What the Research Says: Do Women and Men Respond Differently to Training?

See research HERE.

Do men and women respond differently to training? The researchers in the linked study above tried to answer that very question. What they found was rather surprising.

To summarize the research team gathered and analyzed an unnamed total of studies “using robust variance random effects modeling for multilevel data structures, with adjustments for small samples using package robumeta in R. Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05.” Essentially, they cast a wide net, collected a bunch of fish, and threw out the ones they couldn’t take to market. (I didn’t look into how many studies which met their criteria but potentially 50+ different studies.) Between hypertrophy, aka increased muscle size, and upper and lower body strength, there were no differences between men and women except in upper body strength. (Here comes the unexpected) The researchers found women gained more upper body strength than men! Why this is was not part of the study.

So what’s the takeaway? Women and men should train the same if they have the same goals. Their response, in other words, their results, aren’t that much different. If anything, women can expect to gain more relative upper body strength compared to their male counterparts. If the goal is to get stronger, the program can be the same. The way a guy responds to, say, a powerlifting program, is going to be the same way a gal responds to the same program. Of course this is assuming these two individuals are the same in every other regard e.g. previous training volumes and training advancement.