Stop Wasting Your Time with Light Weights!

Female Strength Training

One of, if not the main reason many females don’t partake in strength training or fully commit to using heavy loads during resistance training is through fear of getting big and losing their feminine shape. Although the feared outcomes are completely rationale, they are far from reality, causing many women to be performing suboptimal, inefficient and ineffective workouts. Over time this acumination of inferior training adds up to a huge loss of potential in both sporting performance and health benefits.

 

Whether you are aiming to tone or improve sport performance, you will at some point utilise strength training to enhance your physique and/or physical capabilities. We train to achieve an adaptation of the body, yet if the stimulus isn’t challenging minimal change occurs. To obtain the benefits of strength training, muscle development and maximum muscular activation are vital. Learn how to utilise heavy weight training to improve training efficiency and thus performance and aesthetic outcomes.

 

Muscular Development

Whenever we exercise, workout or train we are placing additional load and physical demand upon our bodies. Through our body’s natural survival mechanisms, we adapt to tolerate these additional requirements more efficiently leading to improved capabilities. An adaptation will occur from any stimulus whether it’s from high or low load placed upon the body or sustaining load for a short or long duration. The adaptation will be specific to the nature of the stimulus, but may indirectly improve other physical capabilities as well.

When we refer to strength training we are talking about training your body to improve your ability in producing force. A main contributor in obtaining strength is muscular development i.e. muscle mass and cross-sectional area (dimension) of the muscle. A muscle with a greater cross sectional area tends to be able to produce more force compared to the same muscle with a smaller cross section, but is it really that simple?

The muscles that are reasonable for movement and force production (skeletal muscles) are formed of many muscle fibers all of which are bunched together in parallel to one another, running from both ends of the muscle belly. Imagine the structure of a muscle to be similar to a suspension bridge cable; one large cable full of many smaller cables. One of these cable like muscle fibers consist of many myofibrils (even smaller cables) connected together and  are surrounded by sarcoplasmic reticulum; similar to the plastic insulator of electrical equipment. A visual representation showing the cross section of a muscle is figured below.  

The cross-sectional area of a muscle can occur from two different forms of growth:

·      Hyperplasia– Enlargement through division of muscle fibers

·      Hypertrophy– Enlargement of cross sectional area of muscle fibers

 

Hyperplasia

A muscle with a greater amount of muscle fibers will be larger but will also have greater potential to grow through hypertrophy to the additional fibers. Moreover, men have a greater potential to build muscle mass as they have more muscle fibers compared to women. Hyperplasia accumulates to <5% of possible growth and is considered not to be effected through strength training thus making it generally ignored for practical purposes.

 

Hypertrophy

Hypertrophy is influenced by placing additional load on the muscle, causing micro-damage to filaments within each myofibril which is then re built stronger than before through protein synthesis, over time leading to growth. However, what many don’t know is that there is more than one form of hypertrophy, and the type of growth is dependent on the nature of the training stimulus. Below is a cross section of a signal muscle fiber showing the two forms of hypertrophy.

Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy

Muscle fiber growth from increases of sarcoplasm (semifluid extrafibrillar substance) with the number of myofibrils remaining the same. Although the cross-sectional area of a muscle fiber will increase the potential force production does not. Contractile proteins within the filaments of the myofibrils decrease in density leading. In other words, although the muscle fiber and thus the muscle belly itself will increase in size this additional size will not increase the strength of the muscle.

 

This form of hypertrophy is not commonly desired by many athletes as it adds mass with little benefits toward sporting performance. However, sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is desired in bodybuilding and physique contests as additional size is a big contributor towards the muscle’s aesthetics. It should be noted that although bodybuilders and physique competitors look like athletes often they function poorly to sporting activities. This form of hypertrophy is best obtained using low loads but with a high level of volume (many reps and sets).

 

Myofibrillar Hypertrophy

Unlike sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, growth occurs from an increase in number of myofibrils in the muscle fiber. When undergoing strength training genes within the muscle cell muscles triggers enzymes outside the cell’s nucleus to build more contractile proteins (actin and myosin) which then link together to form new filaments. The increase filament density leads to a greater level of force production and is widely desired by athletes due to the benefits towards sporting performance. This form of hypertrophy is best obtained through the use of near maximal weight loads (high intensity). Increases in the cross-sectional area of a muscle through myofibrillar hypertrophy leads to increases of muscle ascetics and muscular strength.

 

Which One to Choose

In reality pure sarcoplasmic or myofibrillar hypertrophy doesn’t exist. Strength training leads to a mixture of the two which can be bias to one or the other depending on the style of training. High loads performed in low rep ranges (3-8 reps) will favour myofibrillar hypertrophy, whereas lower loads and higher rep ranges (10-20 reps) favour sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.

 

Although sarcoplasmic hypertrophy has little benefit towards function it still achieves muscular development, so if you only care about increasing muscle size this could be suitable. This form of hypertrophy tends to be used more for short term goals; increasing body weight then adapting training later to improve function. Aesthetically, muscle size will grow although shape and appearance may not be as detailed due to higher proportional of semifluid substances in the muscle.

 

On the other hand, if sporting performance or functional growth is important along with aesthetics myofibrillar hypertrophy is more suitable. It Is also considered that heavy strength training contributes to the shape and definition of the muscle fibers with a lean body composition. On this basis, it is suggested to train more of myofibrillar hypertrophy to gain both aesthetic and strength benefits.

 

Muscle Activation and Heavy Loading

To produce force muscle activation is vital. Using heavy loads high levels of motoneuron recruitment and thus muscle activation is required. Compared to low loads which only recruit low threshold motoneurons and require only slow twitch muscle fibers (low force but hard to fatigue), training with heavy loads stimulates maximal motoneuron recruitment and activation of fast twitch muscle fibers (high force fast fatiguing).

 

Training with heavy loads uses both slow and fast twitch muscle fibers with the amount of muscle fibers activated being related to the level of required force production. Women have smaller motoneurons compared to men making it even more important to try and activate as many as you can. Performing exercises with low weight leads to only slow twitch muscle fibers being activated, with the fast twitch faster developing fibers being unstimulated.

 

Exercise Alternatives

When we refer to heavy loading, compound exercises are normally utilised (multi joint movements) compared to isolation exercises (single joint movants). With compound exercises, many muscles groups are used and thus develop in proportion to one another, compared to one or two muscles groups being developed at a time. Compound exercises not only allow for safer lifting of heavy loads but relate better to movement patterns within sport and are more time efficient. The list below are suggestions of alternative compound exercises you can switch from the potential isolation exercises you may be currently performing.

Triceps Kickback– Push Press, Close grip bench press, Overhead press, Dips.

Biceps Curl– Chin up (full BW, assisted, banded), Supine grip bent over row, Inverted row (supine grip).

Leg Extension– Front squat, Weighted step up, Forward lunges.

Leg Curl– Stiff legged deadlift, Good morning, Nordic curl.

Summary

·      Your body will adapt to the specific training stimulus placed upon it.

·      Muscular development contributes towards muscular strength.

·      Muscles growth through hyperplasia or hypertrophy.

·      Hypertrophy is the growth of size of muscle fibers.

·      There are two forms of hypertrophy; sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar.

·      Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy increases size but doesn’t benefit muscular strength.

·      Myofibrillar hypertrophy increase size through increasing the amount of contractile proteins.

·      Myofibrillar hypertrophy increases muscle fiber size and increases the ability to produce a greater level of force.

·      Aesthetically myofibrillar can give muscles a better shape and definition.

·      Training will also lead to a mix of both forms of muscle growth.

·      Lower loads, higher reps are more favoured towards sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.

·      Higher loads, lower reps are more favoured towards myofibrillar hypertrophy.

·      Generally, myofibrillar hypertrophy is more desirable for athletes and is recommended.

·      Heavier loads lead to greater motoneuron recruitment and muscle activation.

·      Women have small motoneurons compared to men making it more important to train with heavy loads.

·      Heavy loads are the only way to stimulate fast twitch muscle fibers.

·      Fast twitch fiber development relates better to sporting performance,

·      Compound exercises can be safer when using heavy loads.

·      Compound exercises are more sport related and time efficient.