Strength Training for Women

/0 Comments/in , /by

strength-training-for-women

Irish boxer, Katie Taylor, has just launched her professional boxing career with a win. She trains as any athlete should – for strength, power, conditioning, etc… In my opinion, she epitomises what all sports should be about – and particularly, athleticism.

It seems to me that the biggest challenge with regard to women doing strength training is that there are too few doing it! There are many reasons for this. A US study1 illustrated a few reasons why women shy away from strength training:

  • Both the female athletes and the coaches saw strength training as less vital for the female athletes than the male athletes.
  • The females were not as confident with regard to weight training as the men.
  • The females saw weight training as a masculine activity.

Other reasons may be:

  • Women are self-conscious about entering the weight section of a gym.
  • They associate weight training with becoming larger and heavier.
  • They believe females should not lift heavy weights.

I will attempt to dispel these notions, and also address certain female-only factors in fitness such as menstruation, use of oral contraceptive pill (OCP), etc…

Few have done more to illustrate the benefits of strength and power training in women’s sport than the Williams sisters in Tennis. The sheer athleticism and power they display when playing is testimony to their scientific and balanced training regime. Some major benefits of strength training for women are:

  • Increase bone mineral density (BMD): Women are prone to this disease as they age. In fact, research2 has shown that women are seven times more likely to suffer from low BMD if they haven’t partaken in sporting activities when younger.
  • Reduced risk of injury: By doing rational strength training, females can strengthen connective tissue such as ligaments and tendons, thereby improving joint stability.
  • Improved performance in sport: Once the key areas such as maximum strength and power are attended to, there is tremendous potential for increased physicality and performance in sport.
  • Improved body composition: Body fat decreases as a result of increased muscle tissue development. Because muscle tissue is more compact, but also heavier than fat, it would not be unusual for a lady to fit better in her clothes yet her weight stay the same or even slightly increase, due to strength training.

Key Factors

PEAI conference 2015 1

  • Women can match men proportionately in terms of lower body strength. However, there is a disparity between male and female upper body strength. This also means that women have the greater potential for improvement and can demonstrate this if they lift enough weight, the right way.
  • Women have a smaller cross-section of muscle fibres resulting in less demonstrable strength. Because so many sports require powerful movements, females participating in these need to work extra hard at developing power in the weights room by stimulating the development of as many fast twitch, type II fibres as possible.
  • Women need to abandon their fear of looking like men as a result of doing strength training; otherwise, the quality of their strength training may suffer. The major factor resulting in hypertrophy in men is the high levels of testosterone they produce since puberty. These levels may be as high as ten or twenty times women’s levels3. Therefore, women need not fear building huge muscles unless they are ingesting testosterone or anabolic steroids. It seems women have higher resting levels of Growth Hormone (GH), on average, than men which may compensate for the low levels of testosterone and allow women to undergo strength training adaptations.
  • The use of OCP by women can provide certain advantages for female athletes. While there may be a small increased risk of breast cancer (if using OCP for 10+ years without having children) and reduced aerobic capacity, some training benefits of using OCP are4:
  1. Can reduce the natural fluctuations in strength throughout the menstrual cycle
  2. Seems to reduce carbohydrate usage in prolonged training
  3. Reduced menstrual blood loss
  4. May reduce premenstrual symptoms, so will have less effect on training and competitions

All women taking OCP should educate themselves fully on the pros and cons of usage.

  • Observations indicate that the menstrual cycle need not have any major bearing on performance. It is not unusual for highly trained females to experience secondary amenorrhea (cessation of periods). Careful attention to nutrition and healthy lifestyle are all key factors in minimising menstrual disruption. In any case, menstrual symptoms can be highly individual to the particular athlete. (Zatisiorsky and W. Kraemer, 2006)
  • Women need not stop strength training when they become pregnant, but adjustments in the program may need to be made, specifically:
  1. Avoid introducing any new exercises to a programme.
  2. Eliminate sit-ups from the program.
  3. Due to hormonal changes which soften connective tissue and increase risk of injury, pregnant women should reduce intensity of strength exercises.

It is strongly advisable for a female athlete to communicate with her doctor regarding her training programme.

Training Tips for Female Athletes

  • Learn the correct technique of the strength exercises before loading up.
  • Women undergo the same type of adaptations as men, so should use similar programmes, exercises and relative resistance as men.
  • To increase bone mineral density, and reduce risk of osteoporosis, use multi-joint exercises that stress the skeleton, e.g squats, deadlifts, standing barbell press, etc…
  • To compensate for less relative upper body strength, women need to do extra work for development of these muscles.

References

  1. Peak Performance Resistance Special report, Chapter “Women and Young Athletes,”, by Paul Gamble, page 58
  2. Peak Performance Resistance Special report, Chapter “Women and Young Athletes,”, by Paul Gamble, page 61
  3. Science and Practice of Strength Training. 2nd Edition, (Human Kinetics 2006), by V. Zatisiorsky and W. Kraemer, page 183
  4. Peak Performance, Female Athletes (Training for Success), Chapter – Performance and the Pill, pages 26-27, by Andrew Harrison.

The importance of quality Sleep

/0 Comments/in /by

SleeplessManAtNight.jpg.653x0_q80_crop-smart

Whether you want optimal health and/or optimal recovery from exercise, sleep is one of the best tools you have. AND….. it’s free!

Sleep involves more than just getting some much needed rest after a busy day. It is the period when the body performs essential maintenance, rebuilding of tissue, etc… The amount of sleep a person needs can vary from five to nine hours, however it seems the average adult needs approximately eight hours of quality sleep. The majority of functions that take place when asleep seem to be generally controlled by hormonal function, e.g. melatonin, testosterone, cortisol and growth hormone. The latter two are of particular interest to the athlete, because if these are out of kilter it can result in much waste of training effort. Before these are discussed we should examine what sleep actually is.

Sleep Stages

 

Sleep occurs in five stages (Ref 1) that recycle many times during the rest period.

Stage 1 involves the muscles beginning to relax and breathing becomes shallower. It can last from ten seconds to ten minutes. It almost seems like a transition period between full wakefulness and falling asleep.

Stage 2 may last up to twenty minutes and sees the body’s temperature drop and the heart rate slow down. The body is now ready for deep sleep.

Stage 3 is the transitional period between light sleep and deep sleep.

Stage 4 is when a person is completely immersed in the deep sleep state and can last up to thirty minutes.

Stage 5 (also known as REM or Rapid Eye Movement) is the stage when dreaming can take place. REM sleep is characterized by eye movement, increased respiration rate and increased brain activity. 1 Interestingly, the major muscle groups are paralysed despite the increased brain activity during REM sleep.

After stage 4, the sleep cycle reverts back to stages 3 and 2 before progressing to stage 5. The normal sleep cycle will then look like this: 1→2→3→4→3→2→5 and it is repeated many times during the night.

Reasons to get Quality Sleep

The negative health implications of not getting enough quality sleep are:

  • Impaired memory, reduced learning of sports skills, increased reaction time, lower attention span, less ability to adapt to unfamiliar circumstances. (Ref 2)
  • Compromised immune system. (Ref 3) Not getting enough sleep can make a person more susceptible to everyday, nuisance infections like cold and flu, but also vulnerable to cancer and diabetes.
  • Less able to deal with stress. (Ref 4) Aggression and irritability can be increased which makes handling difficult situations even more challenging. This can even lead to a chain reaction of stress leading to sleep disruption, leading to more mental anxiety, and so on.
  • Cardiovascular risk (Ref 5) – Studies have shown that people who get too little sleep may wake up with higher resting heart rates and increased blood pressure. This can put the cardiovascular system under strain over a long period.
  • Weight gain: Studies (Ref 6) have shown that sleep deprivation exhibits signs of glucose intolerance, which is an early indicator of insulin resistance and diabetes (Type II). Other studies (Ref 7) have shown that major hormonal disruption associated with increased appetite occurs with lack of sleep.
  • Serious hormonal disruption associated with increased ageing, reduced weight control and impeded body tissue rebuilding.

Tips for a good night’s sleep

  • Avoid eating within two hours of going to sleep, particularly carbohydrates. As the carbohydrates can be broken down into glucose, the spike in blood sugar levels can stimulate wakefulness. (Ref 8)
  • Avoid alcohol. The commonly taken “nightcap” can seem to relax one and help prepare for sleep. However, alcohol lightens sleep, particularly in stage 4 which is the key recovery stage after physical activity.
  • Minimise stimulating activity, e.g. television before sleep as this can delay falling off to sleep.
  • Try to have a bedtime routine. Having regular “going to bed and getting up” times and sticking to them can help to regulate and normalise sleeping patterns.
  • Sleep in complete darkness. Use heavy curtains to block out all street light and face an electric alarm clock down to hide its light.
  • The temperature and ventilation of the bedroom is important. Cool (not cold) usually is best.
  • A protein drink containing a slow-releasing protein e.g. casein, can be helpful in inducing sleep as it contains the amino acid tryptophan. It may also help in recovery and rebuilding of muscle tissue. (Ref 9)

To read more about the importance of sleep, and the implications of lack of sleep, check out, “Training and Optimal Health for Sports.”

 References

  1. http://psychology.about.com/od/statesofconsciousness/a/SleepStages.htm
  2. Science of Sports Training, Tom Kurz page 122
  1. Optimal Muscle Performance and Recovery, by Edmund R. Burke, page 226
  2. http://psychology.about.com/od/statesofconsciousness/tp/reasons-to-sleep.htm
  3. Take Control of your Health, by Dr. Joseph Mercola, page 193
  4. Spiegel, K. Impact of sleep debt on metabolic and endocrine function. The Lancet. October 23, 1999. 354:1435-1439.
  5. Spiegel, K. et al. Brief Communication: Sleep Curtailment in Healthy Young Men Is Associated with Decreased Leptin Levels, Elevated Ghrelin Levels, and Increased Hunger and Appetite. Annals of Internal Medicine. December 7, 2004. 141:846-851.
  6. Take Control of your Health, by Dr. Joseph Mercola, page 197
  7. http://www.umm.edu/sleep/sleep_hyg.htm#e
  8. Exercise Physiology, Energy, Nutrition, and Human Performance. McArdle, Katch & Katch, fifth Ed, p.g. 42

New Year’s Fitness Fads, Diets and other Bullsh*t!

/0 Comments/in /by

As we go into January, the inevitable launch of the latest fashionable diet and exercise fad is upon us. With this, heralds masses of inactive people looking to get fitter, and lose inches in 3-4 weeks that probably took them years of inactivity and poor nutrition to put on. If you are one of these, the end result, more often than not, is one of the following:

  • Twelve-month gym membership abandoned after one month.
  • Injury or pain leads you to give you up wha
  • Diet given up after a couple of weeks because you went gung-ho and asked too much of yourself, too soon.
  • Injury or pain leads you to give you up whatever exercise form you took up, and resort to “wait til you’re a bit fitter” before resuming.

All of these outcomes can be avoided with a little bit of rational thought and consultation with an educated, professional exercise/nutrition coach. [Side note: Why did I say educated? Surely any professional personal trainer is educated. Not necessarily… I am a certified strength and conditioning coach and learned very valuable information, but some of the most important coaching knowledge I have learnt came from sources other than my certification, i.e. books, DVDs and workshops attended year in, year out. So choose your coach wisely]

Anyway, back to the topic at hand – why do so many people looking to become healthier in the New Year fail? Usually, it’s because despite the best of intentions, they make the following mistakes. By alerting you to these, I hope to save you frustration, lack of progress, and most importantly, injury.

Typical Fallacies of New Year Health Fanatics

  1. Number one on my list is taking up a sport or exercise class without a proper assessment/movement screen. The simple truth is, many people are not ready to jump into an exercise programme without some kind of intervention to correct movement dysfunction, poor core stability, etc… You can read more on the importance of assessment here.
  2. Taking up running. What??? Taking up running is bad? Well… let’s just say that for many, taking up running, or jogging, or whatever you want to call it, is ill-advised. Oftentimes, it comes back to the lack of assessment. You may be too overweight and/or have too little muscle tissue for your joints to support the stresses of running. Running places loads of 3-5 times your body weight on your joints  every step. I realise joining a running club has many incentives: it’s group-based therefore offers motivation, it’s cheaper than joining a gym or a class, very little equipment needed. However, there is much more to increasing fitness than cardio work, which is where running falls. And, crucially, you never see orthopaedic surgeons running along the road. Why do you think that is?
  3. The dreaded detox diet – ok let’s get this straight: there are health risks to following any detox diets you read in magazines, newspapers or social media. Many people undergo a detox diet in January in a bid to rid the body of toxins that may have accumulated in the previous weeks, months or even years of unhealthy eating. One thing I always tell my weight-loss clients is, “you didn’t TRY to gain weight, so don’t TRY to lose it.” Make small, manageable, incremental changes to your lifestyle that are sustainable over the LONGTERM. For example, reduce sugar in your diet one week, and then reduce caffeine the following week, and so on…. By hitting your body with a cold-turkey detox diet you risk toxic shock, days of feeling miserable with numerous side effects. Anyone with health issues shouldn’t go on detox diets, e.g. diabetes, heart disease, or other chronic medical conditions. Teenagers and pregnant women should also avoid detox diets. Just eat healthily – plenty of vegetables, lean protein, gradually eliminate or at least reduce, sugar, caffeine, alcohol. Drink plenty of water and your body will detoxify itself.
  4. HIIT – High Intensity Interval Training: A popular method of getting rapid fat loss results, High Intensity Interval Training is both effective and time-efficient. The downside is that the associated elevation of heart-rate to quite high levels can be risky for several of the population. HIIT involves exercising intensely in short bursts with intermittent recovery periods. If you are not very aerobically fit, then HIIT can put quite a stress on you that you may not be quite ready for. It would be much more advisable to build up a base level of aerobic fitness before tackling HIIT. Strength training will lead to similar weight reduction and has the added benefit of enhancing your physique.
  5. Another factor to consider is that many of us are leading increasingly stressed lives. Whether it’s financial, physical or emotional is irrelevant. It still takes its toll on the body. Adding more excessive physical stress is inadvisable. To elaborate: the central nervous system consists of the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. The sympathetic system is used for “flight or fight” in stressful situations, but is not meant to be in use for long. Problems occur when we cannot disengage from the sympathetic nervous system and relax, thereby engaging the parasympathetic (or peaceful) nervous system. Exercising in the aerobic zone of 120-140 bpm heart-rate once/twice per week will help you to reduce stress levels, improve digestion and sleep better. This can be done running (if appropriate) or biking, or many other ways. Here is a great article on the subject: http://robertsontrainingsystems.com/blog/long-duration-low-intensity-cardio/

To wrap up, please take some key points on board:

  • If you are currently sedentary, get a good coach who can thoroughly assess you, including a movement screen.
  • Don’t skimp paying for quality coaching. Saving money now can cost you far more later, in terms of pain and finances. You have one body – take care of it.
  • Take it handy on the nutrition improvements. Make small, consistent changes. Think long-term lifestyle changes, not short-term all-or-nothing fad diets.
  • Running may not be good for you. Get an assessment.
  • Strength training is essential, but you may not be ready yet. Get an assessment.
  • HIIT is effective for quick fat loss, but it may bring on more stress than your body needs right now. Get an assessment.

Wishing you all the best for 2016,

Shane Fitzgibbon

Want to learn more about rational training and nutrition, while you have time to spare over the holidays? Check out my book, “Training and Optimal Health for Sports.” Free shipping this week. Digital version is also available. See www.trainingandoptimalhealth.com