Seeing more and more women doing resistance training is absolutely amazing. There is however often a lack of understanding and direction, especially in the space of commercial fitness and even amongst some Personal Trainers.
I’ve been physically active all my life having played volleyball on a semi-professional basis since I was 10. However, once I moved to the UK, I only started working with my first Personal Trainer in 2008 (group exercise classes before that).
The first thing he asked me before we started working together was:
What are your goals?
I remember my annoyance at always being asked this question (I’ve worked with quite a few coaches since). Back then, all I could think of with regards to exercise was just to be “a little bit fitter” and to “lose some weight”. Surely that’s what exercise is for?
Anyway, I’m digressing.
I often hear women complaining that lifting weights makes them bulky. I look at their programming and it is usually 99% hypertrophy. Surprise, surprise!
You see, there are different types of weight training. (just like cardio is not just cardio, there are different sub-types too).
So, what’s the difference?
If you are looking to bulk up or work on your body shape (aesthetics), you’ll be doing hypertrophy.
If you are looking to be stronger with a relatively smaller amount of ‘bulk’ you’ll be doing strength training.
[this is a very generic classification so please do not shoot me down].
So, what’s hypertrophy?
I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of atrophy. Perhaps a gruesome example but I always think of people lying on hospital beds immobile for weeks or months – they a-trophy. They lose their muscles.
Hyper-trophy is the opposite. It’s an increase in muscle fibre diameter. It’s what the general population would call: "bulking up".
Strength training, on the other hand, is what it says on the tin: you are aiming to become stronger. The official definition of strength is: “The maximum force a muscle produces in a single effort irrespective of time.”
Yes, I hear you. What about those big bulky people like Arnold Schwarzenegger: are they not strong?! Have we not always been taught that bigger is better (and therefore stronger)?
Well, it’s always a question of what we are comparing things with. Because if we compare those who take part in body building vs strongmen competitions then guess who is going to be stronger?
Also, a body builder is going to look different than a strongman.
Just because you have a six pack it doesn’t mean that your core is strong. Equally, a strongwoman won’t necessarily have a six pack.
Yes, both people who train for hypertrophy and for strength lift weights but their training program looks different.
So, let’s repeat: if you are looking to 'bulk up', you train hypertrophy (increase in muscle fibre diameter). If you are looking to get stronger you train to be able to produce a maximum force in a single contraction.
Granted, if you’ve never done any weight training in your life and suddenly start doing hypertrophy you will still get stronger than if you continued to sit on the sofa all day.
What I’m talking about here is the ability to do:
1 full push-up versus 20 modified push-ups from your knees or
being able to do 1 back squat with let’s say 100kg on the bar versus 20 back squats with 40kg.
In the above sentence lies a clue of what the difference in training for hypertrophy vs strength looks like. And at first glance the difference is in how heavy the weight is and how many reps we perform.
Check out the below table for some numbers. Everything is a function of your 1 Rep Max, which is the heaviest weight that you can only do 1 rep of.
Rep Range | % of 1 Rep Max | Desired Goal |
|---|---|---|
1-5 reps | 85-100% | Strength, power & little hypertrophy |
6-8 reps | 75-85% | Strength & hypertrophy |
8-12 reps | 70-75% | Hypertrophy & some strength |
13-20 reps | 60-70% | Endurance, some hypertrophy, little strength |
Please do not memorise this table as there is always a caveat. More on this later.
For example, if you train for strength, it doesn’t mean that you never do volume.
Likewise, if you’ve never done much exercise or weight training before, you’ll probably start with the higher rep ranges whilst you learn how to move your body properly so that it can then withstand the heavier load.
But how much, how often and how heavy load you’d be required to lift will be different from person to person, their age, health status, exercise history, injuries, medications, how active their life/job is, etc.
Equally, your training is going to have different goals (and therefore set up) in puberty, the reproductive years and in perimenopause. All of the above should be discussed with your coach and planned according to your training goals.
And this brings me back to the beginning of my article: What are your goals?
If we are looking at women in perimenopause, and let’s presume that could be roughly anytime from 35 years of age (once we pass the peak of our reproductive years and progesterone is declining and therefore potentially giving us a concoction of variety of symptoms), the goal should move from hypertrophy to strength.
Why?
Well, for starters, strength (and balance, but about this another time) is one of the first things that go as we get older. I don’t know about you but when I get older, I want to sustain the ability to be strong. For some people it simply means being able to get off the floor without the use of one’s arms. Personally, I hope I will never have to install a panic button next to my toilet. You get the gist.
The second reason is estrogen. In the later phases of perimenopause, we start to lose estrogen, or E2 (Estradiol) to be specific.
E2 is responsible for strong muscle contractions. So, on top of the effects of ageing (that equally make women and men weaker), we women, we get an extra bonus: losing E2 means this process is exacerbated. That means that in comparison to men, because of the loss of E2, muscle strength in women advances earlier and more rapidly. That changes at the age of around 80, when men finally catch up.
Therefore, for women from perimenopause onwards, strength training should be prioritised over hypertrophy.
If you are an endurance athlete, don’t worry. You don’t need to quit running. However, adding strength training sessions (1-2 per week) would be of great benefit. To sustain strength, joint health and to create similar adaptations that E2 would give us, the secret lies in strength training, not hypertrophy. Why? Because hypertrophy simply doesn't force you to execute strong enough contractions, it is NOT A STRONG ENOUGH STIMULUS.
In other words, if you can lift a certain weight (deadlift or squat for example) 12-20 times - it's not heavy enough!
If you can listen to a podcast while doing your lifting without having to pay attention, it’s also not heavy enough.
Now, will I bulk up doing strength?
I don’t particularly like to use the everyday jargon of ‘bulking up’ or even less favourite ‘toning’. I’m not particularly interested in aesthetics per se, but for argument’s sake, if you look at some of the strongest Olympic Weightlifting ladies, a lot of them are pretty slim. Why? Because again they train to increase the strength of their muscle contractions, not the muscle fibre diameter.
Let’s look at my favourite Polish Olympic Weightlifter, Weronika Zielińska-Stubińska. She competes in the 81kg category and currently can Clean & Jerk (photo below) 133kg. Without knowing any better and just by looking at her, you’d never know that such a ‘slim’ person can be so strong. And yet.
Now, the caveat. And an important one!
My coach Elliot Meeten says:
"It’s important to understand that you CAN ‘bulk up’ performing any rep range, 1-5, 6-10, 11-15, 15+ IF you are in a calorie surplus!
Light loads can build muscle equally well provided sets are taken within close proximity to failure* (0-2 reps in reserve or RIR).
There’s not really a true hypertrophy range, what’s most important is effort over exact number of reps. Every rep and set range is anabolic if you are also eating more than you are burning.
If you want to get strong WITHOUT getting bulky, you need to take your sets close to failure (0-2 RIR) whilst keep your calories at maintenance.
If you want to get stronger and lose weight simultaneously, then you need to take your sets close to failure (0-2 RIR) whilst staying in a calorie deficit.
One thing to note: higher set and rep ranges (15-20 reps+) can cause a high level of systemic fatigue when taken within close proximity to failure and can eat up more of your training time.
No matter what your health and fitness goal is, my advice would be to find loads/ranges that are practical, prioritise effort over exact number of reps, eat adequate protein, practise good food hygiene, aim to sleep 7-9 hours per night, get daily sun exposure, hydrate, and manage stress as best you can."
Any thoughts, let me know in the comments.
In the meantime, if you are looking to take your STRENGTH training to another level, check out the Online Coaching Program Empowered by Elliot Meeten.
*Training to failure refers to performing a single set of an exercise for as many reps as you can until you can no longer physically lift the weight for another rep, you fail.
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