Female Muscle Growth: How to get a lean athletic body 

There has always been differing opinions about female muscle growth. But the bottom line is, women are realising in ever increasing numbers, that it is possible, and that a strong athletic appearance is sexy and healthy.

You may have different reasons for wanting to build muscle. In my experience, most women have more than one motive for exercising.

You could be pursuing female muscle growth to change your appearance or feel healthier, stronger, and more confident.

Here is a closer look at some of the benefits of female muscle growth:

Now that we know just why building muscle is healthy, we can look deeper into the overall exercise and diet strategy.

Exercises and Exercise Strategy

When it comes to building muscle, you already have one of the best pieces of equipment to do the job: your body. You don't have to be too rigid or punishing to begin to see gains, especially if you haven’t done much training previously.

I suggest committing to routines and styles that you enjoy to start with. These workouts will be much easier to stick with in the long run. Also, you shouldn't think that one type of exercise is the only answer. You can mix weight lifting with high-intensity interval training, body weight exercises, and even yoga classes for increased flexibility.

Once your level of fitness and strength has progressed to a stage where you need more resistance to continue to make gains, then hitting the iron, with a focus on heavy compound movements will be the best strategy to continue to build muscle.

How many days a week should I work out to build muscle? It depends on your goals, but mixing exercises daily and keeping weight training to three days per week will help you build lean muscle.

Women do typically recover faster from weight training than men do, but you will still need to ensure adequate rest in between training sessions, to allow for recovery.  That’s actually when the muscle growth occurs.

Know that you have options

As I've just pointed out, pumping iron isn't the only way to pursue female muscle growth. Sure, you can try the gym, but there are other ways to do it, especially if you're on a tight budget.

Tips for reps

Whatever exercise you do, don't waste too much time trying to do the perfect rep. The trick is to repeat a move until you can do no more. And choose weights for each exercise which are going to challenge you and allow you to continue to achieve progressive overload. 

An important starting point is to know what your one rep max is, so that you can set the correct weight and reps for each  exercise.  Refer to the rep calculator below if you don’t already know what your one rep maximum is.

Another thing to remember here is to have a mix of isotonic and isometric exercises to balance the stress on your joints.

Isotonic exercises include moves like push-ups, squats, crunches, triceps dips, and donkey kicks. Isometric exercises include moves like planks, wall sits, glute bridges, boat poses, and warrior poses.

Why should you have this mix? Isotonic exercises will be intense on your joints, so you should try mixing in isometric exercises as a different way to place load on the muscle without extra strain on joints..

You can hold isometric positions for at least 30 seconds when you're just starting, and then slowly increase the hold times as you grow stronger. Mixing these exercises can also help you develop the kind of lean muscle that you want, as a range of different stresses on your muscles will develop a more athletic musculature than say, just doing heavy weights all the time.

Do more compound exercises

I mentioned this briefly above, but it’s worth repeating here, because if you are really chasing significant muscle growth, you will need to embrace the major compound lifts..

When doing exercises for lean muscle growth, try to choose those that target as many muscle groups as possible. This approach will increase your exercise efficiency as well, meaning you’ll get better results from less time spent in the gym.

Also the big compound lifts engage the major muscles in your body, and allow you to engage maximum muscle fibers by lifting the heavy.  That allows the muscle to break down, and then rebuild stronger muscle fibers.  That produces what we refer to as “muscle growth”.

Side plank rotations, burpees, push up and mountain climbers are some examples of compound exercises using body weight. Bench  press, squats, dead lifts are examples of compound exercises using weights.

These exercises not only target multiple muscle groups but also get your heart beating faster and burning more calories in the process.

Diet Strategy for Female Muscle Growth

When it comes to diet, there are quite a few diet mistakes that most women make when trying to build muscle and lose fat.

These include the following:

So what should you do to come up with a better diet?

Prepackaged diet foods are usually not worth it

Fad diets are quite tempting, but the vast majority of them don't work. As for the ones that do, they are not sustainable in the long term.

It may be convenient to use shakes, health bars, and pre-made meals for a while, but these programs teach you nothing about maintaining proper nutrition or building lean muscle.

Fad diets also are rarely for female muscle growth. Instead, they are targeted for those looking to lose weight.

Don’t totally avoid carbs

While unhealthy carbs, such as white bread or french fries, are not the best options, carbs from whole grains, such as brown rice, can improve health, energy, and muscle growth.

Focus on growing your muscles

Rather than focusing on eating for fat loss, try to focus on eating for muscle gain. You can do this by eating lean protein, such as red meat, chicken, beans, tofu, and fish.

While there are variations of sports specific diets which may suit some individuals better than others, that level of specialisation is something which you should really only do under the guidance of an experienced sports nutritionist.

The primary diet type which the majority of people will find produces good results is a high protein diet.  This will typically contain a mix of macro nutrients in the range of;

• Protein = 50%
• Carbohydrates = 20%
• Fats = 30%

What supplements do I really need?

There is a  massive supplements industry that spends massive amounts advertising their products to you.  This can naturally make you feel as though taking many different supplements is a necessary part of building muscle, if you want "the best results". 

The truth is, most of it is unnecessary and simply over hyped. 

All of the creatine, pre-workout drinks, post-workout drinks, Amino acids, glutamine, fat shredders etc, etc are simply not necessary for most people.  Unless you have received specific advice from a medical professional, or a qualified nutritionist then simply don't bother yourself with any of these. 

Our bodies contain the biochemistry required to perform, and unless you have ben properly tested and found to be lacking in a specific vitamin, amino acid or the like, adding extra in will not help, and can sometimes actually be harmful. 

Many of the strength training or body building sites which you may have seen who may be recommending a range of supplements, are usually either selling them directly, or receiving commissions when you buy them, so they have a vested interest in telling you that they work. 

The only supplement that I incorporate into my nutrition plan is protein.  And that's really only because when you are following a high protein diet, it can be hard to get as much protein as you need from only natural food. 

The best way to get your nutrition is from healthy natural foods.  I only supplement my diet with two protein shakes a day.  And that will usually be plenty for most people, who are training hard.  

To learn more about the major macro nutrients, and how to calculate them in your diet, along with how to work out the correct nutrition plan to achieve the body you want, read the posts below which explain this in detail.

Remember that you are eating for muscle gain.  That’s your focus, not weight loss. 

If you are targeting weight loss, then you will usually create a calorie deficit, so the reverse is actually what you should be doing, to give your body the nutrients and energy it needs to make muscle growth.  Once you have worked out the daily caloric intake required to maintain your body (refer to the posts above) then I suggest you start with a diet that includes 120% of your maintenance requirement.

Don’t worry.  As long as you are eating the right mix of macro nutrients, and training hard, you won’t get fat, just build that lean athletic body you want.

A key thing to note there is, “and training hard”.  If you don’t push yourself and learn to love the burn from a truly hard training session, then you just won’t get the results. 

Do hormones dictate female muscle growth?

It's pretty widely accepted that men can gain muscle much easier than women, because they have far more testosterone, but is that really correct? 

While research does show that men typically produce about 15% to 20% more testosterone than women, that doesn't actually answer the question.  Yes, there are differences in male and female hormone levels, but is that really a determining factor in muscle growth. 

Studies that have focused directly on answering this question of muscle growth levels in response to strength training, have found that in fact there is little different in the ability of a male and female to gain muscle.

The reality is that men generally have a larger anatomy / bone structure, and start with about twice as much muscle as a woman.  So naturally, they generally look bigger. 

Men also have traditionally focused more on muscle growth for size than women do.  They focus on the things that lead to muscle growth, like eating excess calories, including high protein intake, and lifting heavy weights. You see, lifting heavy isn't all about their egos!

Given the studies actually show that women can develop muscle at almost the same level as men, hormones aren't really the excuse many view them as.  A woman can build muscle, if they follow the right nutrition and training plans with consistency.

Don't be too hard on yourself: Female muscle growth is hard work

Guilt cycles are a normal part of exercise and diet routines. However, don't let them affect your mindset. One unhealthy meal will not jeopardize your efforts.

The occasional vacation from your diet is an excellent way to reward yourself. Instead of feeling guilty afterward, though, focus on getting back to your workout and diet routine after your splurge.

It's Time To Start Building Muscle

These are some of the essential tips to implement for female muscle growth. As you can see, the essence of it is basically to do exercises you enjoy, eat healthily, have realistic expectations, and not to be too hard on yourself.

The most important thing to remember, however, is that consistency is just as important as intensity. By taking those small steps every day, you'll get so much farther ahead in a year than you might ever have imagined.

 Example Muscle Building Training Plan

The weights used in the above example training plan, will obviously not be suitable for everyone reading this.  As a reminder, I mentioned above that you should calculate your one rep max, which will then allow you to set an appropriate weight for the reps you want to complete in each exercise. 

You can find the calculator, along with further explanation here.

This is the first cycle in the type of strength training plan that you should follow, with each following training cycle being adjusted to ensure progressive overload. 

Remember to schedule rest days between the training days to allow yourself adequate recovery. 

Note the inclusion of major compound exercises like bench, dead lifts and squats, along with leg press, which you can really load up with heavy weights.  Remember, strength training should focus on moving the maximum amount of weight, not chasing silly myths.

So, you've now got the tools and the know how to produce muscle growth for the lean athletic body of your dreams.  It's up to you to put it into practice, to build a stronger, healthier, sexier body.