Training women..

E

Excder

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I could really think of what to title this but what the heck.

Im just really wondering why, maybe its only in my gym lol, that women train by doing weird ****! Like i walked by these 2 ladys that had a swiss ball up against a wall and like 2 5lb dumbells. They where putting the ball in the small of there back(standing up) and squatting and as they descended they did a curl.....:sad2: ??? Can some one explain why they do ....that lol
 
You can only understand it if you do it. Try it, it's hard! Concentrate on the muscles involved, compare it with a normal squat and you'll have your answer.
 
Excder said:
I could really think of what to title this but what the heck.

Im just really wondering why, maybe its only in my gym lol, that women train by doing weird ****! Like i walked by these 2 ladys that had a swiss ball up against a wall and like 2 5lb dumbells. They where putting the ball in the small of there back(standing up) and squatting and as they descended they did a curl.....:sad2: ??? Can some one explain why they do ....that lol
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I dunno about the dumbells, but I know the squatting with the swiss ball against the wall in the small of your back is to correct the common bad habit of leaning forward in the squat. Its to keep good form, knees over ankles rather than over toes. Its for beginners, people recovering from injuries, or older people, to make sure they use the right muscles and don't hurt themselves, or to help them while they get the feel for the move. The dumbells.... you got me there.
 
Red_Panda said:
I dunno about the dumbells, but I know the squatting with the swiss ball against the wall in the small of your back is to correct the common bad habit of leaning forward in the squat. Its to keep good form, knees over ankles rather than over toes. Its for beginners, people recovering from injuries, or older people, to make sure they use the right muscles and don't hurt themselves, or to help them while they get the feel for the move. The dumbells.... you got me there.
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Interesting i didnt know that. thanks for the enlightenment lol

The girls that i train with or what ever have always been an athlete so i have seen girls doing cleans and squats so its just weird for me to look around and see that, but it makes sense
 
I used to be an athlete, and I didn't care what my trainer told me to do. I just did it. Sure, I did as much weight work as anybody else, but I never questioned what I was told to do.

I had to do Swiss ball squats for rehab on my back. I much prefer real squats but wasn't allowed to do them for 10 months because of my injuries. Believe me, when you're injured, you will do whatever you can to keep what you already have and to get your injured body parts to a point where you can resume where you left off prior to the injuries. Bottom line: I didn't care what I had to use. I just wanted to get better.

I used DBs with the Swiss ball but I didn't do curls with them ... I just let the DBs hang by my side to try and make the ball squats a little tougher. I didn't really notice that the DBs made the squats that much more difficult. But I think it made my mind feel better ;)

A lot of athletes use Swiss balls of various sizes and BOSU balls for their workouts. They provide an additional stability challenge. At least the athletes here do ... try jumping from one BOSU ball to another. It's not easy! Or throwing a medicine ball and catching it while balancing on a BOSU ball ...

And I see a lot of personal trainers using them for their clients as well.
 
Red_Panda said:
I dunno about the dumbells, but I know the squatting with the swiss ball against the wall in the small of your back is to correct the common bad habit of leaning forward in the squat. Its to keep good form, knees over ankles rather than over toes. Its for beginners, people recovering from injuries, or older people, to make sure they use the right muscles and don't hurt themselves, or to help them while they get the feel for the move. The dumbells.... you got me there.
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Well, PTs and physios are using this exercise because the ball gives support to your back, but, it's a mistake to consider it an exercise for beginners. It's a lot easier to perform a no-weight squat rather than a ball wall squat, the angle of the torso is completely different and makes the squat harder overall. Try holding weights while doing the exercise; you will be surprised. Again, the best way to understand it is to try it.
 
Red_Panda said:
I dunno about the dumbells, but I know the squatting with the swiss ball against the wall in the small of your back is to correct the common bad habit of leaning forward in the squat. Its to keep good form, knees over ankles rather than over toes. Its for beginners, people recovering from injuries, or older people, to make sure they use the right muscles and don't hurt themselves, or to help them while they get the feel for the move. The dumbells.... you got me there.
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Correct form in a squat does not have to be with a vertical torso. Leaning forward in the squat is natural, if you don't do this, you will fall backwards, unless you have mad ankle flexibility and can get your knees very far forward without the heels leaving the ground. I would not use this as a tool to teach the squat, because this movement is not similar to the squat, because in the squat you need to find the balance between hips shooting back, knees going forward towards the toes and leaning forward. You can alter these movements according to where you want the stress. Do you want the stress on the quads (and thus also more on the knees) then try to minimize torso forward lean, put your knees more out (often over your toes) etc (please don't nitpick about movement planes, I know the knees doesn't have to move straight forward, they will often move a bit out to the side aswell, etc, blah,). , if your knees are healthy and you don't let the heels come off the ground, this shouldn't cause injury, even if it does put more stress on the knees, more stress does not automatically equal injury. If you want to put more stress on the hips, then pretty much do the opposite. You can read up on this here: Squat Analysis it's a good article.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, leaning forward (even a lot, as long as you don't flex the back) doesn't mean bad form, it depends on what you want with the squat.

If you have a lower back injury, it could be used to exercise the legs without putting much stress on the back, so I agree there.
 
Well obviously I don't mean you should lean back, I just mean that I've seen it used for people that repeatedly bend their knees way over their toes while squatting to the point they will actually hurt their knee and not get any of the intended benefit from the exercise. You know, not doing that correct "pop the booty" motion. Of course the upper body can't really lean back. The swiss ball just helps some people get their legs right better.

And for those saying it can also be a real workout, not just for beginners, oh trust me I know! :p The trainer at my gym uses them in our group workouts, he has us stay low and hold it, do rapid squats, do all kinds of fun things with them. Trust me, he makes it burn. Swiss ball against the wall can be a scary scary thing to my quads in particular. They feel the fear.
 
Its typically considred a regression to a regular squat because it allows you to lean on something to help with balance. The dumbells? Whats wrong with doing two movements at once? Or should they do squats first AND THEN curl?

A typical combo move involves a squat while doing a curl and then an OHP all in one movement. Time management is one obvious benefit.
 
OK, that all makes good sense. But here is another question....whats the best way to train a girl?

Ha, i ask b/c im seriously thinking about becoming a CPT and quitting my current job. I know how to train guys, form ones really overweight to those that are all-american athletes. But, its seems like women are hesitant to do things like bar-bell squats( just as an example).......i guess what im asking is how do u have to approach a womans goals differently than mens?(besides the obvious things)
 
Girls can ultimately do the same exercises as men; we just can't lift the same amount of weight because pound for pound, men are much stronger. Period.

If you had a guy who had never lifted a weight before, how would you train him? Now apply that to a female. Just use smaller weights. The only really challenging exercise for girls are pull ups and chin ups (as a result of the obvious physiological differences).

For a lot of people, squat racks are intimidating. There are not a lot of guys at the gym I go to who use the squat rack. Not many do OH work, either. And I've only seen a couple doing DLs. It's not just a "girl" thing.

A person has to be committed and serious about getting in shape to be open to using the "real equipment" ;)
 
i_love_muscle said:
Girls can ultimately do the same exercises as men; we just can't lift the same amount of weight because pound for pound, men are much stronger. Period.

If you had a guy who had never lifted a weight before, how would you train him? Now apply that to a female. Just use smaller weights. The only really challenging exercise for girls are pull ups and chin ups (as a result of the obvious physiological differences).

For a lot of people, squat racks are intimidating. There are not a lot of guys at the gym I go to who use the squat rack. Not many do OH work, either. And I've only seen a couple doing DLs. It's not just a "girl" thing.

A person has to be committed and serious about getting in shape to be open to using the "real equipment" ;)
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correct.
as far as the ball is concerned for rehab etc it is probably ok,but IMO there really isnt any need at all,infact you see people doing really stupid things like bench-press etc :confused: WTF,thats dangerous:violent2: and pointless IMO
 
When my back was injured, the only way I could squat was using a Swiss ball behind my back. Ya do what ya have to do to get back to square one ;)

Now that I can do real squats again, I thought I'd try using the Swiss ball and the Smith Machine to see the difference. I found that the Swiss ball is really easy and doesn't challenge me at all, even with DBs or a bar on my back. Then I tried the Smith Machine (ewwwwwwwwwwwwww) and found that to be an incredibly unnatural movement and I had to adopt a really weird posture with the bar. The Smith Machine is absolutely horrible. I also didn't feel my core using either the Swiss ball or the Smith Machine.

Best to stay with the free weights and balance them yourself (if you can) :)

And doing BPs on a Swiss ball is just plain stupid. Yes, let's all injure ourselves and everybody around us when the DBs or bar go flying because you've lost your balance ...
 
They must be watching too much biggest loser. Next thing you know the trainer will be standing on their quads while they balance on a swiss ball doing power band curls and Kegel contractions
 
It's actually easy as **** to balance on a swiss ball, specially with DBs in your hands, seriously, it's not a problem. The scary part comes when the ball eventually breaks, that's when you injure yourself. :p

And women have different muscles than men, they require low weight and high repetitions to become toned.


:D
 
Sticking with the serious stuff, Matthew Perryman has an excellent article who wrote with the female audience in mind. Some of you probably know him as PowermanDL around other forums.

The article, which has multiple parts, can be found here:
 
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