4 Differences in Training and Diet: Men VS Women

1) Strength

Most women typically have very weak upper body strength.

Push ups, Pull ups, and other body weight upper body workouts are very tough for most women. But that doesn't mean it should be.

I've had many women become able to do many pull ups and even one arms push ups, it just takes work.

In contrast most men only care about upper body strength "How much ya Bench?!".  Something about Baby Boomers and Gen. X'ers that don't realize they have chicken legs.


The leap from 5 lbs in dumbbells is a moderate change for a man, but a be all end all for women. I'll have a girl press 20 lbs for for 12 reps easily, I add 5 lbs and they struggle to get 1.

Women will often benefit from having transitional weights in between. Only problem is most gyms don't carry the 12 lb and 17.5 lb dumbbells. So make sure if you're a woman to have the kinds of weights available for yourself.

2) Hormones

Women are often scared to lift, because they think they'll get too bulky and look like Chyna from the WWF. But they can't because of the lack of testosterone.



The women that you've seen that are bulky are doing just that, injecting testosterone and possibly other things into their body. And once again, scaring women from lifting weights.

Women will also have higher body fat than men due to hormones as well. That's why 10% is considered excellent body fat for most men, and 18% is considered high tier for women.

So much easier being a guy, I know.

3) Body Fat

Men put almost all their weight gain is their stomach. Usually getting the dreaded beer gut, even when not drinking. Even at lower levels of body fat, men will still have a tiny pudge until they get down to the single digits of body fat.

Men also put fat on their chest, which can be good if you can't afford a sex change.



Women put on fat in their thighs, arms, and now seen more frequently...stomach.

I've seen women with flat stomachs, but put all their body fat in their legs. It's weird how it can work.

Here's what's not different though. Women often want to know how to get rid of their "Teachers Arms", men want to know how they can get rid of their breasts and love handles, there's no workout that does it. It's all body fat. Get your body fat down low enough from diet and exercise and it all goes away.




Also there's just some times in the month, women shouldn't weigh or measure body fat.

4) Health at the cost of Fashion

Women wear these things called high heels, that may look great but shorten the Achilles tendon.

Much stretching, and foam rolling is necessary. And obviously, women should be careful about how often they wear them as well.

Men don't have this problem with sacrificing health for fashion, they do often however have a problem with fashion in general.

FINAL THOUGHT

Now I could  list all types of little nuances between the way men and women can or should train, but ultimately it's trivial.

However, it won't stop thousands of "Fitness Gurus" from trying to market it that way, because that's where the money is.

These are some of the only things I thought that were worth mentioning, the main thing is to stop making excuses and just workout and diet whether you're a man, woman, or even a canine quadruped.

Supplements That Actually Work

My typical review of supplements

Now I'm sure you're used to me trashing supplement companies by now. So let's change things up and actually promote the few useful supplements there are out there.

Multivitamins

You should get all your vitamins and minerals from a well balanced diet, but most of you won't do that so take a multivitamin.

For those few of you that do eat a very well balanced diet, a multivitamin won't hurt. Just in case you're somehow missing out on something.

Fish Oils

I could sit here and type all the amazing benefits of fish oils but University of Maryland Medical Center already did that for me. So I shall copy and paste.

– Improving cholesterol levels
– Lowering blood pressure
– Reducing the risk of heart disease
– Ditto for diabetes
– Managing arthritis symptoms
– Preventing osteoporosis
– Reducing the risk of – depression
– bipolar disorder
– schizophrenia
– ADHD
– cognitive decline
– muscular degeneration
– asthma
– breast, prostate and colon cancers

Udo's 3-6-9 Oil Blend is a great supplement to get the correct amount of each.

Caffeine

Why take a pre-workout when you can just drink black coffee? Unless you hate the taste of coffee, just remember that the only thing in the pre-workout making you go crazy is the caffeine. All the rest is a bunch of bullshit and flavorings used to make it not taste as bad and for marketing hype.

Really, it's that hard for you to handle some caffeine?

Creatine

If you're looking to get strong, put on more muscle, believe or not there's a supplement that actually does that.

Creatine is something your body provides naturally, taking creatine gives you more of that. Kind of like a guy injecting Testosterone, except a) you don't inject anything b) it's not a steroid.

Mark Mcguire said he was just on Creatine. It's good but not that good.

And you don't go back to looking like this when you get off creatine.

For the naysayers, Creatine is one of the most studied supplements out there that has no proven long or short term side effects .

Best of all it's cheap. Just buy the basic Creatine Monohydrate, don't let the sales guy try to talk you into the more expensive kind. They'll tell you they put  ground up dinosaur bones if it helps sell it, but  again it's all marketing hype. The supplement companies do that because they can't make any money off basic inexpensive creatine.

I've used it, and I know it works. If you're thinking about it, try it. Nothing to lose except 20 bucks.

Protein Powder

It's a supplement, not food. If you can't get enough protein into your body with normal foods, use this. Most people struggle with getting enough protein into their diets, so I understand. You should still focus on getting it naturally though.

Don't go crazy buying near $100 canisters of powder. Don't buy cheap either. Some of the the more expensive ones will taste better, mix easier, and have more protein per scoop which makes it easier to mix into foods if you're trying to make something like a protein pancake. If they could just figure out how to not make me dig through for the scooper.

There's a hack.

Bars can be good, but again use them rarely. They can have a lot of fat, sugar, and carbs with them as well.

Only use supplements 1-2 times a day MAX!

Also, most people are lactose intolerant and whey contains dairy... be prepared for possible protein farts.

Vitamin D

Great for bone density, fighting cancer, etc.. You get it from both the sun and food.

The sun? Yes, for dog owners have you ever noticed how your dog likes to just lay around and sun bathe? That's for vitamin D. Though they can't actually absorb it that way because of their fur, which is why you'll see them licking their body to absorb it orally... wait, I'm way off point now.



Vegans definitely need this supplement as it's mostly found in meat and dairy based foods.

Final Thought

So now you see why I rarely recommend supplements. These few that actually work are optional or are used to supplement something you should be getting naturally,

But I do recommend the ones mentioned because a) They actually work b) They're cheap c) Most people need them as most peoples diets are terrible d) and Fish Oil is just too good not to take.

As much as I hate doing self promotion, if you like this blog be sure to subscribe, share, comment, like, any of that stuff. I appreciate it.