Training Women: 5 Practical Takeaways

Training women effectively is not about creating an entirely different training system. Training needs aren’t strictly divided between men and women. Good coaching adapts the program to the individual, with these fundamentals applying: progressive overload, consistency, appropriate recovery, sleep, and good nutrition.

However, there are several practical considerations which can make a meaningful difference when working with adult women across different ages and life stages.

Here are five of the most important takeaways.

Everyone should be approached with a personalised program. Women are not a single population with identical training needs. Body composition, training history, goals, lifestyle, sleep, nutrition, stress, menstrual status, medications, and previous injuries can all influence how someone responds to training, and the individual’s sex and gender represent just one of these variables.

Two women of the same age can have completely different abilities and requirements.

Assessing training experience, goals, movement capacity, recovery, and lifestyle all matter before making assumptions based on age or sex.

The goal is not to train women differently for the sake of being different. It is to make the programme appropriate for that person.

Resistance training is one of the most useful tools for women throughout adulthood. Developing strength and maintaining muscle can support physical performance, body composition, bone density, independence, and confidence.

Moreover, a good strength training session elevates mood, energises the body, corrects posture, and mobilises the body to feel lighter and activated. Therefore, strength training does not need to mean lifting extremely heavy weights or training like a competitive athlete.

A well-designed programme can include:

Gradually improving strength, technique, and capacity rather than chasing exhaustion every session is key.

Training and rest go hand in hand.

Training creates a stimulus. Adaptation happens when the body has sufficient resources to recover from that stimulus.

Recovery requirements can also change throughout adulthood. A programme that was manageable at one point in someone’s life may need adjustment later because of changes in lifestyle, stress, sleep, injury history, chronic conditions, or hormonal status.

Adult women often juggle work demands, career, children, relationships to maintain, and caregiving for aging parents. Simultaneously, they go through hormonal changes, all of which can challenge their mental, emotional, and physical capacities. However, it is not to assume that women in adulthood are overloaded. Maybe intense strength training is exactly what they are looking for to invest time in themselves and boost their moods.

Good coaching means finding an amount of training they can consistently recover from.

This means paying attention to:

For some women, hormonal fluctuations throughout the menstrual cycle can be associated with changes in symptoms, energy, motivation, temperature regulation, or perceived exertion. Broadly, women show better performance and more energy a day or two after the start of their menstruation, peak before or around ovulation, show signs of fatigue and emotional sensitivity during the luteal phase (1-2 weeks before period), and increased pain levels and gut discomfort during their period. Importantly, responses vary considerably between individuals.

This is why statements such as “women should train this way during this phase of the cycle” need to be taken with a grain of salt.

Instead, coaches can use the cycle as one piece of information alongside performance, symptoms, recovery, and personal experience.

Training in the luteal phase or the ‘PMS phase’-one week before period can feel more tiring for some; however, the boost in energy and mood that training gives them might be exactly what they need. For clients who experience noticeable symptoms, simple adjustments may be useful — for example, modifying training volume or intensity when needed rather than abandoning training altogether. Training in the follicular phase, that is, the first two weeks after the start of menstruation, is usually a woman’s strongest phase. It is a good time to test a personal best or load the body to a greater extent. It is important to clarify that training during menstruation is perfectly fine, no matter the levels of bleeding. In this regard, training can have short-term and long-term benefits for improving menstrual pain. A different approach is necessary for women fighting endometriosis, as their pain levels can reach extremes; therefore, training is spontaneously avoided during bleeding phase.

A woman’s training needs can evolve significantly throughout adulthood.

Factors such as pregnancy and postpartum recovery, changes in menstrual status, menopause, changes in bone density, reduced activity levels, injuries, and changes in lifestyle can all affect how training should be approached.

This does not mean that women should become less active or avoid challenging exercise as they get older. In many cases, maintaining or progressively developing strength, cardiovascular fitness, balance, and muscle mass becomes increasingly valuable. These can all help women with resilience also when transitioning through menopause or recovering during postpartum.

The key is appropriate progression.

A younger, experienced lifter may tolerate high training volumes, while a previously sedentary client may need to build capacity gradually. Age provides some context, but capability, experience, health, goals, and recovery should guide programming.

Effective training for women isn’t about following a completely separate set of rules. It’s about understanding the individual and applying strong coaching principles with greater attention to factors that may be particularly relevant to women. And especially not seeing women as a more fragile population that should avoid heavy lifting, or applying stereotypes that women should be approached more gently and with easier programs.

The five principles to remember are:

1. Individualising the program matters
2. Women will greatly benefit from strength training to preserve bone health and physical function
3. Training and rest go hand in hand
4. Women’s cyclic nature is not a limitation. Recognising and understanding it helps work with it.
5. A good training program considers the current life stage and capabilities

The best programme is ultimately one that is progressive, sustainable, individualised, and appropriate for the person doing it.