trainer can also help address certain injury concerns and make sure your weight training programme is doing you good and getting you results.

Select the right trainer - many have very backward ideas or very limited experience of resistance training.

Be an Everyday Athlete!

Steve Cork
www.everydayathletes.co.uk
www.sussexbootcamps.co.uk
www.sussexsaturdayfitness.co.uk