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Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth
2577: Should Women Train & Diet Differently From Men?
00:39:08
Should Women Train and Diet Differently from Men? What makes women physically different than men? (1:19) What are some of the considerations you take when training a female? (4:26) Should Women Train and Diet Differently from Men? Diet. (6:59)...
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- [00:02]
Sal Destefano
Race the rudders.
- [00:03]
Adam Schaefer
Raise the sails. Race the sails.
- [00:05]
Sal Destefano
Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching. Over. Roger, wait.
- [00:10]
Adam Schaefer
Is that an enterprise sales solution?
- [00:13]
Justin Andrews
Reach sales professionals, not professional sailors.
- [00:16]
Sal Destefano
With LinkedIn ads, you can target the.
- [00:18]
Adam Schaefer
Right people by industry, job title and more. We'll even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign. Get started today at LinkedIn.com results, terms and conditions apply. If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump. Mind Pump.
- [00:38]
Justin Andrews
With your hosts, Sal Destefano, Adam Schaefer.
- [00:42]
Adam Schaefer
And Justin Andrews, you just found the most downloaded fitness, health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode should women train and diet differently for men? Does it make a difference to do things different based on your sex? We talk about that in today's episode. By the way, for today's episode, two programs that many women love that we provide. Maps Muscle Mommy and Maps Starter. Muscle Mommy, I think you know why. And then Starter. That's a great program for people or women who are postpartum. Both 50% off because of this episode. Go to mapsfitnessproducts.com, use the code female50 for that discount. This episode is brought to you by a sponsor, PRX Performance. They make the best at home gym equipment you'll find anywhere. Their squat racks, for example, fold into the wall. You pull them out, they're super stable. I've loaded mine with over 600 pounds. It's extremely, extremely stable. They have great home gym equipment. It's the best. It's as good as the stuff you see in the gym. You can get 5% off if you go through our link. Go to prxperformance.com mindpump all right, here comes the show. One of the top questions we often get asked here at Mind Pump is should women train and eat differently than men? That's what we're going to be exploring in today's episode. Ladies, should you do things differently when it comes to fitness than guys? Let's get into it. This question is a good one and I get where it comes from because of course it's a bit nuanced. Well, our bodies are different.
- [02:14]
Sal Destefano
Yeah.
- [02:15]
Adam Schaefer
There are differences between. Yes. So just our shape alone is different. So I have a 15 year old daughter that plays soccer and she's doing lacrosse. And the data on ACL tears with female athletes shows a distinct difference between female athletes and male athletes. I think if I'm not mistaken, hips are wider.
- [02:36]
Unknown
Yeah. So it causes that discrepancy there.
- [02:38]
Adam Schaefer
Yeah. There's a, I don't remember how much more likely they are to potentially tear an acl, but it's significantly higher, I want to say seven times higher, if I'm not mistaken. And it's exactly that. There's a, a difference in hip to waist ratio and shoulder ratio. So that does mean your body's built a little different. So that does, I guess, lend itself to the, the question, like, should we.
- [03:03]
Unknown
Like, train differently, adjust for this?
- [03:05]
Adam Schaefer
Yeah, that's right. Then there's fat distribution. What is this? Oh, two to eight times more likely. Okay, so it's up there. Fat distribution is different in men and women. Women tend to store it more in the hips, thighs, lower body. Men will store it more in the midsection. Men tend to also have more visceral body fat than women do. So there's a difference there. So that also would want you, you know, kind of pose the question, maybe we should do things a little different when it comes to health and fitness. And then I think the biggest difference between men and women, or at least the biggest difference we can measure distinctly, is hormone profile. Hormone profile is quite different. Now we have the same hormones. So there's this myth that estrogen is a female hormone, testosterone is a male hormone. But estrogen and testosterone and all the hormones are all human hormones. In other words, men and women have the same hormones in our bodies. The difference is the ratios or the amounts of each one. And of course, another difference is a man's hormone levels are relatively stable all the time, whereas a woman's hormone profile cycles through a 30 day or 28 to 30 day cycle. So that's a pretty big difference. And now hormones, of course, are drivers in the body and they do tell the body what, where to store body fat, how much of body fat to store, build the muscle that can influence our, our mood and our cognitive function. But nonetheless, low estrogen in a man causes the same symptoms as low estrogen in a female. Low testosterone in a man, low testosterone female. Yeah, like we all need all balancing.
- [04:52]
Unknown
Them out pretty much is the same process.
- [04:54]
Adam Schaefer
Yes, yes, we all need all of those things. But yeah, this question I used to get, this is probably a top five or ten question that I would get as a trainer. Do you guys experience that as well? Yeah.
- [05:04]
Unknown
And I mean, generally speaking, it's going to look very similar in terms of the training, but like, you can get into the nuance of it. And like you mentioned athletes, you mentioned, you know, certain physiological differences that, you know, if you could, you know, adjust some things, we we could, you know, change the, the programming a little bit, but for the overall generalization of like, you know, know what's going to work best, like the, the two different plans are going to be very similar.
- [05:33]
Sal Destefano
Used to get asked this all the time. It was probably one of the most common questions, taking on a client. And I think a better way to frame it would be like, or the better way to ask this question would be not that, you know, should we train differently, but what are some of the considerations that you take in when training a female? I think that's more appropriate because, because that you can take that, replace woman with somebody who has one leg, somebody who's a child, and then I would still have all these similar things I would consider. And so this idea of like, it's this black and white of like, men should train this way, women should train this way, is false and not true. But there are specific considerations that I'm thinking about or making or asking when going through diet, exercise, all these things, because we do have different.
- [06:23]
Adam Schaefer
I'm glad you said that because what the, the fitness industry has done. One of the disservices is it's done is it's made it appear to be a very black and white or huge difference. This is strength training for women. This is cardio for men. This is diet for women.
- [06:40]
Unknown
Diet for women. Yeah.
- [06:41]
Adam Schaefer
And, and that's just to be clear and frank, you guys, it's just effective marketing. Like, if I sold a multivitamin and let's say I sold 10,000 units, it's pretty reliable that if I made that multivitamin, say for women and for men, I'd probably sell 5 to 10% more. It's pretty reliable just in the supplement space. So the, the, anybody that sells anything knows that when it seems to be more directed at you. And a great way to do this is to say for women, for men, you're just going to sell more. So we, we are far more similar than we are different. And now we're going to go through the nuances, though, and kind of break them down and at the end talk about, you know, what considerations would, you know, we would modify training and diet around in regards to men and women. First off, let's go with diet. So is there a difference with diet? Now, here's what I noticed now, okay, now this is true for men and women. You want to lose weight, you got to take in less calories than you burn. Can't get around that. That's a very oversimplified way of looking at Fat loss. But what I just said is also true. And if you want to gain weight, you have to eat more than you burn. But one thing that I did notice over the years, and this became apparent after I trained lots and lots and lots of people, was that women's bodies are, were generally more sensitive to calorie restriction. Okay. In other words, they would hit a wall sooner or faster or we would notice whole hormone imbalances.
- [08:10]
Unknown
Right.
- [08:11]
Adam Schaefer
That were a little bit more pronounced in women, generally speaking. And I say general because there's lots of individual variants here when it comes to calorie restriction. In, in, in this used to show up as a woman losing her period. And, and that I, you know, the, the, the theory around this is that, you know, a woman's body needs to, from an evolutionary standpoint, support life. And so her body's just more sensitive to calorie restriction. And one thing that it'll do is an adaptation. By the way, this is very common with female athletes. Female athletes will lose their period often because their food intake isn't high enough to meet the demands or they're overtraining or whatever is. You'll see this. They tend to be more sensitive to this, to the negative, potential negatives of calorie restriction.
- [08:53]
Sal Destefano
Well, the law of thermodynamics still applies the exact same to both men and women. A consideration that I am thinking about when I'm training a female client is a large percentage, if not all clients that I started training that were female, almost all, if not all, were under eat, grossly under eating protein. They also many times were under eating healthy fats. And so when I'm taking on a client like that, I'm taking that in as a consideration. And the number is so high that almost always the first thing that I need to do is remove reverse diet, increase protein, and increase healthy fats. And if the goal is to lose body fat, and there are cases where maybe somebody comes in, and if there is a case of a client that eats an excess of calories and hits protein, it's normally my men, my men are more likely to eat enough protein or more likely to eat a plentiful amount of calories. So the way I approach or the considerations that I go when writing a diet or doing that for a client is a little bit different, although the same laws still apply. There's considerations that I'm taking, taking in when I'm getting ready to train clients, and that's just through years and years and years of training hundreds of women. I have found that it's very common that they under, they were under eating and they had slowed their metabolism down so much they weren't getting enough, enough protein and many times were not getting enough healthy fat.
- [10:17]
Adam Schaefer
That's a good point. And I think that's because societally speaking, women are more likely to be trying to just get skinny. Yeah. Whereas sometimes men are trying to build year round. Yes. So they're coming to you. I think physiologically they're also more sensitive to calorie restriction, just from the point that I made. But I also think they probably have a longer history of excessive dieting.
- [10:39]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [10:39]
Adam Schaefer
And so what you would see with female clients was just you had to be more careful with calorie restriction because you would start to see some of the negatives pop up a little sooner or be a little bit more pronounced. This, by the way, would show up with fasting as well. So when fasting became all the rage, which this is, you know, fasting has been around for thousands of years for different reasons, but when it became the rage for, for weight loss, I had never seen this with male clients, but I saw with female clients who would, who would do this where they'd have these long periods without food, you know, day after day after day where they're like, oh, I don't start eating till 4 or whatever is. They'd start to get these weird, like overstress symptoms. Even if their calories seemed adequate, like hair would thin, they start losing hair, they start to get.
- [11:20]
Unknown
Skin was affected.
- [11:21]
Adam Schaefer
Yes. You know, symptoms of what we used to call back then adrenal fatigue. It's now labeled different, you know, HPA axis dysfunction. So I would just notice that. I never noticed that necessarily with men. Not saying it can't happen, but with women, they tend to be more sensitive to fasting. They also can tend to be more sensitive to carb restriction. And the way this would show up, and you'll hear this from functional medicine practitioners, is thyroid issues that can occur. And this can happen with men as well. But women in general tend to have more thyroid dysfunction type situations, both autoimmune. So you see Hashimoto's is more common with women than men, but also just from carb restriction. So I think in general, when it comes to diet, women tend to be more sensitive to the extremes with diet than, than men tend to be. And again, this is a general statement. There's a, there's a big individual variance, but just something to consider.
- [12:17]
Unknown
And I think a lot of times it's, I guess it's not stated Enough that like, like in the twenties and a little higher in that range in terms of body fat's a much healthier place to be for women. And it's not the same for men.
- [12:29]
Adam Schaefer
You're right.
- [12:30]
Unknown
You know, and so to compare, and I know that that's hard a lot of times, like my husband, he just barely just, you know, stopped eating, you know, lowered his calories, like, you know, just a little bit. He's already like, lean and he's losing weight. And, you know, it's frustrating, but in terms of like your overall body's function and it being optimal, like, that's a, that's a healthy place to be.
- [12:52]
Adam Schaefer
Yeah. Both men and women have an essential amount of body fat they need to carry, and women's essential body fat's higher. So a woman walking around at 20% body fat is fit, healthy is lean. The equivalent for a man is somewhere around 14%. Okay, so. So you can see there's a big difference, a 6% difference.
- [13:11]
Unknown
Well, because two athletes, you know, that's where you get into kind of like, because you see, like, they'll have their period. They will have like, signs of like, stress and like hair brittle and, you know, that kind of thing. And it's, you know, they're lean and they're muscular and they look great and healthy. But again, hormones get really affected. Hormones get affected.
- [13:28]
Adam Schaefer
Now when it comes to training, here's what's interesting with training. And there's data to support this. Again, it's a, it's a small difference. This is a major difference. But women seem to do better with more volume in their training, but tend to do worse with high intensity. Okay, so let's explain the difference between that, between volume and intensity. Volume is the overall workload, sets and reps and time in the gym and how often I'm working out. Intensity is how hard you work out. And what I would see with my clients was with men, they would get away with higher intensity, women would get away with more volume than men. And so, and by the way, there's data that, that suggests that this is the case, that this generous case, that women can handle a little bit more volume, but they can't handle the same intensity and vice versa. You can come up with your own, you know, reasons as to why. We don't know. But it does seem to be the case where, you know, a, a, a protocol, for example, of like a one set to failure and beyond per body part type routine, you know, heavy duty, you know, Mike Mentzer style workout. Women don't seem to respond nearly as well to that. They tend to respond more to the more traditional volume approach. Whereas some men really respond well to the high intensity low volume approach.
- [14:46]
Sal Destefano
Again, here's an example of where the science in building muscle and burning body fat when it comes to exercise selection, sets, reps, tempo, timing, all those things are the same for a man, it is the same for women. Here are some considerations that I, I take when I'm training a female. Most of the female clients that I trained avoided really lifting heavy weight, five or lower reps and they tend to lean towards the higher volume, lots of repetitions, the same weight, the same exercises. And so I know that training that, that client, that if I train them this way that they've already been training all their life, I'm going to see little to no change. Whereas if I could convince that female client to move over to low reps heavy weight, it's such, such a novel stimulus for them, I'm going to radically change their body.
- [15:41]
Adam Schaefer
And that trumps everything I just said with the data.
- [15:43]
Sal Destefano
That's right. And so here's a situation where, and that, that's that science still applies for men, but it's not, it's a different consideration. Men tend to lift really, really heavy weight because they want to build and big and have big muscles. And so the novel stimulus direction I take them is over in the higher rep range. And so here's an example of where the science is the same to build muscle or burn body fat for both male and female. So all this same rule roll rules apply with sets, reps, tempo, all those things. But a consideration that I'm going to take in when I'm training. Also my, my female clients, they always tend to lean more on the safer and controlled side and not want to take risks. Therefore they avoid failure training. It's not, they don't ever, they, they would, they would be always two reps short of failure. And so taking my client to failure or putting weight on there that maybe she thought she couldn't do is that's the same science for men, but that guess what, the, the men have no problem putting on weight. They probably shouldn't even move and trying to attempt it. And so another example of how I'm going to as a trainer approach training these two sexes differently, although the science still applies the same when it comes to building muscle and burning body fat.
- [16:53]
Adam Schaefer
Yeah. And now next and I think this is the biggest difference between men and women is just the aesthetic preferences. This is where the big difference lies. Right.
- [17:00]
Sal Destefano
That's right.
- [17:01]
Adam Schaefer
Strength training in particular is this wonderful form of exercise. For many reasons, but wonderful. One of the reasons why it's so great is it's the most targeted form of body sculpting, form of exercise you'll find, period, end of story. There's no form of exercise like strength training where you can look at your body and try to change the shape of it based on how you train. Like every other form of exercise has their cycling looks the same for everybody, running looks the same, swimming looks the same, you know, but when it comes to strength training, there's exercises for shoulders and back and biceps and triceps and obliques and abs and hamstrings and glutes and calves and quads. And I can shape and sculpt my body like a sculptor. And so this is where there's a big difference between men and women. It's what aesthetics they're looking for. Now if I were to say to you guys right now, what day do men typically skip and what day do women typically skip? Different answers. Guys like to skip leg day, women like to skip, skip arm day or whatever, right? So this is the biggest consideration is in training is women tend to, you know, the body parts that, that women develop that tend to lend it, lend themselves well to the aesthetic that most women are looking for tend to be like delts back in the posterior chain. So nice looking delts gives them the arms that they're looking for. It's actually not the arms that they're looking for, it's the delts that they're looking for. When they say they want nice arms, the back adds this nice posture to the, to the, to the woman. And then the posterior chain, the glutes and hamstrings, which tends to give women the kind of legs that they're looking for. Those are the, the considerations. And with men, men like delts too, but they also like chest. And then, you know, they like biceps and triceps. You know, they look at quads a little bit more. So that I think was, is probably the biggest difference between the two.
- [18:51]
Sal Destefano
I, I so agree with you. But again, the science is the same. If the, if I had a male client, a female client come to me and say they, and they described this exact. They both described the same physique that they wanted to go get, I would approach the same, same training. But the reality is I have never had a guy hire me and go, Adam, I want to build my glutes and make them bigger and tone my arms. That has never been Said by any man that has ever hired me for training. So because they have different glasses, goals that they are trying to achieve, this is where the programming does start to look a little bit different. Science still is applied the same way. You do these exercises, these reps, these way. This is how you build muscle, this is how you burn fat. That doesn't change for the sex. But what does change for me, for the differences in the sexes. They tend to have different goals, they tend to want to look differently. So then my approach to what exercise selection that we do, what area, what muscle groups do we focus on more? Where do we put more emphasis than other areas? That's why all of a sudden the programming might start to look a little bit different.
- [19:54]
Adam Schaefer
Dr. And to give you an example, so, you know, we have a program called Muscle Mommy. And in that program, when you're doing a workout where you're hitting, let's say your chest, shoulders and triceps or your upper body, typically in workout programming, every trainer knows this, you tend to do chest before shoulders. Okay? So if you were to do a bench press and a shoulder press in a workout, typically it's the bench press first, shoulder press second. Now if you are a woman who wants to prioritize her delts over her chest, then most women could care less about developing their pecs. They should train their chest because it's a muscle. But I've never had a woman come to say I want bigger pecs. Their workout would look different. Their workout would start with an overhead press and then the bench press will be later in the workout. Right. Posterior chain is a good example. We might do more hip hinging movements and exercises like hip thrusts over exercises like leg extensions. Okay, so, so that's a good example of how your programming would look different to prioritize and add more volume and then priority in terms of exercise selection to the areas you want to develop over the others. What this isn't saying is that you should only train the body parts you want to develop and ignore the other ones because that is just side note, that is a road towards injury and poor aesthetics. So, like, if you just trained the body parts you wanted and avoided the others, you would cause problems and you wouldn't look very good. Next up, supplements. Now, supplements, nutrient demands, very similar, but there are two nutrients in particular that women need to take more than men. Typically when you look at nutrient demands, what they tend to look like?
- [21:28]
Sal Destefano
Iron. What's the other one?
- [21:29]
Adam Schaefer
Yeah, iron and folate. Oh, yeah. When you look at nutrient requirements, they tend to Be higher in men. Not mainly because men are bigger and heavier and we eat more food. So this much vitamin C for a man versus this much, it's a little bit more. Right? This much calcium, this much whatever. But one nutrient women typically need a lot more than men, and that's iron. Why? Because they, they lose blood every month during their menstrual cycle. In fact, there is evidence that shows that men are, are healthier if they donate blood once a year because they could build up iron in their bodies, whereas women don't get that at all. So foods and supplements containing iron tend to be more important, not necessarily necessary, but just more important for women than they are for men. And then folate, because folate's a very important nutrient, especially during pregnancy, which of course men don't get pregnant.
- [22:22]
Sal Destefano
And again, this is just another example of considerations. Yogurt, because we women need more iron, folate. And then I'd also make the argument because women tend to undereat protein the most. I'm considering protein as a, as a supplement I'm going to add into the routine, into their diet also. But again, it's a consideration. There still is, I'm still looking at the individual on what are they most likely to not be intaking, not have. Okay, those are the things that I'm going to supplement for. And so this is just another example of. But how we market. I mean, we've marketed to women that they need this food or they need these nutrients when it's like our bodies need the same nutrients. A couple examples of what you might need a little more of. But for the most part they, they're all. What's essential is essential. What's essential for men is essential for women. And. But there are considerations of what does each sex tend to get less of. Therefore that's where I'm going to go ask questions about in case we need to supplement.
- [23:16]
Adam Schaefer
Yes. Now, now let's get to special considerations or things kind of outside of what we just talked about. Detoxification tends to be more important for women. They tend to accumulate more, for lack of a better term. I hate using this term because it's totally bastardized, but toxins. So things in the system like molds or some of these forever chemicals. There's a few reasons for this. One of them is, and we didn't say this in the diet section, but women, if they have digestive issues, they tend to veer towards constipation, whereas men are more likely to have loose stool. Now, constipation means you are Going to be storing and getting rid of these things less if you're more constipated, if you go to the bath, if you have a bowel movement once every two or three days, which is relatively common, much more common in women than men, you're more likely to store up certain toxins you need to get rid of, because that's one of the main ways you get rid of these things. The other reason, and this is the main reason, this is the big reason, women tend to be more exposed more to a lot of these chemicals that build up in the system because they use more makeups and products that contain these things. And so detoxification is a more important consideration for women. So what does this look like? This looks like supporting your liver with liver health, like glutathione supplements. This looks like using a sauna. This looks like being very consistent with water intake and fiber. Fiber, of course, helping with the bowel movements, but also fiber is a great way to get rid of some of these chemicals. And so when you look at tests of buildup of certain things, and you ask functional medicine practitioners, it's a little bit more common in women to have certain high levels of certain things. But again, the main reason is just they're exposed to more of these chemicals because of the products that they.
- [25:04]
Sal Destefano
So if that's true, Sal, is there. Do we have much research on comparing, like, gut health and stuff when comparing men and women, or is it. Oh, so tell me.
- [25:13]
Adam Schaefer
Yeah, so women tend to have more gut issues, but constipation being the big one. And sibo tends to be a little more common in women because of that.
- [25:20]
Unknown
I've definitely heard Hashimoto's and then thyroid.
- [25:23]
Adam Schaefer
Oh, yeah, the autoimmune stuff. Yeah. Because men and women have different.
- [25:26]
Sal Destefano
So it is higher in women. I didn't. I wasn't aware of that.
- [25:28]
Adam Schaefer
Yeah, yeah. But a lot of it also has to do with just that they're just. When you're using makeups and products, you know, hair products, exposure. There's lots of these chemicals in. In these products that, you know, your skin is the largest organ in the. So if you're putting that on your body all the time, you're going to build up more of it. Now, lastly, this is the most important part. Adam's been saying it the whole episode. None of that matters. Individual variants trumps everything. So when I took a client in, my consideration was always the individual. I never looked at them. I'm like, woman, we're going to do this, man, we're Going to do this. It was always like, how you been working out? What does your day look like now? What are your goals? Let me watch you move. And, and it was about those individual considerations. It was about the individual. So what that means is you listen to this episode and some of this doesn't feel right for you. It's not right for you. You gotta listen to your body and consider yourself an individual. Because the variance. And again, we're so much more common, so much more like them. We're different, but within that is this wide variety of individuals based off of experience and lifestyle and goals and potential, you know, prior injuries, et cetera, et cetera.
- [26:38]
Sal Destefano
Well, this is so important because all for, for all the things that are marketed to just women or just men, there's a case where I can make that, oh, well, my female clients should do what you're saying. This is just for men. And my male client should be doing what you just said for. Just because the individual, because of the individual variants. If a woman did come in and tell me, adam, I don't want any ass work at all. I want jacked arms. And I already eat like 8,000 calories a day. Help me get there. Like our approach is going to look way different than, than the average thing. That and so, and it might look like a lot of the advice that you give to men. And so that is what matters most is, is finding out all those things. There's small thing. I think the most important of all the things that you had listed was, was the, the preference.
- [27:29]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [27:30]
Adam Schaefer
The aesthetic difference.
- [27:31]
Sal Destefano
When you think about.
- [27:32]
Adam Schaefer
That's the biggest.
- [27:32]
Sal Destefano
Yeah. When you think about the, the, the, the greatest gap between men and women when it comes to training, it's really with the desire, how they want to look. How they want to look.
- [27:40]
Adam Schaefer
Totally.
- [27:40]
Sal Destefano
It's mostly.
- [27:41]
Adam Schaefer
That's pretty consistent.
- [27:42]
Sal Destefano
That's very consistent.
- [27:42]
Adam Schaefer
Yeah. I, I, I've never had a woman come up to me.
- [27:44]
Sal Destefano
Yes, I know I said that kind of tongue in cheek, but I'm serious.
- [27:47]
Adam Schaefer
Have you guys ever had a female. I want jacked arms.
- [27:49]
Sal Destefano
No, that just doesn't it. So I don't want any neck. Because, because they have said that and that's what they, they, that's the preference. Then there are some variant. There's some things that we take into consideration. And because the percentage of women that are asking for these same things, you can get away with saying, oh, well.
- [28:08]
Unknown
At the end of the day, like we're assessing, we're like playing detectives in the very beginning. We're trying to consider all the variables. Right. And so like being the different sexes, there's different challenges and different considerations to be made. But you know, there's a lot of other factors in there that we're looking through about past history. You know, where there's like dysfunction, where there's imbalances, like, you know, where there's the things in the diet that we could tweak and adjust. And it's like every person has like this whole host, this whole laundry list of variables that we got to get through. So this is pretty insignificant.
- [28:41]
Sal Destefano
Now why this conversation though is so important is because many times the stuff that's marketed to them is, is the opposite of what's for them is not good. For example, and this is, I find this super patronizing, right? Like the fact that women have been told like, this is how you build this body. And it's all these exercises, high repetitions.
- [29:03]
Adam Schaefer
Not, not effective exercises, not effective at all.
- [29:04]
Sal Destefano
Like it's like the worst advice for them. So not only is the, this is for women, this is for men is a, a dangerous route. Not dangerous, but it's not a, a ideal rabbit hole to go down for most people. But then many times the direction that this, you know, so called programming is for just women is actually like the worst thing or not ideal at all. And there's way better things.
- [29:25]
Adam Schaefer
No, the big difference again between men and women is the workout programming based on the fact that women tend to want to look different than men do, but they're using the same exercises. The exercises that build the best butt and the best delts and the best back are the same.
- [29:40]
Unknown
We're just going to shift them around.
- [29:42]
Adam Schaefer
Yeah, you're just going to shift the priority. You're going to put more volume in one area than another. And that's pretty much it. And that, that does make a difference. That's not nothing that does make a difference, but that's pretty much it.
- [29:52]
Unknown
Yep.
- [29:53]
Justin Andrews
We have some questions. The first one is should I train differently based on my cycle?
- [29:57]
Adam Schaefer
No, this is, this is another brilliant way to market women. Yeah, they're like, you know, when you're ovulating, you have more of this hormone, less of that hormone, more dopamine. This is when you should train hardest. And then progesterone is high here and then estrogen is high here and it's low here. That's when you take a break and whatever. They actually just did a study. They did a study and they, they took two groups of women, they trained them differently. One group trained the same the whole time through. The other group trained based on their cycle. Guess what the difference was in muscle building and performance?
- [30:28]
Sal Destefano
Nothing.
- [30:29]
Adam Schaefer
Zero.
- [30:29]
Sal Destefano
Nothing.
- [30:30]
Adam Schaefer
Zero. Zero, Zero. There's no difference. I never trained a female client based on her cycle. I always trained a female client based on how she felt.
- [30:37]
Unknown
How she feeling that day.
- [30:38]
Adam Schaefer
I don't care about your cycle. I care about how you feel. How do I know when we should go easy? Today, because you're tired. You don't feel like you have enough strength. Yeah. You're stressed. How do I know? We should go hard, man, you feel good. Your diet was good. You had good rest. Like, let's go for it. I don't care if you're on your period, off your period, ovulating, whatever. That doesn't matter. It's based off of how you feel. By the way, if you're a woman, you know this. You might generally feel a certain way during a certain time of your cycle, but it can also be very different.
- [31:05]
Sal Destefano
It is very different.
- [31:06]
Unknown
Affect them all differently.
- [31:07]
Sal Destefano
This is, this is. If you've trained enough people, you already know this, like, because you find this out, like you, you train enough women and I can. Every day of the cycle I've heard a different woman tell me she feels amazing.
- [31:18]
Adam Schaefer
Yeah.
- [31:19]
Sal Destefano
So it's like, that's what matters more than else. So I'm not. There's no way I would follow some generic program that says, oh, when she's on this day of her cycle, scale back on this. When she's on this day, increase that. Oh, cut back on. It's like, because that's just marketing. I can give you an example of a female client that has felt the opposite of what that says you should feel on, on said day. And so the most important consideration to make is how that client currently feels. Because another thing, even if your point with the hormones at optimal levels for building muscle on this part of the cycle, if she got terrible sleep the night before or a fight with her husband the night before, that trumps all that.
- [31:55]
Adam Schaefer
Yeah.
- [31:55]
Sal Destefano
Like she's going to be like, I don't care if it's the best day of the entire month for her to build the most amount of muscle based off of hormone profile and energy and dopamine and all the things you're talking about, all that goes out the window. If she had this big, huge fight and terrible sleep the night before and didn't eat enough protein and is behind on nutrients, like that goes. Those things all play a much bigger role. And again, I would have to pivot as A trainer. So these gimmicky programs that target women for effective marketing. It is effective marketing.
- [32:25]
Justin Andrews
Should I take more calcium for osteoporosis risk?
- [32:27]
Adam Schaefer
This is hilarious. So you need calcium, you need magnesium, you need vitamin D, vitamin K, probably. If you're taking vitamin D. All important for bone development. But, but it's if. Unless you're lacking them. In other words, if you have a calcium deficiency, you should take calcium. But if you're not lacking them, then taking more of them isn't going to build more bone. You need to give your body a reason to build stronger bones. And that's to strength train. That's no different than building more muscle. Like if I don't strength train, I'm not going to build more muscle. Okay. If I'm not going to strength train, I'm not going to. Or have weight bearing exercise, I'm not going to have stronger bones. By the way, this message of calcium for osteoporosis was hammered into women through the 80s and 90s, resulting in lots of problems. Calcium deposits in women's arteries and higher heart attack risk. Because they were taking so much calcium in supplement form, the calcium had nowhere to go, ended up causing problems in their arteries. So no, no, no, unless you have a calcium deficiency, then taking calcium is going to do nothing for bone strength. There is nothing that compares to strength training for strengthening your bones. It's so effective at building bone that if you put it in, compared it to all the other things, including medications that women will take for osteoporosis. Everything's way over here and then over here in a different universe, a strength.
- [33:48]
Unknown
Train, it forces the language of the cells.
- [33:50]
Adam Schaefer
Yes.
- [33:51]
Unknown
And so, yeah, that's the only way it receives that information to grow. Right. So you're growing your muscles, you're growing your ligaments, you're growing your tissue, you're growing your bones all together. So resistance training overall, I mean, if.
- [34:03]
Sal Destefano
A female client, or a male client for that matter asked me this question, I would respond the same way, which is we should get your blood work done and see if you're deficient in anything. And that's what you should supplement for. So. And they make, I mean, we're at a place now where they make at home tests that are super easy for people to get their blood panels done and find out where you're currently at. And that goes for everybody. Everybody should do that because we've always talked about this, even though we talk a lot of shit about supplements as far as like how much value they are to the average person, when it comes to things that you're deficient in, supplementing for, that can be massive for people. And so it's worth the investment to get your blood work done, get a test, see if you're deficient in anything, and then take what it says according to that, that will pay you back.
- [34:45]
Justin Andrews
What is the best way to exercise while pregnant?
- [34:48]
Adam Schaefer
I love this question. So the best approach to exercise while you're pregnant should be taken like this. If you're going to start a workout program, the best time to start is before you get pregnant. Strength training is very protective during pregnancy because the odds are at some point during your pregnancy, typically the first trimester and maybe the last month of pregnancy, you're not gonna wanna exercise, you're not gonna feel good, it's not gonna feel great to go to the gym. And if you do, you're just kind of moving, you're not doing, doing much. Strength training builds muscle and that muscle tends to stick around and is very protective during those periods of time. So strength train leading into pregnancy. What I used to tell my pregnant clients was like, I, we're not trying to become more fit or Chase PRs. Now what we're trying to do is muscle preservation, stay healthy. We're just trying to stay healthy and listen to your body. So for some of my female clients, large percentage, that first trimester was not very much workouts. You know, I had lots of. My wife was like this like first trimester was like, she was so nauseous.
- [35:52]
Unknown
Especially for like the morning sickness.
- [35:53]
Adam Schaefer
Oh yeah, we're not working out for five, six weeks. But you know, that strength training she did leading into it was very protective. But you want to listen to your body. You could do all the same exercises, minus certain core exercises towards the last trimester. Split stance exercises you need to avoid once your belly gets in the way. Yeah, lying on your belly, lying flat on your back can be an issue because it's hard to get into that, you know, position. It can place pressure on the baby, especially towards the last month of pregnancy. But really it's just, you're not trying to become anything fitness wise during your pregnancy. You're just trying to maintain movement and stay healthy. But if you do it right before, kind of keep it going again, don't chase anything while you're pregnant. The recovery is remarkable. I mean the difference in my female clients who went into pregnancy relatively fit, maintained some exercise during and then the difference between them and other clients that I had who maybe hired me while they were pregnant it's like. It was just crazy. It's just crazy.
- [36:58]
Sal Destefano
I mean, when Katrina got pregnant, we had. She'd already been contrary consistently. So she continued on with her normal Maps program that she was already on before we got pregnant, all the way through pregnancy. She was actually up until like the last week before having Max. And then afterwards was. That was when the consideration came and she had to. I think it's like six weeks, if I recall, is what the doctor will tell them. No, no exercise. And then I eased her in with Starter. So Map Starter is like, perfect for somebody like that.
- [37:24]
Adam Schaefer
That's got to be our best postpartum program.
- [37:26]
Sal Destefano
Yeah, it's. And I tell you, the hardest thing for her was mentally doing that, what she would consider easy work when she had just came off. I can't remember what Maps program she was running during pregnancy right now, but whatever it was, it was. Is more volume, more challenging than Starter. And I was like, listen, you haven't done anything for the last six weeks. You just had a baby. Like, you don't need any more than this. Just follow the program and go into it. And she did. She progressed nicely. Again, the hardest part was telling her to mentally calm down. You don't do anymore. And then from Starter, after that, she was rolling again.
- [37:57]
Adam Schaefer
Yeah. Now, because of this episode, Maps Muscle Mommy, which is a great program program for women based off of what they want to look like, and Maps Starter, which Adam just mentioned. This is a great program postpartum, as long as you get cleared for exercise, a great postpartum workout program. Both of Those programs are 50% off because of this episode. So if you're interested, you go to mapsfitnessproducts.com, use the code FEMALE50. That'll give you 50% off either or both of those programs. You can also find us on Instagram. Justin is mindpumpjustin. I'm mindpump Distephano, and Adam's at Mind Pump.
- [38:30]
Justin Andrews
Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB super bundle@mindpumpmedia.com the RGB Super Bundle includes Maps and a ball, Maps Performance and Maps Aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs with detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos. The RGB super bundle is like having Sal, Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30 day money back guarantee and you can get it now. Plus other valuable free resources@mindpumpmedia.com if you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five star rating and review on itunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support and until next time, this is Mind Pump.
- [39:38]
Adam Schaefer
A lot of products say they're clean.
- [39:40]
Sal Destefano
But what does that mean?
- [39:42]
Adam Schaefer
Ritual has high standards for what clean means, like their Essential Prenatal Multivitamin which is heavy metal tested, clean label project certified and GMO free. It features key mom to baby nutrients like folate, choline and omega 3. Clean isn't clean enough, especially during pregnancy. Get 25% off@ritual.com prenatal these statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.