how frequently a female should lift?

[jennifer85]

Hello, I'm a 24 year old female looking to tone up and get cut, how often should I lift, the reason I ask is because a friend of mine started lifting 5 days a week for the same purposes and she got really big and muscular and now she is trying to reverse the situation, thanks for your help.

 

[stevesmi]

was she using PED's? because women simply do not have enough male hormones to grow big and muscular.. most guys lift a lot and still look like wimps.. it isn't that easy to build muscle. i would say either she was juiced up or using sarm's or simply had amazing genetics

 

[SteveMobsterG]

Hello, I'm a 24 year old female looking to tone up and get cut, how often should I lift, the reason I ask is because a friend of mine started lifting 5 days a week for the same purposes and she got really big and muscular and now she is trying to reverse the situation, thanks for your help.

It's not relevant in anyway to talk about her situation vs your own. You could use the same thought process regarding a tall friend when you wanna be short.

Go to the gym. Train. See what happens. Most people train 3 days a week regardless of what sex they were born as. Getting 'cut' is diet related.

 

[muskate]

Women simply do not have the hormonal system needed to build big bulky muscles. Your friend was probably using steroids or a product laced with a pro-hormone.

Lifting weights 4-5 days per week is optimal. If your goal is to tighten and tone rather then just build sheer bulk - focus on training in a higher rep range. i.e. 16-20 reps per set

 

[SteveMobsterG]

Women simply do not have the hormonal system needed to build big bulky muscles. Your friend was probably using steroids or a product laced with a pro-hormone.

Lifting weights 4-5 days per week is optimal. If your goal is to tighten and tone rather then just build sheer bulk - focus on training in a higher rep range. i.e. 16-20 reps per set

I'd say that's probably not true. I do and I suspect you do too but it's not ideal for the average Joe or Jane.

 

[MasonicBodybuilder]

3-5 days is what I recommend for anyone. Male or female. You will change your body based on your diet. If you are not eating for bulking then you will not see that happen.

 

[SteveMobsterG]

This is a case of recovery. drugs vs lifestyle. So both the ability to recover averages out along with your working life, kids and other 'stuff'. Ergo, it averages at 3x a week. Like the guys here I train a little more. But that's due to stuff like genetics, working a very short week in the day job and occasional use of gear. Even then it's usually just 4x. When I'm in full on comp mode it goes to 5-6 as I'll just do a single event in some workouts.

It's been said (although not proven to my satisfaction) that women can handle a higher workload. Truthfully, if you don't train (male metaphor) 'balls to the wall' the impact on your CNS is less and so frequency can be higher. In other words train hard, train less. Train easy, train more.