This is the first of a three-part interview on women’s athletic training with strength coach John Paul Catanzaro.
Q: In the past, you have discussed the importance of training efficiency for women. What does she mean by that and why is it important or relevant to the learner?
A: Many women I consult with feel the need for yoga and stretching to increase flexibility, aerobics to reduce body fat, and Pilates to improve core strength. Guess what, strength training will do all of the above and then some! It’s called “killing many birds with one stone” and that’s the concept of training efficiency I discuss. When you have only a limited amount of time to train in any given week, you should use that time wisely.
Also, many women are disillusioned with strength training believing it will give them giant muscles and a bulky appearance (this condition has been coined “myophobia” by Charles Staley). Nothing could be further from the truth! It’s hard enough for most men to achieve this condition, and yet women have androgen levels that are up to 30 times lower than men (about 10 times less testosterone), fewer nuclei in their cells muscles and a lower fiber composition. biomechanical and structural differences that do not lead to huge muscles. In my opinion, the bodybuilding magazines are to blame for this delusion (“delusion”) and we all know what kind of ergogenic aids are necessary to achieve this unnatural effect.
In fact, Staley makes an excellent point on this subject. He ask any woman in her 30s or older when she looked her best in life and she’ll most likely answer with her late teen years. Ironically, this is when she had the most muscle! So if she puts herself in a different perspective, then she may be easier to understand. I apologize if I got off topic, but it seems like an uphill climb to sell the importance of strength training to women.
Q: What are the most efficient training methods and exercises?
A: The most efficient training exercises involve multi-joint compound movements performed at full range of motion (ROM) using free weights. In other words, the exercises that most people hate to do! These will give you the most return on your training investment.
The following statement from the Ebben & Jensen, 1998 commentary sums things up nicely:
“Since well-designed strength-training programs include free-weight and dumbbell exercises and exercises that use body-weight resistance, both women and men should include them in their training, and women should train at the same intensity as the men”.
“It is not necessary to discontinue the use of strength-training machines and abdominal exercises, but emphasis should be placed on the use of free-weight exercises, including foot-based lower-body exercises such as lunges , diagonal lunges, walking lunges, step-ups, lateral step-ups, and squats Women should also include upper-body exercises that use multiple muscle groups, such as bench presses, incline presses, pulldowns latissimus dorsi, pull-ups, and back extensions. Finally, women who have developed a base of strength should consider full-body exercises like the push press, hang clean, power clean, clean and jerk, and snatch.”
“A training program should also emphasize multi-plane, multi-joint functional exercises because they develop intermuscular coordination, proprioception and balance, and result in strength that transfers to sports and daily activities. For For example, the step-up exercise is superior to using the leg extension machine because it offers functional strength for walking up a flight of stairs while carrying grocery bags For athletes who play foot-based sports such as basketball, The squat is superior to using the leg press machine, as the squat is functionally more similar to sport and requires greater balance and control of weight and body in all three planes of motion.”
Q: What apps are out there to train efficient exercises in fat loss programs? What would you wear in these shows?
A: Of course, there are many ways to skin a cat. I will give you two very different examples.
a) Here is a version I adapted from Charles Poliquin’s German body composition program that I recently used with a thirty-year-old fitness model.
She came to me training 6 days a week: her body fat was actually increasing, her strength was going nowhere, and she was constantly sick. Obviously her training (which was the typical protocol you see in many bodybuilding magazines) was not efficient! I’ve reduced the frequency of it to 4 days a week, added some energy system training (ie interval training) to complement the strength work, and made some significant nutrition and lifestyle changes. This is the first of four programs I used on this individual prior to the competition.
Day 1 – Monday and Thursday
A1) Cycling squat 3-5 sets x 10-12 reps @ 4010 tempo, 60 second rest interval
A2) Overhand Wide Grip Front Lat Pulldowns 3-5 x 10-12 @ 4010, 60″
B1) Lying Leg Curl Feet in 3-5 x 6-8 @ 5010, 60″
B2) Incline Dumbbell Press 3-5 x 10-12 @ 4010, 60″
C1) Wide Stance Squat 3×20-25 @ 2010, 60″
C2) Seated Neck Cable Row 3 x 10-12 @ 2012, 60″
D1) Romanian Deadlift 3 x 10-12 @ 3020, 60″
D2) Arnold Press Seated 3×10-12 @ 3020, 60″
Day 2 – Tuesday and Friday
A1) Bent Knee Deadlift 3-5 x 10-12 @ 4010, 60″ A2) Supinated Sternal Pulldown 3-5 x 10-12 @ 4010, 60″
B1) Lying Leg Curl Feet Out 3-5 x 6-8 @ 5010, 60″
B2) Dumbbell Flat Press 3-5 x 10-12 @ 4010, 60″
C1) Dumbbell Walking Lunge 3 x 20-25 @ 2010, 60″
C2) Seated V-Bar Cable Row 3 x 10-12 @ 2012, 60″
D1) Russian Good Morning 3×10-12 @ 3020, 60″
D2) Decline Dumbbell Triceps Extension 3×10-12 @ 3020, 60″
I won’t go into all the details of this routine and why it’s so effective (numerous articles and three books have been written on the subject if you’re interested). Basically, it involves combining a lower body exercise with an upper body exercise. using hypertrophy parameters.
After this one program, my client reduced the sum of 11 skin folds by a total of 63.2mm, which equates to a 5% reduction in body fat while losing 9 pounds of body weight with a slight increase in lean body mass. Not bad for a person who was in pretty good shape to begin with!
