Male And Female Biological Differences | Lecture #67

Ajouté : 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Hey folks, Dr. Mike here for Renaissance Periodization, male and female training differences video lecture number one, male and female biological differences.

[00:00:09]And what we should really be saying is technically it's physiological and anatomical differences. We have psychological differences as I believe the next lecture, and psychology is technically fully encapsulated in biology, so it's more accurate to say physiological and anatomical differences this uh time that we have, and for the next time it'll be psychological differences. That's all biology, but we just to be nice and pedantic.

[00:00:34]We have seven subtopics here. They're not an inclusive list, but it's a very good start. The one thing that didn't make the list as I didn't bother writing it down cuz it's so simple, I'll just tell you about it now, is males and females are of different average height.

[00:00:48]So, females will be short enough in many cases where some pieces of equipment just don't work that well, and you have to pad some of them. You'll have to raise the platform.

[00:00:58]Sometimes there's no realistic amount of modification you can make to equipment for females of sufficiently short stature or males for that matter to make them workable, and you just have to find new equipment. And the other way to say that is free weights are almost infinitely adjustable to a person's body size.

[00:01:16]They're auto scaling. So, free weights are really king when you're looking at someone who's much taller than average as a male sometimes is or much shorter than average as a female sometimes is.

[00:01:25]So, you'll have males that try to do lat pull downs and they can't get the stretch cuz they're clank at the top.

[00:01:30]You'll have that can't get to the lat pull down cuz if they climb up, they can barely grab it, and then they have to ride their own body weight down and try to wiggle their legs in. It's tough. So, the height difference thing is there.

[00:01:41]That's the anatomy part. The rest is physiology.

[00:01:45]The first thing I have to say before getting started on this talk is just give some statistical caveats.

[00:01:51]We're all [clears throat] scientifically minded thinkers here.

[00:01:54]So, a couple things to say on that. All differences that I will discuss from here and in the entire lecture series on males versus females are on average.

[00:02:05]That means we have normal distributions about most of them, normal curves, and they're overlapping a significant amount. You can say, are males taller than females? And statistically the answer is yes. But does that mean you're going to have every male that's taller than every female? Of course not.

[00:02:21]Brittney Griner exists and I exist. I'm like 5'6, she's like 6'10 or some [ __ ] like that. Like that's reality. There are many exceptions to the rule, but the rule is an average rule, and on average it works.

[00:02:33]Because it's an average rule, it's not that good of a rule. Nothing beats auto regulation and conversation.

[00:02:40]Talk to your male and female clients.

[00:02:42]Ask them questions about their typical recovery. Ask them questions about their preference for heavy or light training.

[00:02:48]Watch how they respond to various rep ranges and intensities and volumes and frequencies, and that combination of conversation and auto regulation will actually get you everything you need to know about them. But the reason why we're doing this lecture series at all and why it's in the mandatory part of the curriculum is because taking a better than average guess is better than taking a totally random guess.

[00:03:12]Yes, conversation and auto regulation are things that happens weeks into the plan, but you can make a better guess at face value with a male or a female in the plan if you guess statistically more aligned with their demographic group.

[00:03:25]So, averages for that reason are very good to keep in mind, especially when starting out with new clients. You just don't know about their individual stuff.

[00:03:32]So, you might as well guess a little bit more correct.

[00:03:36]All right.

[00:03:37]So, point number two, start the start the differences, fiber types.

[00:03:41]And actually every measured trait, including fiber types, males tend to have more location on the extremes.

[00:03:47]You'll have some males that are very slow twitch dominant, thus sometimes responding much better sets of 20 to 30 and much worse to sets of five to 10 than you would expect. And females, or sorry, and some males will be very fast twitch dominant, responding incredibly well to sets of five to 10 and very poorly to sets of 25 to 30, let's say.

[00:04:08]But females tend to be clustered more towards the middle. So, the good thing is about females, there's less genetic variance in fiber type, and you won't run into issues of exotic differences as often as with males. So, that's just something quite good to know. And maybe that means if you just start in the middle of a training approach with females, whereas with males you start exploring the the boundaries a little bit more, that could make some sense.

[00:04:34]Next, females have a higher degree of blood perfusion through and around the working muscle while it is working and while it is recovering.

[00:04:44]That means with a given load, with a given percent of the one rep max, females, especially smaller females, can often do way more reps than you would think in a set. You know, you put 80% of the one rep max, typically males will get five to 10 reps with that. Then you got a woman doing 16, 17 reps. You're like, what the hell? Did I misestimate the one rep max? No, maybe you didn't.

[00:05:04]They can just keep cranking cuz they have better endurance in uh repetitive efforts.

[00:05:10]If you do myo rep rest breaks, where you rest you do a set of curls and you rest for five to 10 seconds, you do another set, males will often do a set of 20, a set of 15, a set of seven, a set of seven, and then a set of five, and then they're done.

[00:05:24]You give females five to 10 seconds, they might do a set of 20, a set of 21.

[00:05:30]What? A set of 18, a set of 17, a set of 18, a set of 16, a set of 18, a set of 18, a set of 17, and you're like, huh, this never ends. It never ends. Myo rep breaks for them are so long cuz they're so good at reperfusing the muscle with blood and taking out waste products that they can just keep going. So, myo rep rest breaks can in extend a set indefinitely. So, if you're looking for it to drop close to five, you may never find that. So, just be on the lookout.

[00:05:55]I've made this mistake many times.

[00:05:57]And many times we do training to sequester metabolites, do some myo reps or some drop sets to really get the pump in the muscle, and then maybe do a super set or something like that to keep that pump and really grind it out with a compound movement. Metabolite sequestration is harder to do in females because their blood perfusion is so good, the just metabolites just get pulled out really fast, faster than you can sequester them. So, this kind of training like a drop set can crush a faster twitch oriented male, but a female who has incredible reperfusion, a drop set might just be like a way for her to lift lighter and lighter and easier and easier, and then eventually she's just like, I could do a million of these here.

[00:06:37]Instead, it may benefit you on average, on average, to potentially expose females to slightly heavier than you would expect rep ranges. Sets of five to 10, 10 to 15 may be more beneficial for females because they actually can get to a real low RIR with straight sets, and that is the best kind of stimulus for them. Because if you let them do drop sets or down sets or something, they don't sequester metabolites well, they just recharge fully, and they're like, yep, this is that's 10 all the way down.

[00:07:04]You're like, okay, if it's sets of 10 all the way down, we might as well be doing this [ __ ] heavy rather than sets of 10, and they're just light, and then it's sets of 12, 15, whatever. It's just you'll have to do more work and more reps to get to the same result.

[00:07:15]Number four, muscle size.

[00:07:19]There is a difference there.

[00:07:23]Females on average have much smaller muscles than males.

[00:07:26]And so, the systemic throughput is different. What does that mean?

[00:07:30]Within a set, within a set to get rapid recovery. So, if a woman is doing leg press and she hangs out at the lockout for three seconds, she might have bought herself another eight reps.

[00:07:41]Whereas a male does three seconds, he might have bought himself another two reps, and then he has to rest again or rack the weight.

[00:07:48]You get rapid recovery with females between sets. The four factor rest model, cardio, neuropsychological, the muscle itself is ready, and the synergists are ready.

[00:08:00]That you can hit a four factor rest model for some females in the high bar squat in 30 seconds. I've seen it happen with clients.

[00:08:07]You think, oh my god, dude, it's you should be resting for two minutes. But you end up getting there, and there's I'm not going to get a ton into the implications cuz the rest of this lecture series is going to be implications, but just a quick quick just a quick implication there is like, if you think oh, a female client needs two minutes of rest between squats cuz your male clients do, you may find that she only needs 45 seconds, and you've been pissing away one minute and 15 seconds after every set. But you could just get your women in and out in 30 minutes, or you could have an hour of training where they do double the work and less standing around. You would not have known that, maybe.

[00:08:44]You also get rapid recovery between sessions. Obviously, there are implications for frequency from that, and females might actually be able to recover from more per session volume. 10 sets of quads for male, end of the world. 12 sets of quads for female, okay, she's feeling it, but she'll be recovered in two days. There's something there, potential to alter the program for more growth for females or more growth for males.

[00:09:07]I'm going to be because I am a male, I'm going to be approaching much of this conversation as how does this make females special?

[00:09:14]But remember that if you work mostly with females, whether or not you're male or female, you're going to have to reverse all these. They're not difficult to reverse, it's just the opposite. And think of it the other way. So, when I say females recover faster, but you work mostly with females, and you're like first getting into some male clients, you're going to be like, okay, males recover slower. Cuz you can be used to training females. You bring a male in, and you're like, okay, be at 30 seconds of rest. And after 30 seconds, he's like, >> [gasps] [panting] >> You're like, huh, he's sure doesn't seem recovered. All my ladies recovered in this time. [ __ ] it, go again. He just three reps, and you're like, hmm.

[00:09:44]Something's broken with this one. Yeah, he's male. He's born broken. So, in any case, that's definitely a thing.

[00:09:49]Number five, strength has a different systemic throughput for males and females because females on average not as strong as males.

[00:09:56]The connective tissues are less likely to be injured per any relative intensity.

[00:10:02]You have a male who does 85% of one rep max three days a week in the squat and deadlift and the power clean or something. She weighs it. That's going to beat up their joints. You have a female do the same thing and her joints may be hunky-dory cuz the absolute load is just not that heavy.

[00:10:18]Nervous system fatigue is not as high as you would expect with any given raw stimulus magnitude.

[00:10:23]You have a male do a set of 10 on the deficit deadlift. He like might not be able to walk for 3 minutes and might not be able to speak for another five afterwards.

[00:10:31]A female two minutes later after a set of 10 deficit deadlifts and be like, "Woo, that was tough. What's next?" And you're like, "I didn't plan a next. I thought you were still going to be dead.

[00:10:41]Guess you can go again. What is this?"

[00:10:45]Just be ready for it. That's the thing that happens.

[00:10:47]And on a technical note, females typically have the similar SFRs as males, stimulus to fatigue ratios, but their stimulus side is lower and their fatigue [clears throat] side is lower.

[00:10:57]So, women have a harder time stimulating growth in their muscles for reasons we'll talk about in just a sec. And but also they accumulate less fatigue. So, it's a bit of a self-solving problem.

[00:11:06]There are many, many solutions you can impose.

[00:11:09]Next, number six, upper body versus lower body genetics. Tons of research confirms something that in the lower body females actually have pretty good genetics compared to males as far as growth and strength gains and stuff like that. Initially, they're stronger in the lower body than you would think and they make excellent gains in lower body. But in the upper body, there's something different.

[00:11:28]Upper body for females starts out weaker and doesn't progress as fast, which is why the number one easy way to tell in clothes who is a male and who is a female, on average of course, there's tons of exceptions, is like who's got the big arms and the broad shoulders. Like that's a dude. It turns around and it's a girl and you're like, "Damn, good job, lady. Holy shit."

[00:11:47]But usually it doesn't work like that.

[00:11:49]So, you have to understand that if here's an example of how you can use this and well, of course I have tons of examples later in this lecture series, but you know, if if a man comes to you and he says like I want a bigger chest and bigger shoulders. You're like, "Okay, you got sweet. No problem."

[00:12:03]If a female comes and says, "I'm really struggling with getting upper chest and I just I really just want like pecs, god damn it."

[00:12:10]Yeah, like you're going to have to do your best. You always do your best. I phrased that wrong. You're going to have to pull the tricks out. You're going to have to get into modern periodization in depth. Use variation you're not used to.

[00:12:21]Really chase SFR. Really tighten up on frequency. Really tighten up on their nutrition.

[00:12:25]Everything like that because you're like, "Look, this is a difficult problem. This is like it's like people who have bad calf genetics trying to get big calves." Like don't ask the guy with good calf genetics how he did it. He just walked around or some [ __ ] like that. Thanks, mom. But the person with bad calf genetics, they're going to have to do a lot of optimizing in order to get some kind of traction on there. So, just be ready for that.

[00:12:47]On the good note is a lot of women will say like, "I don't want to train upper body much because I'll just blow up and look like Arnold." Girl, please.

[00:12:55]Women on average have unimpressive upper body genetics. If you manage to look like Arnold for even a split second, don't worry. We'll train you less than it all go away real fast. It's it's just it's the opposite of a realistic concern. You'll see a woman training with a new personal trainer. She's like, "I don't want to get too big in the upper body." You'll see a bodybuilder next to her who overheard it. He's like, "Jesus Christ." And then there's a female bodybuilder next to him that's like, "Lady, you know how long it took me to put on this chest? This upper body gains? It's like years of grinding and eating and I finally am now starting to look like I lift weights up here. My legs have been enormous forever. Shut up." You know, it's just something it's good to know that it's the opposite of that problem.

[00:13:34]Lastly, baseline size and growth rate differences. So, females have a much smaller baseline size than males.

[00:13:44]A female will come to you as an adult weighing 120 lb.

[00:13:49]Most males as adults do not weigh 120 lb. They weigh like 150, 160, et cetera.

[00:13:55]Males carry more more baseline muscle than females do.

[00:14:00]And as research shows, at a relative rate, as a percent of their baseline muscle, women gain a similar percent in the lower body for sure and even for a while in the upper body for a few weeks, for a few months.

[00:14:15]But unfortunately, after a few months, there is highly likely to be a curtailment of those gains back to a lower asymptote, a lower rate such that women can make very impressive gains first relatively, but eventually they hit a ceiling effect much closer than males do.

[00:14:33]Long-term growth rates over years are typically lower in females. You'll hear this is a myth from evidence-based folks even, but they read the short-term studies.

[00:14:43]If they looked into how both drug-free and not drug-free bodybuilding looks, females who are trying to get to be the biggest people possible can't gain the same amount of top end muscle mass even with all of the drugs in the world. It's a sex thing. It's a genetics thing.

[00:15:05]Shaun Clarida is a 212 Mr. Olympia champion.

[00:15:12]He steps on stage at about 170 to 185 lb.

[00:15:17]He is like 5'1 or 4'11 or something like that.

[00:15:22]Teeny tiny, right?

[00:15:24]He started lifting weights. He I think weighed like 115 lb or something like that at his first bodybuilding show and then eventually got up to weighing 180 lb at a bodybuilding show.

[00:15:35]The thing is for females of that height, there are no females I'm aware of that weigh 180 on stage at that height. There are some that are like 6'1 that weigh that much and they're considered [ __ ] huge. And then you say, "Well, well, Shaun is not drug-free." Uh-huh, that's true. Neither are these women, the IFBB pro bodybuilder women. They'll take it all. They're like, "Fuck femininity.

[00:15:58][ __ ] the face." I love it. More kudos.

[00:16:00]More power to you. But these girls are on growth hormone. They're on tons of testosterone. They're on trenbolone.

[00:16:04]They're on everything. And a lot of them just don't give a [ __ ] about femininity, which again, dope. Respect. It's your thing. They still can't get to that same size. So, the idea that males and females just start out at different rates, sorry, they start out at different baselines but grow at different rates, it's true for the first few weeks, first few months. But then it's highly likely that females taper off and males kind of leave them behind.

[00:16:27]Otherwise, we would just see a very different world. And that's very likely to be both androgen dependent. Like one of the reasons that women make better males make better gains in the long term is cuz they make gains in the presence of high degrees of testosterone. Males have like 10 to 100 times more testosterone than than females. Like that matters. It does.

[00:16:48]But it's also androgen independent because if it was only androgen dependent, if you fixed the androgen problem and just gave women steroids, they should be as muscular as males. But most women who take steroids don't get as muscular as males who take steroids.

[00:17:02]Some of them get just about as muscular as males who don't take steroids, which tells us everything we need to know because it tells us, "Okay, women plus a crap load of steroids equals men without steroids." What's the difference there?

[00:17:14]The relative starting points even start to not account for it. The difference is there's a Y chromosome and it's got a lot of stuff that it affects probably the myonuclear number in the cells, something we'll discover males and females have differently in the future. So, why am I saying this?

[00:17:32]Expectation building is a big part of personal training and diet coaching.

[00:17:36]And if you have a female that wants to gain crazy amounts of mass, you got to say, "Look, we're going to try to gain our best."

[00:17:44]And that's what we're going to do. And you can leave out the nuances, but you don't want to promise someone like, "Yeah, you could be as big as your I've actually had females be like, 'I want to be stronger than my boyfriend.'" Like, "Does he lift weights?" Like, "Yeah, he's a competitive powerlifter." Be like, "Okay, maybe.

[00:17:59]But that's a tough challenge. It's going to be pretty hard."

[00:18:03]And at the same time you can flip the script and say, if you have a female come to you and she's like, "Hey, look, I want to work out and lifting weights. I know it's healthy and I know it's going to make me look sexy."

[00:18:12]You're really freaked out about gaining too much muscle mass. And you're going to be like, "Look, good news. You're in the demographic on average that does not have to worry about that." And look, if she has unbelievable muscle genetics, you just train the various parts of the body she doesn't want to get bigger less or not at all. Problem solved. Like nobody just gains muscle in perpetuity by themselves. Although, there's a documentary a while back about a woman who had like in the middle of her life like her myostatin switched off, which is unbelievable. She's like this 50-year-old normal lady with just normal hobbies and never really like lifted weights or did exercise. And she is like stripped bodybuilding physique. She's like 60 and she's at dinner parties and they're like, "What's up with your traps?" And she's like, "I have I have a disease. I'm sick." They're like, "Bitch, you don't look sick." Why? God, why can't I come down with myostatin deficiency in the middle of my life?

[00:18:57]Still praying to God that's true.

[00:18:59]Anyway, next time we'll get really controversial and talk about psychological differences. See you in that lecture.