programming press for females

[zepled37]

There is a woman friend of mine that I put on the SS workout. She is 39 and about 145 pounds at 5'9". She definitely doesn't really want to gain weight and I think if she maintains she will be happy so this is a constraint in strength gain.

Anyway, she really struggles with the press even though her strength on them is probably decent for a woman. I'm thinking about switching the press to a texas method type progression or just adding back off sets.

Looking for other peoples experience programming the press for females as I'm guessing they all stall out on this pretty fast.

First time through on presses, we started at 45 pounds (bar) and worked up to 60. Went to 2.5 pound increases after 55 pounds. Then we reset back to 50 or 55 pounds and worked up in 2.5 pound increments from there and she got 62.5 for 3 sets of 5 and then yesterday went to 65 but only got 5,5,4.

As I type this, I'm thinking we should just reset back to 55 pounds again, add a single back off set and take 2.5 pound jumps for a while and I should probably figure out how to take only 1 pound jumps. People probably will wonder why the back off set already and I don't know for sure other than my intuition tells me it will be helpful given the light weights and tendency to stall and that she can tolerate it. Seems like a compromise between switching to intermediate programming on the press and still adding more work as I can't believe recovery is an issue yet.

[gzt]

Either smaller jumps (seriously), more food, or different programming.

[Platus]

My girlfriend is 4'11" and about 130lbs. When we started she couldn't even press the bar. Our crummy YMCA didn't have any lighter bars, so we worked up to it with dumbbells, then push presses, and finally real presses with the bar. At first 2-3 reps was all she could manage at a time, so we'd do 5 sets of 3. She's doing the CFWF program, so we are just loading by 1lb. increments and repeating weights if she stalls.

[misspelledgeoff]

bootie pics?



There is a woman friend of mine that I put on the SS workout. She is 39 and about 145 pounds at 5'9". She definitely doesn't really want to gain weight and I think if she maintains she will be happy so this is a constraint in strength gain.

Anyway, she really struggles with the press even though her strength on them is probably decent for a woman. I'm thinking about switching the press to a texas method type progression or just adding back off sets.

Looking for other peoples experience programming the press for females as I'm guessing they all stall out on this pretty fast.

First time through on presses, we started at 45 pounds (bar) and worked up to 60. Went to 2.5 pound increases after 55 pounds. Then we reset back to 50 or 55 pounds and worked up in 2.5 pound increments from there and she got 62.5 for 3 sets of 5 and then yesterday went to 65 but only got 5,5,4.

As I type this, I'm thinking we should just reset back to 55 pounds again, add a single back off set and take 2.5 pound jumps for a while and I should probably figure out how to take only 1 pound jumps. People probably will wonder why the back off set already and I don't know for sure other than my intuition tells me it will be helpful given the light weights and tendency to stall and that she can tolerate it. Seems like a compromise between switching to intermediate programming on the press and still adding more work as I can't believe recovery is an issue yet.


My girlfriend is 4'11" and about 130lbs. When we started she couldn't even press the bar. Our crummy YMCA didn't have any lighter bars, so we worked up to it with dumbbells, then push presses, and finally real presses with the bar. At first 2-3 reps was all she could manage at a time, so we'd do 5 sets of 3. She's doing the CFWF program, so we are just loading by 1lb. increments and repeating weights if she stalls.

[isis]

I'd try the 65 again before resetting. After that be prepared for 1 pound and 1/2 pound jumps.

[vxmorpheusxv]

Get some micro plates. You can't really progress any further without them on the press, especially here.

[DaveN]

If she doesn't want to eat more, she will cap out on strength gains relatively quickly. Sounds like this has happened. If she wants to continue her strength gains, you may have to have "the talk" with her about the relationship between a caloric surplus and muscle gain.

For what it is worth, my wife opted to cap her strength gains vs. eating more to gain muscle. Persuasiveness fail on my part.

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

You can continue to get stronger even without gaining weight, but you need to change the programming to a more advanced level. People who lift is the lower weight classes do this all the time.

[gzt]

You can continue to get stronger even without gaining weight, but you need to change the programming to a more advanced level. People who lift is the lower weight classes do this all the time.
That depends on how much she wants to eat. It's possible to gain strength slowly without gaining weight by using more advanced programming, but that might take more food than she's willing to eat.

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

You do need to eat more while training, but I'm assuming her limit on eating isn't the absolute amount, but the effect (weight gain) of how much she is eating.

[zepled37]

So, we repeated the same weight and this time she got it for 3 sets of 5. But she really, really dislikes overhead presses and wants to do something else...

[Kyle Aaron]

Why does she dislike them? The stalling?

Remember you can always add some sets and reps. 65lbs 3x5 seems a bit easier if you can do 60lbs 3x6 or 60lbs 4x5. I mean, don't go crazy, but a few reps or sets here or there is not going to overtrain someone.

[zepled37]

I think it just feels like an unnatural / uncomfortable movement to her. I don't think it is because of stalling. But, yes, I'm thinking it would be better to drop the weight some and add a few sets versus dropping the exercise altogether.

[stronger]

a few things: what is the rest time being used? do you have smaller weight jumps? 2.5lbs is a lot to jump for a woman - even 200lb men will have trouble with that jump at some point. thirdly, think about varying the rep scheme a bit, although I think the first two will probably cure it for a little while longer.

[Gwynn]

Getting microplates should be the first step even before intermediate programming. Add as little as 1/2 pound until she can't progress linearly anymore. I got mine (manufactured by Iron Woody) on Amazon.

I'm only a tad bigger than she is and this worked splendidly for me until I hit 80, even though I was eating at maintenance level.

Good luck and I hope she hangs in there!

[TomC]

But she really, really dislikes overhead presses and wants to do something else...

Not everyone is willing to do things that are genuinely difficult. Also, as mentioned before, 2.5 pound jumps are too big.

[denick]

My wife is 53, 5'7" 165.

She was very weak when she started. Began on 15 lb training bar.
A struggle to get her to do it.
1 lb increases after she got to 40 lbs. Even then she didn't always make it.
The end of December John Scheaffer said to add assisted chins and increase her protien. She didn't increase her overall calories.
Since then she tries chin negatives, band assisted chin ups or push ups. She doesn't like them either. She only trains 2x's a week 1 bench and 1 press. She does the chins hours after the lifting on training days and on the day after training. Never on the day before a workout.
She's made an increase each time since then of 1 lb and sometimes 2 lbs bench.

She's commented how press just gets to her. She's said how stupid the bar looks with the small weights on it. I think she has now got it in her mind she is going to do a real chin up before she quits. She was amazed at how many people cannot do even 1 chin up.