Exercising is a vital component of a healthy lifestyle and it provides benefits to both men and women. Staying physically active can offer great advantages such as better cardiovascular health, weight management, and better mental well-being. Although those components are only the top layer of what really goes on when exercising. It is essential to recognize and understand the hormonal differences between men and women and their influence on how exercise affects the body from the aspects of reproductive organs, body composition/ metabolism, and exercise induced stress.

The first component we can think of when discussing hormonal release differences between men and women is their reproductive organs. Men will always have an abundance of testosterone due to their reproductive organs. This is why men tend to have higher muscle mass when going through full development and higher power output when exercising. 

On the other hand, women who do not have testes (testosterone producer) therefore will have a lower count of testosterone in their body. Testosterone plays a key role in muscle growth, strength development, and overall athletic performance. Having an abundance of the hormone can boost your recovery time, and protein synthesis. So we can kill the myth of “Women will get bulky when they do strength training constantly”. 

Another hormone that brings more differences between men and women and its effect with exercise is estrogen. Estrogen is primarily a complex hormone for women. It does have similar effects to testosterone but also goes into improving bone health, joint stability, and helping with fat storage. For women, high levels of estrogen leads to higher fat storage at the hips and thighs, affecting body composition. In comparison to the levels of testosterone in men, estrogen levels in women are much lower, and even much lower in men, hence why men tend to store less fat and have a higher muscle mass.     Lets not forget women's menstrual cycle that affects their energy levels. The follicular phase which is before ovulation is associated with high estrogen levels leading to higher fat metabolism and improved exercise performance. In contrast the luteal phase which is post ovulation leads to high progesterone levels causing a decrease in carbohydrate utilization and reduced exercise capacity.

When we look at the metabolic system between men and women, the higher muscle mass composition in men leads to a higher metabolic rate, causing a higher caloric expenditure during exercise. For women, their lower muscle mass composition leads to a lower caloric expenditure during exercise and lower metabolic rate. Their higher fat composition serves as energy for longer bouts of exercises that increases the stress levels on the body. The body will release stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline which helps with energy mobilization and focus. However, the body composition along with the stress hormones also leads to recovery and overall performance differences.
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Ultimately, hormonal differences between men and women have a significant impact on exercise performance. While men benefit from higher testosterone levels, resulting in greater muscle mass and strength, women experience unique hormonal fluctuations throughout their menstrual cycle that can affect energy levels and exercise capacity. Recognizing and understanding these differences allows coaches to tailor the workouts and still attain the goal at hand.

​-Coach Andy Louis 

Why must we always have a goal when training? Why is it important? A wise person once said “Trust and focus on the process and the finish line will get closer and closer through your consistency”. Thus, with a goal set in stone, you as an individual will take only the steps required to achieve it. With social media serving as a big distraction to all population types, both athletes and coaches can lose track of their priority and goal.

It can turn into a longer journey than it needs to be when we start losing our tracks, not staying consistent to taking things one at a time and getting distracted by other things that were not in our original thought process. Although we are used to a multitasking environment, it does not mean the same to cram all of our goals into one priority. At some point you will be overwhelmed. Sit down first, plan things out, and check them off one by one. That way, there won’t be any back and forth or set backs. If you’re training for a specific sport, there’s no need to start thinking about how many muscle ups you could do after you’ve seen someone of a smaller figure get it done effortlessly. When you find out that you can’t even do one and you let that bother you, they have succeeded at distracting you. If your job on the field is to be the fastest, strongest running back, then your training should only consist of exercises that will improve your performance for that position. You don’t need to worry about being able to dunk a basketball on your free time. 

At SPU, we put our athletes through different phases of training based on their biomechanical needs first, and then their sport second. That is because our primary goal is to turn you into a better athlete through the fundamentals of movement, not how much you can squat or deadlift.

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​At SPU we value the basic needs that occur when training functional fundamental movement patterns. And when we say functional, we mean the way that your body would naturally work in a vertical, horizontal (through pronation/supination) rotational, and stabilizing aspect.  Understanding how the body works fundamentally and applying that knowledge to our training programs is a huge part of what makes us different. All individuals are built differently, so does it make sense to have machines that primarily isolate joint function? Is that the way the body would function in its natural state nevertheless on the field performing?

For those who neglect the functional/fundamental training concept, it will always look normal to them that locking themselves up in a machine to isolate a specific joint during a workout is fine.  For instance, sitting in a leg press machine to work the quads and glutes or laying on the stomach to perform hamstring curls in the machine is not as functional as you would think it is. Rather those vague choices can lead to injuries that you may recollect came from bad exercises. In the real world our joints don’t have all that leeway. The body works in unison which means that all the muscles are passively and actively working together to move us. Whether one is working concentrically while the other does all the eccentric stabilizing work, it all connects. 
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Ultimately, in prioritizing the way we naturally move, we can target what we’re lacking to improve whether in strength or mobility. If you have a core, ankles, or shoulder issue, working out in machines that takes away the function of those body parts won’t get you where you should be when you focus on treating your functional and fundamental needs.

-  Coach Andy Louis

Scapula health is important to the longevity and resilience of an athlete,  especially in overhead athletes. Almost every sport requires the athlete to use their  arms but without healthy scapulae the chances of injury increase. Overhead athletes  who lack scapular control may be at an increased risk of tearing their ulnar cruciate  ligament (UCL), better known as Tommy John. They may also experience pain in both  their glenohumeral joint and elbow joint due to increased demand on the muscles  surrounding both areas. Learning to control the scapulae will lead to improvements on  the field and a decrease in injuries. To first understand how healthy scapulae can  improve the ability of an athlete, one must first understand how the scapulae work. 

There are six ways that the scapulae (shoulder blades) move. The act of  retraction occurs by squeezing the shoulder blades together towards the spine.  Retraction is controlled by the rhomboid major/minor muscles, the trapezius, and the  latissimus dorsi. Protraction is the opposite of retraction, where the shoulder blades  move away from the spine. This movement is controlled by the pectoralis major/minor  and serratus anterior. Elevation is raising the shoulder blades as if you were to shrug  your shoulders. This motion is controlled by the levator scapulae and the upper trapezius. Depressing the scapula is bringing the shoulder blades down which is  controlled by the latissimus dorsi, serratus anterior, pectorals major/minor muscles,  and the trapezius, but is also aided by gravity naturally depressing the scapulae. The  last two motions are upward rotation controlled by the trapezius and serratus anterior  and downward rotation controlled by the rhomboids, latissimus dorsi, and pectoralis  muscles with the help of gravity. 
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Before an athlete can improve upon their strength in the weight room, they must  first learn to control these specific functions of the scapula. A great way to learn  scapular control is to perform the six motions with added resistance. Resistance  bands, body weight exercises, and light weights are great tools to teach the proper  mechanics of shoulder blades. Exercises like scapula pushups teach protraction and  retraction, chin-ups place the scapulae through all six motions and weighted carries  can help improve the stabilization of the shoulder blades. Performing a proper warmup  can also help improve the function of the scapulae making pushing and pulling  exercises feel more natural and limiting the over-activation muscles. Once an athlete  has mastered scapular control they will start to see an improvement in the weight room  and a carryover to their sport. Eventually, pain will subside and movements will feel  more fluid. 

- Coach Matt Smith

To understand deceleration in sports you must first understand how it works in regularity. Deceleration/slowing down means an increase in speed opposite to the initial direction the body was moving. This occurs in running, throwing and kicking. In running, the body would have to initiate force production against the ground the opposite way to counter the given speed the body was moving at. Now when we look deeper into the biomechanics behind deceleration, we can see a high correlation to eccentric, concentric strength and ground force production and vice versa for other movements. As we already know Newton’s 1st Law of Inertia, both eccentric strength and concentric strength acts together on the body to initiate that change in direction otherwise you can not slow down efficiently. Outside of sports, deceleration happens all the time through the eccentric movements we do on a daily basis, like going down a staircase. However, in sports, specifically multi directional sports, efficient deceleration is a must skill.
 
When an athlete performs in a particular sport, the ability to increase speed then to spontaneously cut and turn for either recovery on defense or juking through a defensive back is a skill that will 100% bring the spotlight on you. That is called being agile,  and to get agile you need to work on getting that quick force production and deceleration to be able to cut efficiently. To enhance your agility skills you would have to include both power and strength training in your routine. That would help the muscles in your body learn how to recruit more motor units for that power output that you need. However there is a big factor that is the muscle fiber types that the body comprises. The athletes with fast twitch muscle fibers will look quicker when doing the same movements compared to the slow twitch muscle fibers. The reason behind that is because fast twitch fibers are quick at recruiting all the motor units in your muscles to create either positive or negative force that you need for acceleration or deceleration.

For kickers, throwers, baseball, tennis, golf players and so on, the follow through of the swing is very important. The deceleration of the limb while transitioning the rotational force produced to the ball will not only equate to a better throw or swing but also prevent you from getting injured. You can easily hurt the vertebrae when twisting without good eccentric strength. This is where proper biomechanics training with stability becomes super important and a huge part of it includes decelerating in the transition when transferring power. When those factors don’t align, you will see athletes go all over the place with their body with no stability, trying to compensate for the intense movements they have to do.

- Coach Andy Louis

Generally speaking we often hear certain myths about resistance training and we tend to take that information out of context. All sorts of rumors about resistance training go around and it’s usually from people who did not get a proper introduction and just don’t know anything about it. Like, resistance training will stunt your growth/kids should stray away from lifting weights too early, or even adolescent girls and grown women thinking they’ll get too bulky. Now you can say there can be truth to some of those statements but the truth that we need to focus on are not even in our perspective. 

    When parents come to us professionals, they often worry about the system we utilize in the weight room with their kids. They’re worried about their kids squatting, deadlifting etc… Those moments are when we get that opportunity to break down our system to them and show the real truth behind resistance training. Resistance training at a young age won’t stunt your growth but it can damage your body with injuries if not done properly. Every kid grows differently and they all can be at different stages while being the same age. When we’re training kids we don't just give them a program full of exercises that aren’t tailored to their own body’s capabilities. We assess their movements on a fundamental basis prior to starting their program. Then we address the red flags by giving them movement prescriptions they need the most. Another thing we focus on is their level of maturity. Do they have that level of autonomy to start taking resistance training seriously? Are they at a stage where they’ll mostly benefit from a fundamental training environment and learning basics or are they going through puberty and growing superfast and need a mobility/balance based program? These thoughts really matter when we’re talking about kids doing resistance training and issues would only occur when the professionals don’t follow the right protocol. If you have that goal for your kids whether in sports or overall health then you can’t let word of mouth stop your kids from getting the advantage of being a step ahead.

In the women population, we often hear them worrying about bulking up and looking too muscular. Some women see the advantages of being strong and healthy, some are badly informed and focus on the wrong things. Resistance training for women is as good as resistance training for men. It’s not rocket science just because it’s women working out. There are hormonal and fundamental body structure differences to consider but that’s less than the other things you need to know/achieve just to bulk up consistently. Your physique is not just the result of the work you put in the gym, you have to consider how much work you put into nutrition and recovery/sleep. So yes, you can get bulky from working out but only if those other factors are not in check and if it’s not your goal then you’ll be far from being bulky. The choices you make are accountable for your results. When you set a goal, whether it’s losing weight, staying fit or bulking up, you will be the one making the choices that can lead you to that goal. 

Ultimately, it’s all in the process. It’s always easy to assume and not choose to know the process when others are telling you the answers. Once you choose to know the process, you can save yourself time from focusing on the wrong side of things.

​Coach Andy Louis

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