(Here you will find important fitness tips for women. If you want to know about fitness tips for men, please visit Testosteronerd where you’ll find specific resources)
Fitness tips for women
1. Do not run away from heavy training
The first of our fitness tips is less about physical ability, more about the goal that many women have in mind. It used to be said that to be slim you had to train for a long time with light weights.
So, many repetitions but no major effort. That idea is outdated.
Although high frequencies work great for many women (they can generally handle them better than men), avoiding heavier loads is not efficient.
You don’t have to be afraid that you will suddenly start looking masculine (whatever that may mean) or enormously muscular. That look requires long-term, intensive and focused training.
No, training with heavier weights won’t turn you into something resembling a refrigerator. It WILL help you to become more powerful and get into shape.
What also makes training heavy interesting is there’s only a slight correlation with the disappearance of abdominal fat.
That little extra belly fat is something that many women want. So do not worry about hanging some extra weight on your barbells!
2. Use your powerhouse
The next fitness tip for women concerns physique. The center of gravity of women is often lower than that of men. Women usually have relatively strong legs and buttocks.
This has a positive influence on your overall stability and works to your advantage with various exercises: squats and deadlifts, for example, but also with certain presses and leg curls. Take advantage of that!
Women also have, on average, greater flexibility than men. Women often have to pay less attention to this.
We are not saying that you should ignore flexibility completely (and certainly not when you practice a sport that requires great flexibility). But you can pay relatively more attention to issues such as strength, conditioning, technique and balance.
3. Take your hormone balance into account
The best-known difference between women and men (in terms of hormone balance) is that women produce less testosterone than men. Since testosterone is the primary hormone involved in muscle building, this can make it more difficult for women.
But for women who do not want to grow large muscle mass, that is definitely an advantage. You do not have to be avoid strength training because you are afraid to look like the Hulk.
Something that also plays a role in womens fitness is the monthly cycle that causes hormone levels to fluctuate much more than in men. This can affect your training.
Some women experience at certain points in the cycle that training is much easier, or more difficult. There have also been studies that have shown that the risk of injuries for women around menstruation is slightly higher than normal.
This does not, of course, mean that you have to adapt your training rigorously to your monthly cycle. Moreover, these effects are not equally intense for all women.
But, if you want to get the most out of your training, it is certainly worthwhile gaining a little more insight into this.
For that, you can keep a training diary for a while, in which you write down how each course went. Pay attention to things like your endurance, strength and any inconveniences throughout the month.
Also read: Get over it: Five reasons cardio a waste of your time