Men are from Mars; women are from Venus. From a training standpoint, this statement is dead on.
Many trainers and strength coaches will often make the mistake of treating everyone the same. They assume that if Mary and Bob are both coming to them for weight loss, improved performance, and/or general awesomeness, they should get the same program. Personally, I think this is a recipe for disaster.
Men’s bodies are different than women’s and there are a few considerations the coach/trainer should take into account before writing the program. Of course, I’ve always had a general philosophy when it comes to training and things that I like to do with all my clients (squats, deadlifts, push-ups, pull-ups). However, it’s important to note that not all exercises or variations are best suited for all individuals. As a professional, your job is to systematize your program and then humanize your system. Your program is the system, and you humanize it by tailoring it to the individual’s needs. The purpose of this article is to point out some of the challenges the professional will run into when dealing with women and how to overcome them.
Valgus collapse
Valgus collapse is the most prominent thing I see when training females in both general fitness and athletics. The tendency for women to land or squat with a valgus collapse has been shown to be the primary cause of ACL injuries, MCL injuries, and patellar subluxations.
When a client comes to me with a valgus collapse, my progression looks like this:
Mobility - Static stability - Dynamic stability
Mobility
Usually in case of valgus collapse, the female will have a dorsiflexion restriction (bad ankle mobility) and poor hip mobility. This is the first stop in the progression. Most people with a dorsiflexion restriction will use the valgus collapse to absorb the force of the squat or landing because they have run out of room in the ankle. Gray Cook is famous for saying that you can’t stabilize a mobility issue. Basically, if someone has a mobility issue, you can’t strengthen them out of it. So for this, I like to foam roll and static stretch the soleus and adductors.
Static stability
Once you’ve ruled out ankle and hip mobility issues, the next stop is core and motor control. I’ve noticed that most young female athletes who fall into valgus collapse also fall into anterior tilt while doing a front plank. For increasing static stability, I use >iframethis progression
Dynamic stability
Once you’ve established good static stability, you can move on to dynamic stability. Basically, this is where we introduce locomotion to the exercise selection.
Band lateral walks - Band front to back walks - Band squats - Body weight squats - Band landing mechanics - Bandless landing mechanics
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Anthropometry: Long femurs versus short torso
It’s important for the professional to know that women’s biomechanics, when it comes to the squat and deadlift, may be a little different than men’s. I noticed this a while back when I had a female client who was struggling with her deadlift technique. Instead of her hips and shoulders rising evenly, her hips shot up in the air and the movement became a big Romanian deadlift. I had one of those “ah ha” moments. What if we try sumo deadlifts? We tried them and her problem was solved. Her hips had to shift backward to be able to clear the bar. When we spread her stance to sumo, the knees were already out of the way. So sumo deadlifts may be a better option for women who exhibit this trait.
Osteopenia and osteoporosis: Axial loading versus non-axial loading
If you work with the general population, chances are very good that you will run into some women with either osteopenia or osteoporosis. Basically, they’re losing bone density. Osteopenia comes before osteoporosis.
This is one of the things I see frequently in women over fifty. These measurements are generally taken on the spine, hip, and top of the femur. The recommendations that come from the medical community on this issue are, as usual, very vague. The general recommendation is “weight bearing exercise.” Great, now I know exactly what to do (sarcasm).
I had a client come to me about 18 months ago who was having this problem. She had osteoporosis in the spine and hips. I did a little research and pretty much found the recommendations that were given above. It was very vague. So I just started with my normal strength progressions. We did all the usual lifts (trap bar and regular deadlifts, front and back squats, press, etc.). Six months later, she went to the doctor and had a bone density scan performed (they used a DEXA). The results showed that her spine had shown significant improvement, but her hips had only shown a little improvement. Being the perfectionist that I am, I won’t settle for a “little” improvement. That’s when a light bulb went off. It was another “ah ha” moment.
All the exercises I was using in her programming were axial loaded, which means the spine was absorbing most of the force. We had to find a way to specifically load her hips. Deadlifts and other hip dominant exercises weren’t getting it done. I decided we would put in some low level plyometrics (I know, gravity could make these axial loaded as well). In the past, I thought this would be too risky for someone with osteoporosis, but I figured that if we progressed slowly, we’d be safe.
We started out just doing one set of three double leg bounds and then went to one set of five double leg bounds. Eventually, we went to three sets of five single leg bounds for each leg. After another six months, she was retested and both her hip and spine bone density scans had significant improvements! So it’s important to keep in mind that all clients need both axial and non-axial loaded exercises. The key is the progression.
Being male, it’s been hard for me to identify with the challenges of being a female who is trying to increase her performance in a given sport or the game of life. These are just a few things I’ve picked up on along the way.