[...] Gentilcore really made my week by announcing that he is going to dedicate more material to women-specific training.  I love reading Tony’s blog and it can only get better if there’s more information [...]

I love it! I’ve been working with a trainer in Seattle for 6 months, have lost a lot of weight (fat) and gained a lot of lean mass. He is the one who pointed me in the direction of all people at CP so I’ve been reading your blog for several months. I loooooove deadlifts and squats. My trainer and I giggle (okay I giggle, he tries to hide a smirk) when we pass the pink dumbbell chickies. I love it when I go to do pulldowns and I’m pulling 20 pounds more than the guy who just walked away. Increased cognitive function? Bonus. Did I mentioned I’m the big 5-0? I’ll take all the cognition I can get!

Thank you! Women need to hear the truth, just the other day, I was lifting in the vicinity of the inner/outer machines. Only because that is where the cable row is located. There was a woman on the inner/outer and no kidding she was reading a magazine. I was doing a circuit of heavy cable rows, 1 minute jump roping and single leg squats to the bench. Later in the locker room we were clothed at the time) this same woman asked me about my shoes, I had vibrams on, then she said, You work out so hard, I COULD NEVER DO THAT. she didn’t believe she could be strong and work out hard. It’s such a shame so many women really believe they can’t be strong and train as hard if not harder than the guys and still be feminine.

I like to pick up heavy things. Thank you for proudly showing off other women who do so too! It’s a mentality that needs to spread. (that we CAN lift heavy. Too many women short-change themselves because they think they can’t lift heavy without exploding with bulging muscles.) I followed your link and wound up on Tracy Anderson’s site. I’m going to do some dumbbell snatches (as heavy as possible) to counteract her philosophy (”no woman should lift more than 3 pounds” What is that?! So you’re saying you shouldn’t pick up your kids?).

Yeah, what if the ham sandwich had seeded mustard on it or something? Surely, that would make it much smarter than Tracy Anderson…

Fantastic news that you’re going to write more on the women-specific stuff! Thank you. You write a brilliant blog anyway, but I’m always eager to see people writing women-specific material (I would do - I’m biased).

I totally agree on the cognitive function/strength training stuff. I used to have a memory like a kitchen sieve. These days I definitely face half a chance of remembering stuff. I’m much faster in general day-to-day cognitive stuff too but not sure how much of that is due to the amount of new information I read and learn every day about diet and training and the number of studies I consider, assess and compare to build my own programs (both gym and nutritional).