Strength Training For Women: A Girl’s Guide To Volume

I have a quick quiz for you.

What’s the most important factor in any training program?

Volume.

You can talk about metabolic stress, muscle damage, and all that jazz as much as you like, but when it comes down to it, volume trumps all other training variables.

Why?

Because more volume equals more weight lifted, which relates to greater gains in size and strength. Plus, if you’re getting more volume in your training, you’re going to be working harder and burning more calories, which is a huge bonus if you’re training for fat loss.

Let’s backtrack a little …

So What is Volume?

Volume = Weight Lifted x Sets x Reps

Say for instance you’re performing squats with 135 pounds, and you do four sets of 6 reps, that gives you 135 x4 x6, which comes to 3,240 pounds.

Volume is usually measured on a session-by-session basis, but you can look at it weekly too.

Let’s go with a 4-week training block, where you squatted twice a week:

Week 1, Session 1 = 135 lbs x 4 x 6
Week 1, Session 2 = 95 lbs x 3 x 8

Weekly volume = 5520

Week 2, session 1 = 140 lbs x 4 x 6
Week 2, session 2 = 95 lbs x 4 x 8

Weekly volume = 6400

Week 3, session 1 = 145 lbs x 4 x 6
Week 3, session 2 = 95 lbs x 4 x 9

Weekly volume = 6900

Week 4, session 1 = 150 lbs x 4 x 6
Week 4, session 2 = 95 lbs x 4 x 10

Weekly volume = 7400

Each of these weeks would be progressively tougher, as they’re boosting volume gradually. You’d then deload (take a light week) before running the cycle again, and aiming to increase each week of the new block’s volume with the corresponding week in the previous block, either by upping the weight, sets or reps.

Without going too off tangent, hopefully, that’s given some idea of what volume is, and how you can modulate and manipulate it to get stronger, leaner and ultimately get better results rather than just throwing weight on the bar, or repping until you pass out every session.

Lifting will not make you big and bulky. It will make you strong and confident.

Having established what volume is and why it matters, the next question to ask is:

Can Everyone Do The Same Volume?

Clearly, we’re not going to be able to all do the same volume.

A guy who’s squatting sets of 5 with 500 pounds is going to rack up the volume far quicker than a girl with a 1-rep max of 155.

So instead of talking about equating volume exactly, we’ll look at whether the volume regarding sets and reps at a certain percentage of your maximum needs to be tweaked.

Everyone’s going to be different to a degree, due to genetics, training age, injury status, stress levels, diet and the total amount of weight lifted, but one thing that we can say virtually for certain is that women NEED a higher volume than men.

Here’s why …

Ladies Can Lift More

During a recent interview series for the ‘She Lifts’ program, I interviewed several top coaches in the female training industry – Nick Cheadle, Laurin Conlin, Dr. Kori Propst, Dr. Peter Fitschen, Carly Jennings and Sheila Viers to name just a few.

When asked – are there any ways in which women should train differently to men, nearly all of them had the same answer –

– Most of the program can be the same
– Exercise selection may change slightly, as females tend to want to focus on glutes, shoulders, and thighs, whereas guys typically like their chest, bicep and back training.
– But to progress optimally, get stronger and leaner, women need more volume.

This intrigued me.

I’d always found the same with my female clients –

They just didn’t seem to do as well with a small to moderate volume routine as my male clients did, and I’d often have to add in extra sets or even extra reps at a certain percentage of their max to what I’d give my guys.

To put some numbers on this, a man would be challenged with 3 sets of 5 reps with 80% of his maximum bench press.

He might be able to squeeze out a couple of extra reps on the final set, maybe add a fourth (slightly dodgy) set, or even up that percentage to 82.5, but on the whole, this would work him hard.

The average women though?

Nope.

I’d have to go to 85%, give them at least five sets, up the reps to 6 or 7, or even tell them to do an AMRAP (As Many Reps As Possible) set at the end.

Plus, they recover quicker.

From my time as a one on one trainer (and from what my online girls tell me,) women are eager to get on with their next set, and while our dude from earlier is probably still breathing heavy and glad of the respite two minutes after they’ve racked the bar, a female lifter will be ready to, and will be able to perform just as well with much less rest time.

Anecdotally, coaches all over the world had noticed this.

And between us, we’ve worked with thousands of women.

As good as n=1 research is, it just doesn’t cut it, though, so I wanted to go out there and find the science to back up the claims that women need more lifting volume.

What the Science Says

Studies have shown that women may be able to tolerate more heavy load training than men (1) and improve relative strength to a greater degree on the same routine.

Research also shows that women benefit from greater ranges of motion (and thus, greater stress on the muscle) than men (2,3) indicating once again, that females tend to recover better.

While the data is limited, a couple of studies from The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that there were no significant differences between performing upper body exercises for 3 sets versus 1 set for men in terms of strength and muscle mass (4, 5), however, as-yet unpublished research from Vikmoen et al. at the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences replicated these studies in women, and found that the 3 set group DID gain more strength and muscle size than those only performing 1 set (6 – credit to Menno Henselmans’ article ‘9 Reasons Why Women Should Not Train Like Men’ for this gem.)

Us guys will often be gassed after a heavy triple, and blowing out of our ass as we sweat away, dreading our next four sets. Women though? Not so much.

The Big H

How about them hormones?

Well, a 2001 study by Marx et al. compared a low-volume circuit training program to a high volume resistance routine over the course of 24 weeks. Their result showed that college-aged women had higher testosterone and insulin-like growth factor 1, and lower cortisol come to the end of 24 weeks (7).

Women also have a higher level of estrogen (the female sex hormone), and while this is often thought of as being a negative for building muscle and strength, the opposite is true.

Estrogen can improve your muscle recovery, aids in metabolism and fat loss, and helps strengthen bones, joints, and tendons. (8-10)

If women naturally have higher levels of this anti-catabolic hormone, it again makes sense that by cutting sessions short and reducing volume, they leave potential gains in strength, lean muscle, and even fat loss, on the table.

Why Women Can Do More Reps

Us guys will often be gassed after a heavy triple, and blowing out of our ass as we sweat away, dreading our next four sets.

Women though? Not so much.

Science suggests that men have a larger proportion of Type I fibers (the kind that is responsible for explosive and powerful movements) while women have more Type II, which are used for endurance activities (11).

This means that women will typically be able to get more reps at a certain percentage of their 1-rep max than their male compatriots, and they’ll be able to recover quicker, meaning rest times can be shorter without compromising performance.

Fire Up Volume for Fat Loss

One huge misconception about female fat loss is that hours and hours of cardio are needed. (Or worse – light weights for high reps.)

There’s a time and a place for cardio, and even a time and a place for lifting lighter and ramping up the reps you do, but on the whole, you can lose fat much more efficiently by simply upping the volume on your lifting.

Think about it – strength training burns calories, and also gives you an extra calorie burn after you finish training. (This is known as the EPOC or Excessive Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption effect and refers to the increased calorie burn after you’re done lifting, which can last as long as a couple of days.)

Wouldn’t it make sense, therefore, to simply do more work in the weight room?

You’ll get all the positive adaptations of increased strength and confidence, a higher resistance to injury, as well as shaping your body into a sleek, athletic figure, AND added calorie burn.

So next time you’re about to head to the treadmill to ignite your fat loss – why not stick round the squat rack and get a few more sets in instead?

So It’s Super-Long Workouts for Women Then?

Not at all.

Remember that while you may need to do more total sets and reps than a guy training for the same goals, your rest periods should be slightly shorter, so session time won’t necessarily be any longer.

If you choose to follow a generic routine or one designed specifically for guys, plucked from the pages of Men’s Health or Muscle & Fitness, I’m not saying you won’t get results with it. You probably will get stronger, find that you lose fat, and see some improvements.

But you won’t be getting the best results, and certainly, won’t be maximizing your training time.

The science speaks volumes, and the anecdotal evidence is there to show it too – women NEED more volume to progress.

But this is good news – it means you get more time under the bar, and more practice with dumbbells, or your bodyweight so that you can practice all the key exercises you need to sculpt your ideal body, without worrying that you’re going to get injured or burn out.

This was our aim with ‘She Lifts.’

Jason and I put together the only female-specific strength training program on the market, designed solely for women to build a body they can be proud to call their own, with the perfect amount of volume for the fastest possible progress, both with strength and muscle gains, and fat loss.

This is THE program for women who want to look like they lift.

Get it by clicking here.

About the Author

Mike Samuels is an online coach and personal trainer based in the UK, specializing in fat loss and strength performance. As a competitive powerlifter and former fat boy, Mike knows what it takes to get lean while gaining. For the ultimate female program, completely set up and tailored to your current lifts, check out She Lifts.

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