# Female rep ranges



## Queenie

Having a conversation on twitter re: rep ranges for females.

A girl has been told basically 'youre a girl, lift lighter and for more reps'

In a way... I agree! But I also agree different stimuli is needed for any muscle whether male or female.

Thoughts guys and girls?


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## eezy1

mixing it up is good for everyone i imagine. you build muscle with both


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## huarache

But Heavier weight, less reps.. more muscle fibre recruitment so inevitably more gains?

I don't know, but worth a shot lol


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## Queenie

But do u think male/female muscle stimulus is different?


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## eezy1

plus i think women have less of an ego than men when it comes to lifting. they dont feel the need to chuck as much weight up as they can. keeping the weights in-check gets them better target muscle isolation coupled with decent rep ranges

result = win


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## rectus

Muscle is muscle. What determines the muscle growth is testosterone levels and the types of hypertrophy. Most girls don't want to put muscle on (a challenge for a woman anyway), so doing heavy weight with lower reps would be better suited. Typically I see girls train high reps with tiny weights to "tone" but that isn't the right way.


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## huarache

RXQueenie said:


> But do u think male/female muscle stimulus is different?


I think the only difference would be the testosterone, if women had the same test as a man then I think the muscle growth/repair/development would be the same

I could be completely wrong just hazarding a guess


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## Queenie

rectus said:


> Muscle is muscle. What determines the muscle growth is testosterone levels and the types of hypertrophy. Most girls don't want to put muscle on (a challenge for a woman anyway), so doing heavy weight with lower reps would be better suited. Typically I see girls train high reps with tiny weights to "tone" but that isn't the right way.


But a lot of the female pros DO train lighter with higher reps... thats what made me wonder if its actually true and why.


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## Barman

Do what you want and like  there is no right or wrong way + your body is made up of diffrent types of muscle fibers so that will also determin

how your body grows with a type of training. im a guy i do higher reps and i grow


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## Queenie

Barman said:


> Do what you want and like  there is no right or wrong way + your body is made up of diffrent types of muscle fibers so that will also determin
> 
> how your body grows with a type of training. im a guy i do higher reps and i grow


I do! Lol. Just interested in opinions in general. My training isn't going to change as switching things up (inc rep ranges) works for me.


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## secondhandsoul

I use the same rep ranges for strength/hypertrophy as a man would use. I didn't think that their was a difference between muscle based on sex. It's certainly worked for me so far, throw in the occasional deload and voila


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## xpower

http://www.exrx.net/WeightTraining/Weightlifting/Women.html may be of some interest


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## MRSTRONG

RXQueenie said:


> But do u think male/female muscle stimulus is different?


No .

Both sexes have fast and slow fibres .


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## MRSTRONG

RXQueenie said:


> But a lot of the female pros DO train lighter with higher reps... thats what made me wonder if its actually true and why.


Those videos will be of a dieting pro aoming for muscle separation , what you rarely see is off season training .

However its down to what class the female is in as a bodybuilder will train different to a bikini or trained physique etc .


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## Queenie

ewen said:


> Those videos will be of a dieting pro aoming for muscle separation , what you rarely see is off season training .
> 
> However its down to what class the female is in as a bodybuilder will train different to a bikini or trained physique etc .


i dont watch videos. two pro's at my gym remember


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## MRSTRONG

RXQueenie said:


> i dont watch videos. two pro's at my gym remember


Maybe asking the two pro's rather than a forum without any active pro's would be better 

That said once you found how your own body reacts to given reps/sets then stick around that imo


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## Queenie

ewen said:


> Maybe asking the two pro's rather than a forum without any active pro's would be better
> 
> That said once you found how your own body reacts to given reps/sets then stick around that imo


i have... i have my opinion, they have theirs... im just wondering what the general opinion is.... thats all big guy.


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## MRSTRONG

RXQueenie said:


> i have... i have my opinion, they have theirs... im just wondering what the general opinion is.... thats all big guy.


Lol I read my post back and it came across a bit snotty wasnt meant to be .


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## DB

Depends what the goal is?

But more often than not its aesthetics..

So think what sport gives the ideal kind of body for most females on here?

Sprinting

Heavy weights and extremely explosive would be the base for most of my planning for a chick once they are advanced enough to do movements safely


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## rectus

DB said:


> Sprinting
> 
> Heavy weights and extremely explosive would be the base for most of my planning for a chick once they are advanced enough to do movements safely


Indeed, this is what I get girls doing but it's hard to convince them they're not going to turn into men when lifting heavy weights. I sell the idea by telling them they're going to be stronger than their boyfriend  Nothing makes me happier than seeing a lady doing an overhead press with perfect technique.


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## oldskoolcool

Six weeks of one and six of the other is what i do.


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## Jason88

I think men an women should train the same based on the long term goal, thing i notice about women weight seems less important and form is everytthing, with guys is usally weight first then form lol obv not always true, just in general


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## monkeybiker

I don't see why it should matter if you are male or female, aren't we both the same in the womb initially so I would guess we have the same muscle fibers.


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## Musclegirl

I just do whatever using good form. I might not lift heavy but I do it right


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## MRSTRONG

Musclegirl said:


> I just do whatever using good form. I might not lift heavy but I do it right


your guns are impressive too


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## Musclegirl

ewen said:


> your guns are impressive too


Why thank you :blush:


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## dtlv

RXQueenie said:


> Having a conversation on twitter re: rep ranges for females.
> 
> A girl has been told basically 'youre a girl, lift lighter and for more reps'
> 
> In a way... I agree! But I also agree different stimuli is needed for any muscle whether male or female.
> 
> Thoughts guys and girls?


From experience of training with women I'd say similar rules apply to both sexes. Where there is a difference though, which I thought I'd noticed a couple of times and dismissed but then much later found is backed up by several studies, is that there is a difference in how females respond to higher reps.

For the guys, progression with high reps (12+ per set) doesn't have much cross-over to increasing strength when they switch back to lower reps - even if they've added 10kg to what they can do for 3x12, their 3x5 loads will still be pretty much the same unless they simultaneously worked on that too.

With women however there is more cross-over, and increasing loads used with higher reps leads to greater improvement in strength for lower rep heavier load sets even if they do no specific training in that rep zone.

Am not sure this is too relevant to doing anything massively different for women, especially as I think that generally doing both low-ish and high-ish rep training is the best way to go for both genders, but the difference in neural adaptation between sexes is interesting.

Most women do seem to choose higher reps than guys, and it certainly doesn't seem to be a problem.


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## Skye666

rectus said:


> Muscle is muscle. What determines the muscle growth is testosterone levels and the types of hypertrophy. Most girls don't want to put muscle on (a challenge for a woman anyway), so doing heavy weight with lower reps would be better suited. Typically I see girls train high reps with tiny weights to "tone" but that isn't the right way.


I agree....


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## MattGriff

dtlv said:


> From experience of training with women I'd say similar rules apply to both sexes. Where there is a difference though, which I thought I'd noticed a couple of times and dismissed but then much later found is backed up by several studies, is that there is a difference in how females respond to higher reps.
> 
> For the guys, progression with high reps (12+ per set) doesn't have much cross-over to increasing strength when they switch back to lower reps - even if they've added 10kg to what they can do for 3x12, their 3x5 loads will still be pretty much the same unless they simultaneously worked on that too.
> 
> *With women however there is more cross-over, and increasing loads used with higher reps leads to greater improvement in strength for lower rep heavier load sets even if they do no specific training in that rep zone.*
> 
> Am not sure this is too relevant to doing anything massively different for women, especially as I think that generally doing both low-ish and high-ish rep training is the best way to go for both genders, but the difference in neural adaptation between sexes is interesting.
> 
> Most women do seem to choose higher reps than guys, and it certainly doesn't seem to be a problem.


Is this anecdotal or have you read something arguing this? I would be interested to read it if the latter.

A female raw British Powerlifting champ is one of my training partners. Primary movements such as squats, fronties, deads, bench, rows and so on are done in a 1-5 rep range and assistance tends to be in a 6-10 rep range - Which is how I tend to train as well unless doing something specific for a comp.

It is worth noting though I train moving events for strongman (not that you can tell from my performance) and she also does a variety of plyometrics.


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## DB

dtlv said:


> From experience of training with women I'd say similar rules apply to both sexes. Where there is a difference though, which I thought I'd noticed a couple of times and dismissed but then much later found is backed up by several studies, is that there is a difference in how females respond to higher reps.
> 
> For the guys, progression with high reps (12+ per set) doesn't have much cross-over to increasing strength when they switch back to lower reps - even if they've added 10kg to what they can do for 3x12, their 3x5 loads will still be pretty much the same unless they simultaneously worked on that too.
> 
> With women however there is more cross-over, and increasing loads used with higher reps leads to greater improvement in strength for lower rep heavier load sets even if they do no specific training in that rep zone.
> 
> Am not sure this is too relevant to doing anything massively different for women, especially as I think that generally doing both low-ish and high-ish rep training is the best way to go for both genders, but the difference in neural adaptation between sexes is interesting.
> 
> Most women do seem to choose higher reps than guys, and it certainly doesn't seem to be a problem.


Women oxidise fat better than males and can deal with higher volume with less recovery, so maybe slightly genetic how they are more powerful in the higher rep range compared to male.


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## dtlv

MattGriff said:


> Is this anecdotal or have you read something arguing this? I would be interested to read it if the latter.
> 
> A female raw British Powerlifting champ is one of my training partners. Primary movements such as squats, fronties, deads, bench, rows and so on are done in a 1-5 rep range and assistance tends to be in a 6-10 rep range - Which is how I tend to train as well unless doing something specific for a comp.
> 
> It is worth noting though I train moving events for strongman (not that you can tell from my performance) and she also does a variety of plyometrics.


The info I'm thinking of comes from two studies, but right now I don't have either links to hand.

Neither study was specifically looking for gender differences, both were comparing hypertrophy and 1RM strength responses to differences in repetition ranges (high, med, low) over a fixed period of time using a mixed gender group of subjects, and the gender effect was noted when results were analyzed. I remember one study better than the other, and the one I recall best showed a gender effect for high repetitions where the women only in the higher rep group improved their 1RM to a level of statistical significance whereas the men did not. At low and med repetitions both groups improved 1RM over whatever the time period was. I also (think) the gender effect was shown for lower body strength and not upper body (squats but not bench press).

that said, iirc the study used a relatively small sample size in each group and I honestly cannot recall any other selection criteria - for new or experienced trainers, young or elderly etc. I also can't recall the exact duration of the study, but I think it was around 8-12 weeks.

The other study was of similar design but for an abstract only that in truth wasn't very detailed, although it did mention the same gender effect

Was only about a month ago I was looking at these, wish I'd saved them. Will try to dig them up again, but google scholar hates me at the moment so wish me luck.


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