Increasing Strength Without Size in a Female Trainee

[MetalMikeXVI]

Ok guys and gals I'd appreciate your help. My girlfriend's thighs grow like weeds, and she is hesitant to do squats again. She is a sprinter and pole vaulter with a lot of potential, since she has a lot of fast-twitch muscle (thus why she's more muscular). What type of lifting program will help her to gain strength (and speed) without having her feel self conscious about her legs growing?

[deltaforce]

lol

[mack50lp]

Ok guys and gals I'd appreciate your help. My girlfriend's thighs grow like weeds, and she is hesitant to do squats again. She is a sprinter and pole vaulter with a lot of potential, since she has a lot of fast-twitch muscle (thus why she's more muscular). What type of lifting program will help her to gain strength (and speed) without having her feel self conscious about her legs growing?

I doubt it is possible for her to gain strength without gaining size. Obviously not knowing her or what she looks like it is hard to guess. But assuming she is in top shape she probally can't get away from a little growth.

To answer your question, any exersice that lengthens the muscle. Tell her that she needs to stretch her legs a lot to lengthen. But even with all that she will still most likely gain size.

I would tell her that it is something that is going to happen to become the best and that she will just have to get used to them and build them up as big as she can. But then again I don't care how my legs look and I am a man. good luck to her.

[Environ]

The only difference between training for men and training for women is the shape of the body. That's it. After that, is all just muscle.

Muscle hypertrophy is best achieved within a repetition range of between 6 and 12 repetitions. So, she should avoid this repetition range. Doing reps between 1 and 5 and greater than 12 does not have much effect on muscle hypertrophy, so she should train between these ranges.

You said that she is a sprinter and shot putter. What distance does she compete at? Regardless, she should devote a significant amount of her time in the gym to developing POWER (i.e. between 1 and 3 reps). She should NOT use maximum weights. The research suggests that using approximately 90% of 1RM maximises power output. If she trains for endurance (i.e. greater than 12 reps), then she will greatly interfere with her power output. That will have a negative effect on her sports performance.

Your girlfriend might have to accept a few facts about herself. She has a lot of fast twitch muscle fibres, so her legs, yep, they'll grow like weeds. However, if she wants to excel at these sports, she might just have to accept that.

[roman25]

ah girls i hear a girl saythis in the gym once. I mean yeah she should just work towards strength. With the low reps and high rest periods

[stella summers]

As long as they aren't actually fat, then she shouldn't worry (which they probably aren't, considering she's a sprinter).

[Quarter Nelson]

A girl's not going to become some ugly freak from lifting. They just don't have the testocerone to build that kind of muscle. The ugly freakish ones are on roids/testosterone/HGH. She shouldn't be concerned about her muscles becoming more defined, she'll look good. Heck, all the Victoria's Secret models lift, as do many Hollywood actresses.







Now there's a girl who lifts. Very attractive.

[stella summers]

^^ I KNEW someone was going to use Allison Stokke as an example. ^^

As you can spot in the photo, her thighs aren't fat. She's a pole-vaulter (which of course requires sprinting). Also, because of her event, I'm sure she trains using HIIT or some sort of interval training program that involves sprinting, and since it's an anabolic activity (muscle building), her legs are defined. It's also beneficial towards fat loss.

For ANYONE, building muscle is hard...so your girlfriend lifting (especially heavy weights) won't make her bulky.