Training Females

Years ago I wrote an article for Powerlifting USA entitled Training Female Powerlifters. I wish I still had it, as it would save me some time. Time is something I don't have a lot of so lets cut to the chase. Last week a young female came up to me with her lifting sheet in her hand and a disappointed look on her face. I asked what was wrong and she said “ I just got crushed on my bench”. I looked at her sheet. Last week she had done 100 x 8. Her coach had penciled in her heavy set for this week as 110 x5. She got three and was disappointed. I pointed out to her that she probably should have gone to 102.5 or maybe stretched to 105.  Many of you reading might say “increase 2.5 lbs?”.

At MBSC we have 1.25 lb plates  and dumbbells in 2.5 lb increments for exactly this reason. Female athletes or young athletes must be given the chance to improve. Often their coaches are older and stronger and forget something simple. It's not how much weight you increase by. It's what percentage of the total load that weight increase represents. Confused?

Think about this. If an athletes benches the 45 lb bar for 10 reps and then moves up by 5 lbs what is that increase as a percent? It is actually over 10 percent.  Four and half pounds would be ten percent. Five lbs is a huge jump. In the early neural stages of strength training/ motor learning this might in fact be possible but would certainly not be considered good coaching. Now imagine an athlete who bench presses 225 x10. Would you jump ten percent to 245? Any experienced coach knows they would not. Stronger athletes routinely add five lbs per week. This is an increase of about 2%.

Even with 1.25 lb plates we may still be overreaching for our younger athletes and females. This is why we have 15-25 and 35 lb Olympic bars, dumbbells in 2.5 lb increments and 1.25 lb plates. Use your small plates and use them intelligently to create lasting progress.

PS- Also, choose warm-up sets well. For three sets of five think warm-up first, heaviest set second, heavy set minus 5 lbs third. This means if the goal is 85x5 think 65x5, 85x5, 80x5.

Next time an athlete asks you to pick weights, think percentage, not poundage.