Play to your strengths and you’ll
leave him standing. Here’s how…
He may have a monopoly on muscles, but
there are plenty of areas where women have a natural advantage over men in the
gym. ‘There are obvious skeletal, muscular and hormonal differences between the
sexes,’ says Sam Johnson, a clinical associate professor in the School of
Biological and Population Health Sciences. ‘However, many of these differences
leave women with a physical advantage.’ Play to your strengths and you can push
your fitness to new levels – and leave your man gasping for breath.
Men
need 48 hours’ recovery to return to full strength after a workout. Women need
just four – so we can burn more fat.
You recover from workouts quicker
All ball State University study showed that
men needed at least 48 hours of recovery time to achieve the same fitness
levels as in previous workouts. This compares to only four hours needed for a
woman to recover after training and get back to full strength. This quicker
turnaround time means that you’ll be able to burn more fat, says Tom Crisp,
consultant sports physician at the Bupa Barbican Centre, London. ‘If you
typically ride the stationary bike for 40 minutes in the morning, halve it to
20 minutes and repeat the workout at lunch.’ This results in your body working
doubly hard to replenish its oxygen stores. ‘And it burns more calories doing
so,’ he says.
You’re a natural at circuit training
‘Performing exercises in quick succession
with little or no rest in between is an excellent way to build aerobic capacity
and muscle endurance,’ says personal trainer Sohee Lee. And it will burn fat.
So, it’s good news that a Southeastern Louisiana University study found that
women are more physiologically suited to this kind of training, and find it
less strenuous than men. In the study, men came off worse in every category –
oxygen consumption. ‘Perform supersets, training opposite muscles groups, so
that one rests while the other works,’ says Lee. ‘Circuit training will also
raise your metabolic rate for hours afterwards, so you’re still burning
calories long after you’ve left the gym.’
You’ll outrun him on the treadmill
‘Men and women differ in how they transmit
the nerve impulses that control muscle force; a woman’s impulses are akin to an
athlete trained for endurance,’ says Johnson. ‘This means that women adapt much
quicker to longer runs, whereas men are more suited to explosive muscle usage,
like a sprinter.’ And adding distance to your run strengthens your heart and
improves running economy – you’ll use less oxygen to achieve maximum speed and
endurance.
‘Safely increase your run time by up to 15
minutes each week,’ says Crisp. ‘Every fourth week, cut the length by 25 to 50
per cent to avoid overtraining, and then start increasing again the following
week.’
Your muscle definition is more easily
achieved
Beat
your boyfriend in the gym
Women’s testosterone levels are nothing
like a man’s, but while this puts you at a disadvantage in the body-building stakes,
it means you have the edge when it com to looking toned and lean. Scientists
from Drew Medical College in Los Angeles have shown that muscle growth depends
on blood levels of testosterone. The higher the level of the hormone, the more
muscles grow. So women don’t gain much muscle mass when they train with
weights.
Instead, their nervous system concentrates
on existing muscle, which makes for a firmer, leaner and fitter-looking
physique, especially if you’re striving for a flat, toned tummy. ‘Do your ab
crunches at a fast speed to optimize this advantage,’ says Lee. ‘The faster you
do them, the more you’ll overload the abdominal muscle. Just don’t do it so
fast that you can’t maintain good technique.’
Your metabolism is much faster
Don’t grunt and groan under the weight
stack – lifting lighter loads are best for raising metabolic rate. A University
of Southern Maine study found metabolism was fired up more when performing a
single set to exhaustion using a lighter load, ranging from 37 to 56 per cent of
maximum load, compared to an exhaustive set using 70 to 90 per cent of maximum
load. Optimize this advantage with the dead lift, says Lee. ‘it’s a terrific
exercise for building whole body strength as it stresses the hamstrings,
glutes, spinal erectors and upper back muscles. And you can do it with a light
weight, or just the bar bell.’
