Training Smart and Finding the right Program as a young female
Doing strength training, improving our athletic ability, or just getting into exercise as a female can be super daunting no matter how old you are or how much experience you have. Knowing what exercise is best for you, how to not over do it, how to program our workouts, and avoid injury can be stressful, especially in this day and age where there are so many opinions on social media that we don’t know who we can trust.
Females are statistically more prone to soft tissue and joint injuries whether that be an ACL injury as a young female or later in life weak bones leading to osteoporosis. As an Exercise physiologist I want to walk you through how to make the best decision for yourself, your goals and your training background so that we can be strong and avoid injury.
Where to Start: Nailing the Foundational Movement Patterns
Before worrying about complex routines, heavy loads and high-speed drills we need to build a solid foundation. If we can execute a hinge, squat, lunge, push, pull, carry and brace movements with control under heavy load then we avoid faulty mechanics and risk of injury.
1. Hip Hinge
Focus: Driving hips back with a neutral spine (posterior chain: glutes, hamstrings, lower back).
Why It Matters: Balances quad dominance, protects the knee joint, and builds sprint/jump power.
Key Lifts: RDLs, Glute Bridges, Kettlebell Swings, Trap Bar Deadlifts.
2. Squat
Focus: Bending simultaneously at hips, knees, and ankles with an upright trunk.
Why It Matters: Develops vertical force production, quad strength, and ankle mobility.
Key Lifts: Goblet, Front, Safety Bar, or Box Squats.
3. Lunge / Single-Leg
Focus: Controlling balance and force production on one leg at a time.
Why It Matters: Matches sport demands, fixes side-to-side asymmetries, and prevents knee caving (valgus).
Key Lifts: Split Squats, Reverse Lunges, Step-Ups, Single-Leg RDLs.
4. Upper Body Push
Focus: Moving resistance away from the body (chest, shoulders, triceps).
Why It Matters: Improves posture, contact tolerance in team sports, and overall kinetic chain power.
Key Lifts: Dumbbell Bench Press, Push-Ups, Overhead Press.
5. Upper Body Pull
Focus: Drawing resistance toward the body (lats, rhomboids, upper back).
Why It Matters: Counteracts screen-time posture and stabilizes the shoulder for throwing and sprinting.
Key Lifts: Inverted Rows, Single-Arm DB Rows, Lat Pulldowns, Band Pull-Aparts.
6. Core Stability & Carries
Focus: Bracing the trunk to resist rotation, extension, and flexing under load.
Why It Matters: Transfers power efficiently between lower/upper body while protecting the spine.
Key Lifts: Farmer's Carries, Pallof Press, Deadbugs, Suitcase Carries.
What does a good program look like?
Long term development of exercise and how well we progress can come with confusion. Heavily sweating, feeling fatigued, and felling sore for days after. These signs are proof of a good workout but rather signs of fatigue.
Our body best responds and adapts to a stimulus (in this case can be weights) that is more than what we are currently use to. However we can not make that a big stimulus off the jump. We need to slowly introduce our body to these new movements and loads. We can then begin to increase these loads as our body starts to adjust again. However in saying that we cannot train 100% all the time, we also need to allow our body to rest. At rest is when our body is doing all the work to make changes so that we can react to a new stimulus again.
Here are some way to increase our training that doesn’t involve increasing the weight:
Increasing our range of motion: making our squats deeper and our hinge movements bigger
Changing the tempo: slowing down the movement to challenge our control
Increase the amount of sets or reps: Allows the tissue to work for longer periods of time
Matching the program to the person
Downloading a program off the internet cannot account for an individuals biomechanics, training history or lifestyle factors. A smart program is one that is tailored to the athletes.
Rather than selecting trending exercises and tracking progress based on sweat levels, working with an Accredited Exercise Physiologist at Innova means you will get assessments of movement quality and force plates that will look at hidden bottlenecks that could be leading to injury, deficits in joint stability, and tissue tolerance. You have access to a program that is continuously adjusted based on daily volume, intensity, and movement selection based on total life stress (allostatic load), menstrual cycle symptoms, fatigue metrics, and current recovery status.
This keeps training productive without pushing your body over the edge into chronic fatigue or into energy deficits.
Movement and exercise are all about feeling your best, doing exercise that you like and is designed specifically for you. Being given the knowledge on how to feel strong and build confidence is what will help you continue ticking off your goals.
