# Women Athletes and Weight Training



## Curt James (Oct 22, 2011)

*WOMEN ATHLETES            AND WEIGHT TRAINING*
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"Weight training is the single            biggest factor in improving the performance of elite female athletes."*
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By Bill Dobbins*

 




 

Once upon a time, it was considered        unfashionable for women to develop well-defined muscles. Of course, once        upon a time women wore bustles and were considered too delicate to function        in the world of politics, business, medicine, the law and other fields thought        to be the sole territory of the male. 

You couldn't even say the word "legs"        in front of a lady. "Limbs" was the preferred terminology. Unfortunately, while most of these Victorian          limitations and restrictions on the female gender went out of vogue some          time ago, it is only recently that the once virtually universal rejection          by society of the idea of women developing muscles has turned to (at least,          partial) acceptance.

Remarkably, despite the enormous development in the          sport of bodybuilding for women during the past 12 or 14 years, female          physique competitors with their incredibly muscular bodies are not the          primary cause of this revolution in thinking about physical potential          of the female.

According to Tony Duffy, founder of Allsport, the world's          largest international sports photo agency, the greatest impact has come          from female track and field athletes like the late Florence Griffith Joyner          and Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

 "When I first began photographing          sports for a living back in the late 1960's," explains Tony Duffy,          "nobody was interested in women's sports. It got no publicity at          all. Women's athletics was considered something of a joke and women athletes          as a bit suspect. The public perception of women athletes was bloody awful."          

The women athletes themselves were apparently all too aware of how they          were regarded by the public. "In those days," Duffy goes on,          "I would be constantly cautioned by the women not to make them look          too muscular in photos. There was a social stigma attached to muscular          women, and in spite of how motivated they were to excel in their sports,          they weren't willing to subject themselves to criticism by over-developing          their bodies."

 





So as hard as women might have trained back then, any kind of strength training,          working out with weights, "pumping iron," was usually totally          out of the question. Unfortunately, this reluctance to build and strengthen          their muscles was reflected in the levels of their athletic performance.          The achievements of women in sports in those days, particularly in track          and field, was a far cry from what we see today.

 Steve Wennerstrom, editor-in-chief of          Women's Physique magazine and official historian of the IFBB for women's          bodybuilding, was a woman's track coach beginning in the early 1970s,          and he experienced this resistance to the idea of strength training for          women first hand.

        "I ran track myself," says Wennerstrom," and when a shot-putter          and discus thrower friend of mine put me on a strength program, my times          increased dramatically. So I was confident that the women I was training          would experience the same kind of benefits if they undertook a proper          program of muscle development. And it worked. I found that weight training          was the single biggest factor in improving performance in experienced,          elite athletes." 

"A number of the women I coached were willing          to accept the idea of strength training at first," he goes on, "but          got nervous after a week or two in the gym when they began to feel sore          in ways they weren't used to. I also had ongoing feuds with other coaches          who were dead-set against the idea. Some of them approved of strength-training,          but were very football-oriented and when women on the UCLA team like Florence          and Jackie came into the gym and started doing bodybuilding-style workouts          they were very much opposed to this. They believed in something more specific,          but these women had never lifted before and needed overall development          rather than sports-specific training."

 The biggest obstacle in those days, Wennerstrom          says, was where to get the right kind of training information. "I          looked through magazines like Joe Weider's MUSCLE BUILDER and went to          bodybuilding contests whenever I could, but there were no women competing          back then. But even the meager information I was able to get really helped          the women I was coaching. They were stronger, faster and much less prone          to injury. 
However, by the end of the 1970s promoters began to stage contests          for women, you had stars emerging like Lisa Lyon, and the whole idea of          strength-training for women in sports was suddenly a lot easier idea to          get accepted."

 Lynn Conkwright, former Women's World          Bodybuilding Champion, was a gymnast and a gymnastics coach before becoming          a physique competitor, and she was a believer in weight training long          before it became at all acceptable, much less fashionable. Actually, she          explains, it was the fact that she was already doing a 4-day split system          routine well before women's physique events even existed that allowed          her to step into bodybuilding and ascend to the top so quickly. 

"Every          female athlete I've coached who has done weight training properly has          benefited by it," says Lynn. "And not just gymnasts, either.          In fact, after I competed in an ABC Television "Superstars"          event, I was asked by Martina Navratilova to put her on a basically free-weight,          bodybuilding-type program. And I subsequently worked with several other          tennis players and weight training helped them out a lot as well."







 By the early 1980s, women athletes in          track and field had also pretty much accepted          the idea of???at least some???intense weight training as part of their          overall training program. Sha-ri Pendleton, who appears as "Blaze"          on the American Gladiators television program and who is a former all-around          track athlete, recalls what a difference it made going from a high school          with no weight program to speak of to a University with a first-rate program          of strength-training for both male and female athletes. 

"When I was          in high school in Los Angeles," Sha-ri explains, "we had a coach          that encouraged the women to use the weight room, but I was the only one          who really took it seriously. However, at the time, I was competing in          the 100 meter hurdles, the 4X4 relay, the long jump, as well as running          the 100 and 200 meter dash and the 400 as well. So when I started working          with heavier weights the coach was against it. She wanted me to do lighter,          high-rep, pumping-type workouts. But I figured I got enough endurance          activity out on the track. I was fairly skinny at the time, and what I          wanted was more muscle. And the more I got, the more I wanted, especially          since the stronger I got the more my performance improved."

 The University of Nebraska had a good          strength training program in the early 1980s, and Sha-ri went on to become          an NCAA triple-jump finalist. She also won events at 400 meters and 100          meter hurdle and she set her sights on competing in this event in the          Olympics. "But even at Nebraska," Sha-ri recalls, "as good          as their program was, a lot of the women athletes were still reluctant          to do really serious strength-training. They were afraid they'd get too          bulky, lose range of motion, get too tight to run. They'd come to me and          criticize my workouts, but I'd end up beating them in track meets. It          never seemed to occur to them there was a cause and effect relationship          between my workouts and performance in competition."

 Certainly, getting "too bulky"          could be a problem for any athlete who follows an improperly designed          workout program. Weight training, particularly the type developed by competition          bodybuilders over the years, can add a lot of muscle mass to your physique.          This could lead???theoretically???to an athlete getting too heavy, losing          his or her ideal strength-to-weight ratio, to changes in overall body          conformation unsuited to a particular sport. But in a well-designed program,          this rarely happens.

 "When you are involved in training          for track events," says Ms. Olympia Cory Everson, who was a successful          pentathlete before dominating women's professional bodybuilding through          the mid and late 1980s, "you spend a lot of time training. You burn          up incredibly amounts of energy. That makes adding any significant amount          of bulk to your physique very difficult. Bodybuilders train intensely          for relatively short periods and then rest. This gives them a lot of energy          to be used in building and rebuilding muscle tissue. But track athletes          burn up this excess energy in training, so getting too big isn't usually          the problem???it's the opposite: getting big and strong enough and keeping          that size and strength through a demanding track season."

 "You obviously shouldn't do weight          training to the point where you develop too much mass for a specific sport,"          says Steve Wennerstrom. "Your overall body size and confirmation          should be the result of the time you spend training for a specific sport.          But if you can increase your lean body mass, decrease your relative body          fat, you can produce a much fitter, stronger and more efficient physique,          which will make you that much better a competitor." 

Obviously, women's          athletics has changed a great deal in the past decade or so. The appearance          of Olga Korbut in the 1972 Olympics revolutionized gymnastics for girls          in this country and around the world. After Billie Jean King paved the          way, women tennis players from Chris Everet to Stefi Graff have turned          tennis into a big-money sport. Golf for women has also experienced an          explosive growth in both popularity and prize money.

        The same thing, of course, has happened in sports like women's track and          field. And it is this increased recognition and especially the money that          can be earned by the elite performers that has helped weight training          to gain such widespread acceptance among today's women athletes.

 "Track is a full time occupation          out of which you can make a good living if you do it right," says          Tony Duffy. "As a result, track athletes are approaching training          with a lot more professionalism. This kind of sport used to be the province          of the dilettante. For people who were naturally athletic and wanted to          compete against other athletes to see who was the best. Nowadays, with          so much money in the sport, they are less inclined to worry about things          like becoming too muscular for popular fashion and are more concerned          with performance. So if weight training makes them more muscular, as long          as it helps them to win, that's all that matters."

 "Also, the success of women like          Florence Griffith Joyner has also done a lot to make muscular women more          fashionable. She managed to combine muscularity with femininity because          she had a lean, well-proportioned body and when you add muscle to it that          only makes it look better. Not only did Flo-Jo win gold medals, but the          other athletes saw her on the cover of Sports Illustrated and Life, as          well. This did a lot to make a more muscular looking body more acceptable."          "Another incredible woman athlete is Jackie Joyner-Kersee,"          adds Duffy. 

"She hasn't got the most muscular physique, but she's          the best all-around woman in the sport, and she does a lot of weight training          to enhance her performance. She was very strong, had incredible coordination,          and was virtually unbeatable for 10 years or so," says Duffy.

 One of the reasons women are benefiting          so much from weight training, Steve Wennerstrom believes, is that they're          getting away from old-fashioned ideas of strength-training and moving          more in the direction of a program based on the kind of training practiced          by world-class bodybuilders.

        "An athletes, male or female," he says, "should begin by          doing non-specific type training, a program designed to build and strength          the entire body using mostly free weights, combining 2-joint barbell lifts          with isolation, 1-joint movements, working each and every muscle with          the proper balance and proportion and only then consider doing exercises          that may be designed to be sports-specific."

        Unbalanced training, he adds, which is what most traditional strength-training          programs usually are, increases strength imbalances in muscles in relation          to each other than are probably already disproportionately developed because          of sports-specific training. Bodybuilding restores this balance, which          not only leads to better performance, but lowers the risk of injury as          well.

 "The whole idea," concludes          Tony Duffy, "is to produce a body that performs better. However,          as bodybuilders have proved, when you train a physique properly it also          starts to look better. And I think that's an important aspect of sports          today, particularly for women." "As the human race becomes more          civilized," he believes, "and more sedentary, as we begin to          depend more on computers to do things for us, as we come less and less          physical, the elite athlete, who is the total opposite, becomes more and          more in demand aesthetically. There is an aesthetic joy in watching these          very outstanding, physical specimens.
 As far as different types of bodies are          concerned, bodybuilders are like living statues, works of art. Track and          field athletes are more like the thoroughbreds of sport. Watching them          perform, seeing them compete, is as exciting as watching a thoroughbred          race horse or seeing an animal like a greyhound or cheetah at full speed.          Awesome and impressive???but very beautiful as well."

 From *Women Athletes and BB*


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## Muscle_Girl (Oct 23, 2011)

You always post important stuff, that is far too long for me to bother reading. I think you just wanted to post sexy pics anyway.


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## Curt James (Oct 23, 2011)

Muscle_Girl said:


> You always post important stuff, that is far too long for me to bother reading. *I think you just wanted to post sexy pics anyway.*



And Dobbins definitely has some "sexy pics" to post. One example...





"Pedestal" by Bill Dobbins 

I believe that is Sha-Ri Pendleton of American Gladiators.


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## DFINEST (Oct 28, 2011)

Curt James said:


> And Dobbins definitely has some "sexy pics" to post. One example...
> 
> 
> 
> ...



WOW, such a perfectly round A$$!
Her A$$ looks like two bowling balls side by side.
I have a hard post for her to sit on


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## Killermonkey (Oct 28, 2011)

Pussy on a pedestal


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## Curt James (Oct 29, 2011)

Imagine being Bill Dobbins for a moment. 

"Okay, here's my idea, Sha-Ri..."

lol


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