Dr. Mike on male/female training differences

[truckerdan]

@bwell I always thought he put on that fake Russian Jewish accent because that’s his ethnic background and he can poke fun at his own kind (I’m first gen and many of us do this amongst ourselves.)

Often his humour is crass but sometimes I do laugh…I don’t think his wife would stay married to him if he didn’t respect women.

I actually love his specialization hypertrophy program and got great results from following it (which btw are written the same regardless of your gender!)

I learned a lot from his PowerPoint presentations on YouTube and still occasionally look at his new content.

I’m a Dr. Mike fan.

 

[bwell]

@truckerdan The video I saw he was making fun of another accent, which was not russian jewish and was very smarmy towards women in another video. Good on you if you like it, but it does not work for me.

I don’t think his wife would stay married to him if he didn’t respect women.

I do not care either way, but pointing out that a man being married does not necessarily prove a man respects women, all women (or even his wife, sadly). I have no idea of the specifics of his marriage, this is just a general comment, because I thought it was important to shoot down that logic.

 

[jacob_mah]

@truckerdan I really enjoy his content and I appreciate that most if not all of his sex jokes are self deprecating. I also find him wildly attractive lol

 

[patsy_cline_fan]

@bwell Agreed. He's a bro, even if he doesn't think he is.

 

[graceadele]

@patsy_cline_fan I definitely agree that women can train way more than men. We don't have as much explosive strength that allows men to lift very heavy but we have insane endurance.

 

[patsy_cline_fan]

@graceadele I have heard this from the SS guys, too, who suggested it may be because of the relative ratio of slow twitch/long muscle fibers. This explanation makes more sense to me than "women don't train as hard," because I would think any semi-serious female athlete running a program like 5/3/1 or GZCL would go 100%. Certainly a lot of YT workouts aren't going to push anyone very hard, but I don't think this is a fair comparison.

 

[alex720]

@patsy_cline_fan I think if any of those points ring true for you, you can make tweaks to the program you're using yourself (less rest, adding a set, adding a day, internal self work, whichever one or more seems right), probably to good effect. I don't think you have to get someone to build you a female specific program, you probably aren't an actual statistical average on every front. If you don't quite yet trust yourself to gauge your effort and fatigue, that could be a good use for a trainer, but once you have a sense of that, you will know if you can do more volume, frequency, intensity.

I've learned a ton from Dr. Mike, but watching this video just now, the first 6 points were NOT ringing true for me compared with my spouse, but then he got to point 7 about women training to less intensity on average and I was like, "Ah, there it is". I usually train closer to failure than my spouse does, which closes the gap on a lot of those other points.

 

[soulsearcher57]

@alex720 I also train close to failure. I'm skeptical as to how they determined that women don't train as close to failure. It seems very hard to collect that type of information and I feel like there are obvious social differences that could lead to a man assuming that. The main thing that comes to mind is how men, in every gym I've ever been to at least, seem much more comfortable grunting and groaning and dropping weights. Women lifting close to failure might not LOOK like they are to a man if they aren't grunting and dropping weights, etc. IDK just a thought I had while watching when he said that point.

 

[jacob_mah]

@alex720 I really get sensitive about people repeating the women don't lift heavy enough or with enough intensity. I go so hard in the paint. It's also close to the oft repeated "girls don't want to lift heavy because they think it'll make them bulky" stereotype but maybe I just don't keep company with the type of people that would believe something so critical to their body and health without any reasoning behind it.

 

[graceadele]

@alex720 I think women who are serious also train closer to their 1RM than men.

 

[nathan2018]

@patsy_cline_fan I hate the clickbait title.

We know, empirically from a lot of science and also a wealth if anecdotal evidence, that men and women absolutely can use identical training protocols and make very similar progress, in terms of % gain in lean mass.

We also know that where there are differences on average, the distributions between sexes have a ton of overlap.

So it makes sense to pick a training program aimed at somewhere in the middle of the distribution and adapt based your own individual response.

Like, the science is interesting, and if it prompts some people to explore training methods they may not have otherwise that is awesome, but I am really disappointed in the wrapper he puts around the discussion.

 

[lift4christ]

@nathan2018 The clickbait title unfortunately is how things are on YouTube. His videos can be helpful though.

 

[patsy_cline_fan]

@lift4christ He's definitely not the worst one out there, and I appreciate that this video encourages guys (his primary audience) to respect women in the weight room.

 

[nathan2018]

@lift4christ I know the YouTube algorithm favors those kinds of titles but imo that does not make it exempt from criticism. It’s no different than a newspaper using a misleading headline.

 

[godslilangel22]

@patsy_cline_fan Kind of anecdotal at this point, but I feel like before I started HRT, I would just gradually fade throughout the day until I was tired at night, and after a set of 12 hour shifts I would just be completely exhausted for the day or two after. Now that I've been on HRT for a year, I feel like I'm pretty stable throughout the day, and then I just crash when I hit my endurance limit, but I'm 100% good to go the next day.

 

[patsy_cline_fan]

@godslilangel22 By HRT do you mean oestrogen for menopause? What made you decide to start? I'm 46F so it's relevant.

 

[godslilangel22]

@patsy_cline_fan Oh, no no no MtF transgender.

 

[patsy_cline_fan]

@godslilangel22 Ahahaha!

 

[adelgal]

@patsy_cline_fan 46F here. I’ve been getting testosterone pellets for a little over 6 months. It’s been absolutely life changing in so many ways. After seeing the changes in me several of my friends have jumped on and had similar results. I’m super happy to talk about it.

 

[jessephilz]

@adelgal I’d love to know more. How did you get started with it?