In most gyms, you will have noticed that men and women often occupy different areas of the gym, with a tendency to train differently. Women will often be smashing it on the treadmills and the men dominate the iron in the free weights area. But why is this?
Should men and women train the same? Should women be slamming down deadlifts and men be hitting the elliptical?
A quick Google of “women gym” and the page is flooded with women doing cardio, HITT workouts, weight free exercises, how to burn specific fats, the list goes on and on… Whereas, when Googling “men gym” it shows men using free weights or machines, or just doing a simple press up.
It’s understandable I suppose, men and women want different outcomes, most men tend to start the gym to become bigger and stronger, whereas most women want to lose weight, get a flat stomach and/or a bigger bum.
Yet, they both have 1 thing in common – they want their physique to match whatever is fashionable. Being the generation who grew up watching Arnold Schwarzenegger, the way he looks became the new popular idealism for men. His image then influenced further media, social media, and music videos. With women, it can be slightly different. Women do tend to wish for the body on the front page of magazines, but the person who’s on the front page tends to change a lot more. We started wanting to look like Twiggy or Kate Moss, being slim and delicate, then we soon fell for Kim Kardashian, wanting the slim waist but the larger behind- it became the new fashion (even at Will and Kate’s wedding the big talk was her sister’s bum!)
Due to women’s ideal body changing a lot more frequently, the fad diets are more easily directed at them: “This celebrity dropped 3 dress sizes by only eating cabbage soup and running for 45 minutes a day”. On most TV shows or films the beautiful women seem to love going for runs, or spin classes, or anything high intensity, influencing women to believe that this is the best way for them to get this same ideal body too.
Plus, why would they want to work out the same as men? The media shows those who use the weights tend to be big and bulky, so why would it be wrong?
Whilst men and women are physiologically different their response to resistance training and weightlifting is very similar. Resistance training, amongst all genders, will promote lean muscle mass, increase mental performance, improve bone density, and generally increase a person’s overall health. There is however, a very common myth with weight training amongst women that will make them “big and bulky” which is a myth that needs to be dispelled within the gym community.
The main difference between men and women is that men tend to gain more size than women, this is because women contain approximately 10% of the total testosterone compared to men.
Testosterone binds to the receptors on the surface of the muscle and stimulates protein synthesis to build muscle during resistance training as well as increasing levels of growth hormone which helps men gain a lot more size through resistance training than women.
Women on the other hand, do not have this testosterone naturally present in their bodies so will only develop muscle tone, strength and definition, not necessarily size. Furthermore, as a woman, if you’re eating in a caloric deficit, you are going to struggle to gain the big and bulky image.
Some goals align but there is always a predominant emphasis on weight lifting and resistance training rather than using cardio machines, even for weight loss. There are countless studies supporting resistance training with weight loss, and I do think we should follow the scientific evidence on looking after your body rather than focusing on whatever fad diet the media is showing.
Training should always be tailored to a person’s health and performance goals, whether it be losing or gaining weight, being a little healthier or training for a competitive event or sport. A person’s training protocol should always be tailored to that individual, with relation to the typical exercises men and women do in the gym. Some simply love waking up in the morning and going for a jog. People should do what they love, any exercise is better than no exercise at all.
To answer the question stated in the title, should men and women train the same? Yes they should. Women will get a substantial benefit from a balanced training protocol which prioritizes weight training and strength and should not fear becoming “too big or bulky”.
