Let’s get right to the point and get to the heart of the matter. Male and female bodybuilding are not the same thing! All information on female bodybuilding with muscle growth tips.
Tips, tactics, and bodybuilding exercises tailored to women are essential if you’re a woman interested in becoming a female bodybuilder or simply interested in female muscle growth.
Because women may not benefit from what males find effective. Fortunately for you, girl, we have you covered!
This comprehensive guide to female bodybuilding will teach you all you need to know to begin gaining lean muscle mass. All information on female bodybuilding.
And that’s not all! Additionally, we included a few tried-and-true exercises that are particularly effective for female bodybuilders. Read on for more!
A brief overview of female bodybuilding history
It took a long time for women to truly reach that degree, but when we think about female bodybuilding, we see the women competing at the Rising Phoenix World Championships (or, if you haven’t been paying attention, the previous Ms. Olympia contests).
Prior to discussing the best advice for female bodybuilders who wish to gain muscle, let’s have a look at the beginnings of the sport. All information on female bodybuilding.
From freak to physique
Men were already lifting weights back then (we’re talking about the ancient Greeks and Egyptians), but not in the manner we do it now.
You know, people weren’t lifting weights and showing off their enormous muscle mass to further their own interests or strive to get their ideal body back then.
The purpose of lifting weights was to amuse the general population. Instead of being revered and admired for their amazing physique, buff males were looked down upon when they performed on circus freak shows for the public to see. All information on female bodybuilding.
Fortunately for the strongman, the concept of weightlifting evolved along with the times. Muscle growth became popular as people began to value muscle and strive for a well-defined physique!
The Great Show, the inaugural bodybuilding competition, gave this appreciation of the physique its first official platform in 1901. Officially, bodybuilding became a well-known sport!
From male to female
But up until this time, bodybuilding was exclusively for men, and a female bodybuilder was just unheard of—unless, perhaps, she was a part of the freak exhibitions we mentioned before or circus strongwoman acts. All information on female bodybuilding.
Women were only used as an additional sideshow in bodybuilding competitions until the 1970s. But it wasn’t for female bodybuilders; rather, it was for bikini displays and beauty pageants for women.
But as the number of female bodybuilders grew over the 20th century, Joe Weider’s Olympia Fitness & Performance Weekend founders (also known as Mr. Olympia) ultimately made the decision to welcome women to compete in 1980!
In that year, the inaugural Ms. Olympia competition was formally held by the IFBB, bringing female bodybuilding to the masses. It paved the way for numerous subsequent female contests. All information on female bodybuilding.
Legendary figures like Cory Everson, Lynn Conk Wright, Stacey Bentley, and Rachel McLish (the first Miss Olympia) dazzled the crowds with their female bodybuilding prowess on stage during the early years of the sport.
Bodybuilding among women was here to stay!
What was their method? How can a female build muscle? In addition to providing you with some fantastic female bodybuilding exercises and advice on how to grow female muscles, we’ll go into more detail about it below.
First, though, let’s examine some of the highs and lows of bodybuilding for women as the discipline began to develop. All information on female bodybuilding.
Ups and downs of famous female bodybuilders
Being a woman in this male-dominated environment is challenging, but it’s even more challenging for a female bodybuilder!
We might claim that women have struggled to gain the respect they are due, and we continue to encounter discrimination and concerns about “not being feminine enough.”
For the sport and its female competitors to reach this point, there have been many ups and downs throughout the years. Let’s take a brief look at a few of these:
Pumping Iron II: The Women
Pumping Iron II, the female adaptation of the bodybuilding classic featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger, is one of the sport’s most famous moments. It was a significant step toward popularizing female bodybuilding.
However, it also indicated a problem. All information on female bodybuilding.
Rachel McLish and Bev Francis are the film’s primary actors, and their conflict in the film represents the divergent views on the feminine body. Just have a look at the trailer for Pumping Iron 2:
It showed two ideas of what the goal of women bodybuilders should be:
- Aesthetics
- Size
Bev Francis, a powerlifter, was extremely strong and perceived by many as “too masculine,” whereas Rachel was deemed attractive and “still feminine” by the majority.
Because so many people continue to criticize bodybuilders for being overly strong and masculine, this division in bodybuilding for women has always been problematic.
The “20 percent rule”
The greatest setback for women with strong bodies occurred in December 2004. In an official statement at the time, the IFBB Professional Division requested that female competitors adhere to “a 20% decrease in the amount of muscularity” for “aesthetics and health reasons.” All information on female bodybuilding.
Everyone was aware that the organization’s main stance was that women lacked enough femininity and were too masculine.
The idea that women went too far in their pursuit of size and muscle mass was widely held, particularly by those who (ab)used steroids and hormones to produce masculinizing traits like “man face.”
However, a lot of people did believe these strong ladies were quite attractive. All information on female bodybuilding.
Ultimately, it all boils down to personal preference, which is the issue. There is no right or wrong answer in this debate; some people think it is overly masculine, while others think it is the ideal feminine form.
However, the reality is that this debate ultimately killed out a lot of female bodybuilding’s appeal, which is why the 2015 Miss Olympia pageant was canceled.
Ultimately, this was how far too many people reacted to women’s bodybuilding.
But we didn’t give up!
Fortunately, there is more to the story.
Even though there isn’t a Ms. Olympia anymore, the Rising Phoenix Women’s Bodybuilding World Championship will take its place, and we continue to compete in spite of the negative publicity we receive. All information on female bodybuilding.
Watch these women as they flaunt their muscles:
You know, women’s bodybuilding never truly disappeared; instead, people were attempting to push us away by imposing their ideas about how we should look.
But do they not realize that we are too powerful to just ignore? As we have stated, female bodybuilding is here to stay!
That leads us to the actual method:
How can a woman like you get ripped?
Which exercises for female bodybuilding should you begin?
What are the best ways for women to gain muscle?
Let’s discover…
How to build muscle as a female
Alright, enough chitchat, let’s get right to the point: how can women really develop their muscles?
What exercises to perform, what diet to adhere to, and what other considerations should be made?
In this crash course on female bodybuilding, we’ll address these and other questions; you might want to take notes! All information on female bodybuilding.
- Set realistic expectations and goals
- Diet – Get more calories than you use to build muscle
- Pay attention to macros
- Prepare a workout plan
- Use supplements to power up your effort
Set realistic expectations and goals
Make sure you have clear objectives and goals for everything you undertake.
As we stated at the outset, female bodybuilding differs from male bodybuilding, so if you’ve been reading about bodybuilding in general, you may not know what to anticipate.
You see, women don’t create as much testosterone as men do, thus they won’t be able to gain muscle mass as easily.
In addition, a lot of women make the mistake of attempting to mix fat loss and muscle growth. All information on female bodybuilding.
They make the decision to follow a strict diet, but no matter how hard they workout, they are unable to acquire any muscle mass. On the other hand, they try to bulk up by eating everything in sight, which leads to more fat than muscle.
You will be disappointed since your expectations were not met, and you will not be able to accomplish your goals. All information on female bodybuilding.
Instead, use your awareness of how your body functions to set reasonable goals for yourself:
- You won’t gain muscle mass as quickly as males since you don’t create as much testosterone.
- You will also gain some fat in order to optimize your gains in lean muscle. It comes naturally! Eat only what you need; avoid overeating or undereating.
How then do you know what to eat? In order to gain muscle, you should design a diet that ensures you consume more calories than you burn (but not too many to avoid fat). This is how…
Diet – Get more calories than you use to build muscle
In other words, consume more calories than your body requires for muscle. That’s what you need to do to reach your bodybuilding objectives!
However, how can one determine the number of calories in that?
Keeping a record of your food intake and the number of calories it contains is the best place to start. All information on female bodybuilding.
Check the packaging on everything or look stuff up on calorie checkers like this one here. You can then keep track of it by just writing it down somewhere or using a food log app (like MyFitnessPal for example).
You can then determine your daily average caloric intake after doing this for a few days. After you are aware of this, you may begin modifying your diet to promote muscle growth.
Start by increasing your calorie consumption by a few hundred, and then gradually increase it by 50 to 100 every two to three weeks. All information on female bodybuilding.
In this way, you don’t shock your body by suddenly increasing your caloric intake (or decreasing it, but you shouldn’t do that in the first place if you want muscle).
Pay attention to macros
If you are somewhat familiar with bodybuilding, you are aware of the importance of paying attention to macronutrients.
The three primary macros, each of which has unique advantages for your body (and its growth), are the center of your universe as a bodybuilder:
- Protein
- Fat
- Carbs
As a rule of thumb, a well-balanced diet for a female bodybuilder contains 30% protein, 30% fat, and 40% carbs.
Prepare a workout plan
It’s not enough to only prepare a food plan; you also need to have a well-drafted exercise program.
You see how it all connects? Whatever you do, your female bodybuilding diet and exercise regimen must align with your own expectations and objectives.
However, as always, it’s easier said than done. All information on female bodybuilding.
What is the process for designing the perfect exercise program?
Regardless of how long you’ve been working out, the first step is to assess where you are today and how your body has changed over the last few weeks, months, or years.
Which muscle groups do you find most difficult to develop? Furthermore, which muscle groups appear to increase naturally?
Once you’ve established what works and what doesn’t, you can modify your exercise regimen to suit your demands and body. All information on female bodybuilding.
Some muscle groups can probably be worked once a week, but you should work on the ones that are hard for you at least twice a week.
Another piece of advice is to avoid doing too many aerobic exercises. Although we still recommend using cardio in your training regimen because it is excellent for cardiovascular health and overall body wellness (keeping you fit and healthy), it won’t help you gain as much muscle. All information on female bodybuilding.
Additionally, it wastes important energy that you could have used to increase your muscle mass even though it doesn’t create muscle.
Therefore, give weight training and strength training more attention than cardio if you want to develop that powerful body. All information on female bodybuilding.
Lastly, you should incorporate exercises for every muscle group into your final training program. The adage “never skip leg day” is well-known.
Your training regimen for female bodybuilding may eventually resemble this:
- Day 1 – Chest and arm exercises
- Day 2 – Shoulder and back exercises
- Day 3 – High-intensity workouts
- Day 4 – Leg day
- Day 5 – Cardio
- Day 6 & 7 – Rest
Take vitamins to increase your level of effort.
We’re not talking about injections, steroids, and the like, but if you do like things, then don’t judge us. However, you might want to learn about these adverse effects of steroids in women. All information on female bodybuilding.
Anyway, we’re talking about using (natural) supplements to increase your energy and power. Consider products that are readily available at your neighborhood gyms, like as whey protein or creatine, which will undoubtedly give you the boost you require!
In addition to these well-known supplements, you can consider Nova tech sciences, a potent yet completely natural and legal steroid substitute.
These bodybuilding supplements are intended to support lean muscle growth, aid in recovery, and help you push through your workouts. All information on female bodybuilding.
Check out Nova tech sciences female bodybuilding range below:
Find Out More
Conclusion
Compared to the early days of strongwomen at freak shows, female bodybuilding has advanced significantly. All information on female bodybuilding.
Millions of women worldwide are searching for strategies to help them gain more muscle and develop the body of their dreams.
Bodybuilding has even been shown to have a favorable psychological impact on women, according to scientific research! But what’s stopping you?
By using the advice above, you may begin female bodybuilding right now and accomplish your objectives! All information on female bodybuilding.
