Why Women are better than Men at Weight Training

Women and Men’s metabolism differs from each other in relation to the absolute amounts / percentages of carbs and fats we use during rest and exercise
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Mens metabolism favors carbohydrate use during training and favors fat during rest
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Women’s metabolism varies depending on what stage of the menstrual cycle they are at, but regardless of this they will burn a higher percentage of fat and less carbs during training when compared to men
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This leads to some profound differences between the genders when training
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Because men generally have higher muscle mass than women we will usually be able to lift more weight than women at the beginning of a workout
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That is where men’s advantages end
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Women will experience much less of a power drop off throughout the course of a workout. Let’s say a woman and man both do a leg workout consisting of 5 leg exercises. By the time the man gets to the fifth exercise his strength will be greatly diminished whereas the girl will be able to perform much closer to her strength levels at the beginning of the workout
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Women also require much less recovery in between working sets than men
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Lunges would be a good example here. A demanding lower body compound exercise no doubt
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Get a guy to do 20 heavy reps and they will quite possibly be gasping for breath afterwards and could require a good 2 minutes before they recover and are able to hit another set with the same quality
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When I get one of my female trainees to hit 20 heavy lunges they often turn straight to me afterwards with a much less severe elevation in heart rate and be like
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“What’s next Paul!? bring it on!!”
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(Nowhere near as dorky as that but you get the idea!)🤣
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Also Women’s superior powers of recovery also apply to training frequency (how often they work out) as well as training volume (within a workout)
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Big nasty compound lifts such as squats or deadlifts have powerful strength, fitness and health benefits but they are extremely taxing on the body. For guys (Including myself) I wouldn’t go very heavy on these more than twice per week
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Because woman have potentially superior powers of recovery (time of the month plays a role) in between workouts they could possibly hit these heavy lifts more frequently. Id happily include these 3 times per week as long as nutrition, rest, recovery etc is on point
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And my final point isn’t based on science at all but rather 5 Years of Personal Training Southside Gym Sandyford
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Some people find a million excuses not to train and others always find solutions. The ladies I work with definitely fall into that second category. Doesn’t matter if they’re crazy busy, exhausted, sick (or a combination of all three!), they’re incredibly committed to their health and fitness and as a result they always get their training done, usually have a bit of a laugh in the process, feel a whole lot better afterwards and reap all the benefits of training
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So to the women I currently train who are reading this, keep up the great work 💪 If your a woman not currently training, I would highly encourage you to start. With a little bit of progression (which happens RAPIDLY at the beginning) you’d be able to show the guys in the gym a thing or two about training intensity 😉
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Thanks for reading
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Paul Taylor PT