Tip The Scientific Reason Women Need to Go Heavy Search Skip to content Menu Menu follow us Store Articles Community Loyal-T Club Loyal-T Points Rewards Subscribe to Save Search Search The World s Trusted Source & Community for Elite Fitness Training Tip The Scientific Reason Women Need to Go Heavy How heavy Here' s the science by Chris Shugart April 9, 2017October 13, 2021 Tags For Women, Tips, Training Luckily, most women aren't afraid to lift weights these days, but many still avoid going too heavy. We're talking about sets of around 3 maximal reps here. Too bad for them, because females may benefit from heavy training even more than men. Growth Hormone and Female Lifters It all comes down to growth hormone. Where the male body relies more on testosterone to reap the benefits from weight training, the female body relies a bit more on growth hormone. Natural growth hormone plays a big part in both muscle and bone development. It also improves metabolic function and staves off tissue breakdown. So, GH is good. And heavy lifting stimulates more growth hormone release in women. The Study One study on women looked at the effects that different kinds of weight training had on growth hormone. Researchers found that growth hormone was responsive to moderate (around 12 reps) and heavy (around 3 reps) lifting regimens. "Since women rely on growth hormone to increase muscle and bone strength, the more growth hormone stimulated by a type of exercise, the better its outcome," researchers said. The study had women weight training with different rep ranges for 24 weeks, complete with lots of blood tests. The heavier weight training protocols produced more biologically active growth hormone. Lead researcher William J. Kraemer noted: "Women need to have a heavy loading cycle in their resistance training routines." Now, there's muscle-building value in lifting lighter weights too, like increased time under tension. But this study tells us that women shouldn't get stuck in the pattern of using only higher rep schemes and "going for the burn." Those heavy sets, as heavy as 3 grunting reps, may be where a lot of the magic happens. Reference American Physiological Society. "Varying Weight Training Intensity Increases Growth Hormone In Women." ScienceDaily. Get The T Nation Newsletters Don' t Miss Out Expert Insights To Get Stronger, Gain Muscle Faster, And Take Your Lifting To The Next Level related posts Training Growth Explosion The 30-10-30 Technique Three young athletes gained 14 pounds in 14 days using a new training technique. Here's exactly how they did it. Bodybuilding, Training, Workouts Ellington Darden, PhD June 21 Training A Yearly Strength Plan Tim Henriques' total was stuck at 1400 for over two years. The plan he outlines in this article got him up to 1600 in a relatively short time. Powerlifting & Strength, Training Tim Henriques October 2 Training 10 Things Every Lifter Should Be Able to Do If strength, health, and longevity are what you're after, then you should be able to easily pass these tests. If not, you have work to do. Mobility, Powerlifting & Strength, Training Dan John June 10 Training The V-Taper Workout and Diet Plan Which physique turns heads the most? A big upper body that tapers at the waist: the V-taper. Here's the formula for getting one. Training, Workouts Eric Bach May 1