Let’s start by addressing the pink elephant in the room. The number one question I get asked by women who are embarking on a strength training routine for the first time is: Won’t strength training bulk me up?

Short Answer: No.
Long Answer: Nooooooooo.

I kid, I kid. I’m actually not kidding about the fact that following this workout program won’t bulk you up, but the question deserves a more nuanced answer.

As a man who has trained women for 15 years, I fully understand why a lot of women might think that strength training is going cause them to bulk, and I’ve worked really hard to debunk that myth. We’ve made a lot of headway, but there’s still a long way to go before strength training for women is widely accepted.

First off, I think a lot of women—understandably, but incorrectly—associate strength training with bodybuilding and get visions of huge men lifting weights. Moreover, a lot of training routines are designed by men with themselves in mind, so I can definitely see how women could feel like their goals and needs aren’t being met.

That’s exactly why I created a separate men’s and a separate women’s programs. I actually struggled with whether to do separate routines or just offer one ubiquitous program, and truth be told, most people advised me just to do one routine to make it easier.

But when it came down to it, I don’t train women the same as I train men in most cases, and I want this program to mimic the way I train my in-person female clients. The exercises are all the same; there are no gender-specific exercises, after all. But the way we program the workouts is different, not due to gender but due to differing goals. The women I train in person largely have different goals and want to focus on different parts of the body than the men I train; and call me Captain Obvious, but different goals necessitate a different plan of attack. This plan is the result of 15 years of asking women THEIR goals, and programming accordingly.