The Most Effective Weight Training, Cardio & Nutrition for Women | Dr. Lauren Colenso-Semple

**Lauren Colenso-Semple** (0:00)
As a woman, if I honestly thought there were things we should do differently to optimize our results, of course, I would be doing them myself and telling other women to do them too. The narrative that women need a sex-specific program or nutrient-timing guidance or a particular intensity of exercise or rep range or all of it, it makes women feel like they're being spoken to and being considered and they're part of this community instead of, oh, you know, just do what your boyfriend does or what your husband does. So the narrative is very much women are not men. And so obviously women need something different. The data says men and women respond to exercise very similarly.

**Andrew Huberman** (0:58)
Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
I'm Andrew Huberman and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. My guest today is Dr. Lauren Colenso-Semple. She holds a PhD in integrative physiology and is a certified strength and conditioning specialist. She is an expert in both the science and practice of building muscle and strength, cardiovascular fitness and the relationship between hormones and exercise. Today's discussion is focused on fitness for women and how it overlaps directly with the same things that men should do for their fitness. Therefore, today's discussion is relevant to both women and men. Dr. Colenso-Semple explains how to structure your ideal training routine according to the time you have available and your health and fitness goals. She also clearly explains what the science says about if and when women's hormone cycles, life stages such as menopause and things like birth control should actually impact how women should train and when. As we all know, information about best practices for fitness, nutrition and health are hotly debated online. Dr. Colenso-Semple has become one of the most trusted voices for explaining what the science says about women's specific fitness, as well as for delivering clear actionable evidence for protocols that work in the real world. It was a true honor and pleasure to host her on the podcast. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is however part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, today's episode does include sponsors. And now for my discussion with Dr. Lauren Colenso-Semple. Dr. Lauren Colenso-Semple, welcome.

**Lauren Colenso-Semple** (2:46)
Thank you.

**Andrew Huberman** (2:47)
Very excited to have you here. To kick things off, is there anything fundamentally different about muscle tissue in men and women?
And if not at the cellular level, in terms of the hormone receptors that they express or the hormones that they're exposed to, in a way that should change people's behavior about how to exercise?

**Lauren Colenso-Semple** (3:10)
When we look at how the muscle responds, so we look at muscle protein synthesis in response to exercise or nutrition, there are no differences. Very similar protein metabolism response, very similar growth response. The major difference, and this is hormone related, is the baseline muscularity, because during puberty, when men experience a surge in testosterone, that coincides with an increase in muscle mass. So if you take an untrained adult man and an untrained adult woman, there will be a disparity in their baseline muscle mass, and that is due to differences in testosterone. However, once they start training, they will gain similar relative size.

**Andrew Huberman** (4:00)
So not that I'm suggesting people get into competitive bodybuilding and use steroids, although some people might make that their life choice. The vast majority of people won't. But if we were to look at female bodybuilders, at any point in the last 30 years or so, it's very clear that with chemical augmentation, which is typically increasing testosterone or some testosterone-like derivative, that women can achieve a very impressive level of muscularity that in many ways rivals what certainly men who are not taking anabolic steroids can achieve. What does that tell us? The fact that the addition of androgens, testosterone and testosterone-like derivatives, can take female musculature and make it look essentially like male musculature. Does that tell us anything interesting that informs the non-steroid user, the non-bodybuilder?

**Lauren Colenso-Semple** (4:56)
Not so much because we're talking about those supraphysiological levels, and that's the real game changer. So if we think about even with men, what is the normal range of testosterone, we don't see this relationship between, oh, you're closer to 900 and you are going to respond better to resistance training. So as long as you are within that wide normal range, there doesn't seem to be a predictability of your response to training. However, once we get into those supraphysiological levels and we're taking that exogenous hormone, then, yes, we are going to develop levels of muscularity that wouldn't necessarily be possible.