Bodybuilding is for Everyone

I strongly believe that everyone can benefit from regular exercise and weight training, regardless of age or sex. People in their 80's can still build appreciable amounts of muscle, and they might even feel younger!

But different ages and different genders have different biochemistry, bone structure, joint health, and more. Here I will discuss what factors should be taken into consideration when embarking on path of fitness, and what kind of gains you can expect.

I still need to do a bit of research to populate this page as fully as I would like, so be sure to check back, and if this paragraph is gone, then more has been added!

Female bodybuilding

Where I'm coming from!

 I had a request to add a page on female bodybuilding to my site, so here it is. Admittedly, I am a guy, and so don't have any direct experience as a female bodybuilder. But my workout partner for over a year now is a female, and I have helped her make some pretty decent gains in the gym. Her goal isn't really to build big muscles, although to an extent she does enjoy that part, too. She just wants to tone, get stronger, and maybe burn off some fat. Much to her surprise, she has gained over 10 pounds over the last year, all muscle of course.

It may surprise some that basically I get her to do the same workout as me! Not the same weight, but the same frequency, sets, reps, etc. She pushes herself hard, and even lets out the occasional grunt in the gym. So in terms of training, nutrition, and supplementation for women, I would recommend doing pretty much the same thing men do, at the same time keeping certain things in mind. These 'certain things' are what I will cover in this here page. Most of the information I gathered from various magazines and books. Also, I'd like to mention a new bodybuilding magazine for woman called 'Oxygen'. It just had its premier issue in October, '97 I believe, so I hope it is successful and is around for a while yet for all you female bodybuilding enthusiasts!

Some fundamental differences

First off I'd like to go over some of the core differences between men and women in terms of endocrinology (hormones). These are some of the things that you should keep in mind when planning and pursuing a bodybuilding program.

Androgen levels

As most everyone knows, women have lower androgen levels (less testosterone) than men, and this basically means that they can't grow as much, or as fast as men. As an analogy think of how much faster a guy on steroids grows than natural bodybuilders. They can mass amounts of muscle within months or even weeks, probably five times faster than a natural bodybuilder could. And it's the same when you compare women to men, men have 20-30 times greater androgen levels in their blood, and this let's them grow much faster, and much more.

Another thing you might have heard is that bodybuilders using steroids require less rest time between workouts to fully recuperate. This leads to a problem when you've got some guy who wants to start bodybuilding reading articles on how some big guy (using steroids) trains. He goes and trains the same way and burns out in no time! I guess how this translates to woman is that they may require more time/muscle to recuperate before they should workout again. Mind you, physical conditioning also plays a large role, so this gap could be reduced as time goes on while on a good bodybuilding program.

As I mentioned earlier, my female workout partner trains pretty much the same as me. Usually doing 3-5 working sets per muscle group with reps of 8-10. There are many different ways to train, i.e. more sets of lower reps and higher intensity or fewer sets of more reps and greater volume. Remember, it's OK to be sore the next day, and if you don't get sore in the slightest, or don't at least still feel a bit of a pump in your muscles the day after, you should probably push yourself a little bit harder.

Cell physiology

The actual makeup of muscle cells in woman differs in such a way, that they are less responsive to the androgens in the blood. This is probably cause there aren't a whole lot of androgens to begin with. What this means to a female bodybuilder is pretty much the same as that of lower androgen levels: Just don't workout as often. This difference goes hand in hand with the above, so that's all I have to say about it.

Women have better endurance

This is to say that given a percentage of your 1 rep max strength, women could do more reps than men. What does this mean to you? Good question. Sure you could do more reps, but does that build muscle, after all, you are doing the same % of 1 Rep max as a guy would to build mass. Or should you increase the weight so you can only do 6-10 reps? That is how my partner has been training, and she has seen very good gains in strength, and she is starting to outgrow some of her shirts.

But perhaps focusing on a larger volume of work is the ticket. This is what I have read recently in Charles Poliquins book, 'The Poliquin Principles' (a very good book), and so I encourage you to try that method as well. The best thing to do is experiment, try a certain method for 4 weeks, and then try the other method, and compare them to see which worked best for you. In the long run you'd want this kind of periodization anyway to avoid plateaus.

Woman have different bone/joint structures.

Women being much more flexible at the hip is the best example of this. All this means is that you can't expect to do the same exercises with the exact same form as men. So if it feels right, chances are it is, and don't let some guy tell you that you are doing it wrong! If you are unsure as to whether or not you are doing it right, maybe find a female trainer, or some other woman in the gym that looks like she's got some experience!

That's it for now, I hope this gives you women out there something to work with! If you have anymore questions, feel free to send me some email, and I will try my best to answer them as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, I've been having a hard time trying to find some good links for you female bodybuilders out there. Most of them are personal pages with a bunch of pictures but little or no useful information. Or worse, a bunch of pornographic links and pictures. I will continue to search for some useful links, though right now it looks rather hopeless. If you ever come across a good site, let me know! klaus.rubba@muscle101.com.

AT LAST!! A decent female bodybuilding site! Actually more than decent, it's pretty darn good! So CHECK IT OUT! There is hope after all...

Bodybuilding for the young and old

 For the most part, it doesn't matter what age you are. If you start training with weights, you will get stronger. There are a few things to keep in mind if you are a little more seasoned, or if you haven't yet reached your prime.

Here is a list of things to keep in mind for the wiser variety: And here's a list for the spring chickens: