How to Build Muscle For Women

It may surprise you to hear it, but muscle building for women isn’t much different than it is for men. The principles are the same; only minor adjustments need to be made to suit the female body.

Muscle building for women requires three basic criteria to be satisfied:

Proper resistance training to stimulate growthAppropriate nutrition protocolsAdequate recovery and sleep

Where women struggle most with building muscle mass is in thinking they have to do things differently than their male counterparts. To stimulate growth, challenging resistance must be used. Picking the lightest weights in the gym and doing an endless amount of reps will not do much, if anything, to add muscle to the frame.

Though overall training volume and repetitions per set will be slightly different based on the muscle fiber distribution of women, muscle building for women requires challenging muscle building exercises.

A good muscle building workout plan for women will be made up mostly of compound exercises like squats, presses and pulls. These exercises use the largest muscles in the body and do the most to stimulate growth. Use the following criteria to design a program which includes these strength training exercises:

Train each muscle group 1-2 times per weekChoose 2-3 exercise per each muscle groupPerform 3 sets of 8-15 repetitions of each exercise

For some specific muscle building workouts for women check out the women’s section of Muscle and Strength Online. For women who are afraid of building too much muscle; let me assure you that that won’t happen by accident. The photos you see of umber-muscular women (or men) are of people who have been training relentlessly for years to purposely get that way. A large percentage of them also use performance enhancing drugs like steroids to achieve the amount of muscle they have.

Women only have a small percentage of the male hormone testosterone, and this limited amount puts a ceiling on the amount of muscle women can build. Professional female bodybuilders use testosterone (an anabolic steroid) to achieve the extreme levels of hypertrophy you witness in photographs. Following a muscle building for women exercise and nutrition program will not add excessive muscle to your body.

Muscle Building for Women: Appropriate Nutrition

Another common mistake made by women trying to build muscle is to eat a low calorie diet. A good muscle building diet will create a calorie surplus each day so that new muscle tissue can be formed through hypertrophy.

But won’t I get fat if I eat a calories surplus?

The truth is; it depends. A muscle building diet of lean meats, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates accounting for a 400-500 calorie surplus will not cause significant fat gain. Now, if you hit the Chinese buffet and ice cream shop after the gym every day, you will be adding more than lean muscle to your frame. It’s all about making the right food choices and eating just enough to gain muscle without putting on extra fat.

Muscle Building For Women: Lifestyle Considerations

In addition to proper training and nutrition, other considerations like rest, stress management, and sleep play a big role in building muscle mass. When all of these factors are managed correctly, a synergistic effect occurs in the body resulting in hypertrophy (muscle growth). If even one of these factors is not properly managed, results will be mediocre at best.

Muscle building for women requires intelligent planning and hard work, but if you put some of what you learned here to good use, a more fit muscular body is in your future!

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