Why men make such a fuss in the gym and women shouldn't rest so much

The idea that men and women should be treated the same in every respect is baffling. Even though there are many justifiable examples such as pay and job opportunities where there is no good reason one should discriminate, there are times where I would treat a women differently to a man. 

If a woman asked to borrow my coat because she felt cold, then I would oblige. On the other hand if a man asked the same question I wouldn't be so sympathetic. I guess I'm just sexist.



Men and women are different, and one of the places where this is important is in the gym. 

There are no gender specific exercises, we all have the same muscles which move in the same way. The important point is that the way in which you train should depend on your gender. 

Men have more powerful muscles per unit of volume than women and their maximum intensity of exercise is higher. Women's muscles are more tuned to endurance and are more fatigue resistant meaning they recover more quickly from exercise. This is due to muscle composition, where women have more of the less powerful aerobic fibers and men have more of the more powerful anaerobic fibers.

So men can move more weight but can't handle it for as long. 

Notice people doing high intensity training, or finishers at the end of their session. Women never move as fast as men but very rarely fall over crying at the end like we do.

Also if women lift relatively lighter weights than men, they won't produce the same level of metabolic response from the same number of reps.This means that if the main goal is fat loss then more reps and sets, and shorter breaks are required to train at the required intensity. 




Sorry ladies. 

This does not mean that women can't put the same amount of effort into their training, they just need a different training approach to get the most out of it. 

All of the points discussed above are general points and do not apply to everyone. For example, a well trained female will be more capable than most men at performing high intensity training. Resistance training increases the power of your muscles through changing the fiber ratios. So the physiology of a trained woman will be more power based than an untrained man. 

It's a controversial topic, but one that needs to be addressed to get the most out of your training.