To answer the question, they shouldn’t.
It’s a question that doesn’t get asked as much these days as previously but it is still worth exploring.
Typically a woman will say, “I don’t want to get big muscles”. Not all women say this because some actually do want them but it is a legitimate concern for some.
The reason is a misconception that arose way back in the day when women bodybuilders were regarded as representative of what happened when women used weights and/or went to the gym. These women were used to promote gyms and using weights and weight machines in a bid to engage another market segment namely females.
Of course we know that these women bodybuilders were just like most of the men in that drug use was pretty common so the likelihood of significant synthetic hormone manipulation was high. So just like the fact most men could not achieve the increases in muscle size the male bodybuilders could it was the same for women. And still is. The reality is the incredible sizes male and female bodybuilders reach are due to a lot of training, discipline, knowledge, nutrition and at the highest level, a lot of drugs.
This is in stark contrast to what fitness coaches like myself do with clients both men and women.
This is Fha (left) and Kate. Kate mostly did yoga and was amazingly flexible but she carried excess fat. She also battled a life-long facial acne problem. We met in the gym we both trained at and I began giving her tips on her training routine plus helped her with her diet. Eventually I wrote her a program and she followed this for 3 months. Kate dropped a lot of fat over that 3 months and she has become a lot stronger with personal record lifts in the deadlift, squat and bench press. Her acne problem has just about disappeared as well an added bonus to her much cleaner dietary habits.
Fha has dropped 5kgs in about 4 months. Fha has been attending my outdoor group sessions and in the gym she has been doing more basic lifts with heavier weight and lower repetitions. She has also adopted a different approach to her nutrition using intermittent fasting and like Kate, tidying up her diet.
Both ladies train hard but take a flow approach to training in that some days you empty the tank and other days you fill it up!
In other posts I have elaborated extensively on the impact training has on our endocrinal system. Training (exercise), nutrition and rest/sleep are all very important components to the balancing of how our body functions in our natural chemical balance.
Once we as men and women take onboard and practice good habits in all 3 areas we will gain balance. The result of this is we will shed fat and gain muscle and more. This includes strengthening joints and in the case of Kate her skin reacted very positively as well.
