Female Bodybuilding
While women who are seriously interested in bodybuilding are not as common as men, the number of such women is steadily increasing with time. Society hasn’t caught up to this trend yet and still tends to believe that men work out to get bigger and women workout to get smaller.
In general, it doesn’t really matter what society thinks, but this belief does tend to result in less information being readily available that is directed specifically at the female bodybuilder.
To be realistic, there are generally two questions that most women with a burgeoning interest in bodybuilding want answered: Are they genetically predisposed to building muscles in the same way that men are and should their work out regiment be different from men’s?
The genetic question is the easiest to answer, so we’ll start there. The actual process of building muscles is exactly the same in men and women: through exercise, tiny tears are made in existing muscle and during the recuperation period, the body repairs these tears with larger and stronger muscles. Basically, you build muscle by tearing it down a little bit and then letting your body repair it.
However, women are not going to naturally gain muscle in the same bulky way that men do. The reason for this is found in testosterone which, as most of us know, men have in greater quantities than women. Testosterone plays a key role in muscle building and the hormonal difference between men and women accounts for the difference in size. This isn’t implying anything about strength because size doesn’t equal strength.
Because of this testosterone difference, experts tend to state that women should not work out at the same intensity as their male counterparts. A man and woman working out at exactly the same intensity are going to do the same amount of damage to their muscles but, due to the lack of testosterone, women simply aren’t going to be able to repair it as quickly.
Genetically speaking, however, men and women are equally adept at burning fat. The only thing that women may want to keep in mind about fat burning is that, if your body dips below around 12% body fat, you are likely to see a reduction in the size of your breasts. The importance of this will obviously vary from woman to woman and is a personal decision.
With genetics out of the way, let’s talk about exercise regimens. Typically speaking, men and women will do different exercises. The reasons for this are actually sociological and psychological. Most bodybuilders want to burn fat, pack on muscles…but still be attractive to the opposite sex. For this reason, their overall goals in bodybuilding are going to be dependant on the socially accepted stereotypes of a “sexy” figure.
Overall, the “sexy” body for a man is different than the “sexy” body for a woman. I’m not saying that I agree or disagree with any of this, I’m simply putting it out there for your consideration.
Obviously, you need to be comfortable and satisfied with the way your body looks. If you’re not, then you have wasted a tremendous amount of energy, time and effort. Your personal image of what you want to look like is entirely up to you and that image is going to guide your exercise decisions.
