26 Feb 10/20/Life for Females

By Lisa Guggisberg

I get a lot of people asking if 10/20/Life works for females.  My initial response is “absolutely!”  It’s a fair question, though. When it comes to strength training, a majority of females believe that if they start to train like a man.. they will start to look like a man (which is not true). Yes, there are hormonal differences and physiologically: men and women are different, but there is more in common than you may think.  Females really don’t need a special way of training. Overall, a program can be the same for a male v. female, it’s the percentages, RPE and weak points that will vary from individual to individual and aren’t gender specific.  A program that makes one individual stronger will more or less work for everyone besides a few changes in accessory work selection, sets, reps and weight. A training philosophy, such as 10/20/Life can be applied to anyone, male or female.

[wa-wps]

However, here are some things to be considered regarding female strength training.

Females can handle more volume

For example -females seem to be able to handle and perform more reps than their counterparts. The average male can typically perform between 5-6 reps at higher percentage of their max whereas females are able to accomplish sets of 7-8.

When programming for a female take into consideration a higher rep scheme or lower reps at higher RPE or percentage of their max.

Females recover faster

I do a lot of my training with males and have noticed that it takes them a lot longer in between sets where as I am ready to go after only a few minutes of rest, or the fact that I don’t need as many recovery days in between training sessions before I am recovered, the reason? Females seem to recover quicker. Rapid recovery is most likely due to the fact that females are lifting lighter weight, even if the percentages are the same but, females generally fatigue less than males.

The all mighty estrogen effect could be one reason for faster recovery.  Estrogen is a female’s primary sex hormone. It influences everything from metabolism to glycogen storage to bone health.  Estrogen is known to reduce carbohydrate depletion and increase free fatty acid availability. In simple terms, when estrogen levels are high, females tend to conserve glycogen stores and utilize more fat as fuel. For longer endurance or recovery this is beneficial.

Females are weaker in the upper body

Females typically aren’t as strong as men in the upper body.  What does this mean?  Females tend to need more upper body accessory work/stimulation.  One of my goals this past off season was a bigger bench. Knowing I wasn’t as strong in my chest, rear delts and tri’s, I started hammering my upper body accessory work.  I added in a lot of board pressing, dumbbell floor pressing, incline dumbbell press and tricep work to help my upper body catch up with my lower half.

Hormones

Let’s face it; Hormones can wreak havoc on a female mentally and physically.  During certain times of the month, females may not be as motivated, may be a little bloated and well, just batshit crazy.  This is a great time for a scheduled deload which is a huge part of the 10/20/Life philosophy.

I listen to my body and keep this in mind if I’m having an off day, feeling sluggish or just not very strong and try not to cry myself to sleep with a bag of Reese’s chocolate.

This leads me to my next point.

 Stop worrying about body composition

The goal is to get strong.  Females should stop worrying about what their body looks like and focus on strength.  I see females wasting time doing stupid glute exercises because they want their booty to pop, all the while – not realizing that they could likely be doing much more resourceful accessory work rather than glute bridges or banded kick backs.  I stopped worrying about getting a man chest or a wide back and picked up some dumbbells, trained my chest and have steadily increased my bench.  10/20/Life has an extensive index of accessory work that isn’t a lot of nonsense movements that make you look pretty, they make you stronger.

In summary, a strength program doesn’t need to be written different for a man or female.  It’s up to the individual person and not gender.  That’s why 10/20/Life works for females (and men), it’s customizable for the individuals needs.

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Lisa Guggisberg

A self-proclaimed former high school band nerd turned meathead nerd, Lisa has been coached and mentored by Brian Carroll using 10/20/Life principals for 3 years. She started CrossFiting in 2006 but gave that up after realizing all she wanted to do was squat, bench and deadlift heavy. She now competes as a raw and multi-ply powerlifter in the 114 and 123 weight classes. Lisa has All-Time top 10 totals in both raw and multi-ply in her respective weight classes with a raw pro total of 936 lbs at 114 and a pro 1118 lb multi-ply pro total at 123 and 1090 lb multi-ply total at 114. She is currently ranked the #1 female multi-ply lifter at 123, #2 at 114 multi-ply female and #3 raw with wraps. Lisa has a B.A. in Political Science and a Masters in Public Administration, but hates politics and political debates. She is a mom of two, a firefighter wife and has worked as a full time litigation paralegal for almost 20 years.

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