There is no difference between weight training for men and women. Both cases involve moving in a controlled, repetitive manner while bearing a load. The difference that many people think of lies in the goal, not gender. You can weight train for size or you can weight train for athletic strength -- many people associate men with wanting size and women with wanting strength, which is also referred to as "tone." The truth is, there are plenty of athletes of both genders who train both ways.
Purpose of Weight Training
The purpose of weight lifting is to increase lean muscle mass, but there are also several techniques that can increase your heart rate enough to burn fat as well. Having more muscle mass also means your body needs more calories to survive, so it will burn more calories all day, even when you're sitting still. Weight lifting also helps strengthen your bones, and being stronger means you will have more stamina and not get injured as easily.
Goal Determines Approach
Instead of the difference between the sexes, weight training technique involves the difference between goals. There are many women who love to sculpt every muscle in their body, and relish every pound gained through hard work. There are plenty of men who work hard to gain strength without size, especially fighters and cyclists, who must be as strong and light as possible. Both groups are still stressing their muscles into damage, which stimulates the muscle repair that results in growth. It is simply the way they approach a workout and the accompanying nutrition that makes them look so different.
Training for Size
Bodybuilders of either sex have a multitude of lifting techniques that cater to the different aspects of bodybuilding, whether it's size, shape, vascularity or lift, but most of their workouts focus on very heavy weights. Bodybuilders have different goals for their body throughout the year, but the size they build comes from lifting weight that is so heavy that can lift it no more than five or six times. Certain workouts require them to lift a weight heavy enough that they can only lift it once. Most muscles are worked individually to allow the most thoroughly controlled sculpting possible, and a bodybuilder's diet is directly tied to his workout. Bodybuilders eat massive amounts of calories because they need to fuel their body while having about 200 extra calories per day to allow for muscle growth. The heavy weight puts so much stress on the muscles that bodybuilders must be sure they eat enough protein so they can repair themselves. This is why it is often said that the bodybuilder look doesn't happen by accident.
Training for Strength
Weight lifting for strength is another matter. Bodybuilders are strong, but it is possible to make your muscle stronger without making it larger. This is what many women hope for when they begin a fitness routine, and it is important for endurance athletes who must stay as light as possible while gaining strength that can increase their speed. Muscles are worked in groups instead of individually, to teach them how to become stronger as a unit. For example, a sprinter might do lunges to train her lower body to provide more forward propulsion. Strength training also involves a lighter load and more reps. This allows you to still challenge the muscle without causing the heavy muscle damage that causes muscle growth as it repairs. Strength training does not call for additional calories, and a normal amount of protein is usually enough to fuel muscle repair.
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