DC training for my wife?

[Getnbigger]

I apoligize if this is a dumb post, however I had a couple questions about DC training for females. My first thought is that the training should not make a big difference for men or women, but be based more on experience, dedication, and drive. However, I was hoping others on this board might be able to confirm my beliefs about women training DC style, or help me to understand why it is not the best program.

My wife is my current lifting partner and has been spotting me for about 2 years on DC. During this time she has lifted very heavy and consistently through many different compound movements. The last 6 months or so she has become so committed to beating her log book doing a pretty traditional high volume push, pull, legs and is asking to begin training DC. During this time she has kept track of her macros while always taking in a minimum of 150+ grams of protein. I thought her stats and current lifts might contribute to if she should begin DC with me.

5'2
125 lbs
Rack Deads 205x10
Floor Deads 165x6
Flat Bench 95x5
Dbell bench 40's x 6
neutral grip body weight pull ups 4
body weight dips 14
military press 70x8
Free weight squat 95x15, 145x6

I compete and my wife claims to never want to step on stage. However, she loves getting stronger and goal would be to get bigger upper body, and increase muscle in legs (however, she holds most of her weight in her legs/hips like many women). Should she be concerned about training super heavy on lower body movements with the fear of legs getting "even bigger"? Typically, her lower body workouts have been higher reps, less rest time.

Thank you all for your help. Feel free to ask any other questions in order to evaluate her next steps?

[bbjeff86]

She may have put in borderline enough time to train DC... but for her goals (particularly lower body), and her lifts, I don't really think it warrants her needing to do DC training personally.

I will let others with more experience training women with DC chime in on this, especially since I haven't trained DC in over 1.5 years.

[Getnbigger]

She may have put in borderline enough time to train DC... but for her goals (particularly lower body), and her lifts, I don't really think it warrants her needing to do DC training personally.

I will let others with more experience training women with DC chime in on this, especially since I haven't trained DC in over 1.5 years.

Thanks for the reply. I really have no idea if she should do it or not? She has been lifting for about 5 years, but no where near as serious as the past 12 months or so.
Also, she is 26 years old. Thanks

[Sammich]

It looks like your wife might need some more strength and experience before taking the DC plunge. I bet you money if she did a few hard cycles of 5/3/1 or something similar that she would be better off.

[HungryHungarian]

I've trained DC for 3 years now and during that time my best spotter has been my wife. My wife is a figure competitor and over the last year I've worked out a pseudo DC program for her that she uses up to 3 weeks from her show that incorporates higher reps and a few additonal plyometric exercises for lower body. After the Master Nationals last weekend she told me within minutes of getting off stage that she cant wait to eat more and start DC training again to gain some more size. LOL, god i love her!

Check out her spot on MD a couple weeks ago where she mentions DC training:
http://forums.musculardevelopment.co...ters-Nationals

[DefIguana]

Why not keep her to low rep, high intensity leg training (1-3)instead?

Most of the gains would be in efficiency rather than size.

I'd think you wouldn't want her doing the 20 reppers as these are the main driving force for leg size in a dc program. In the original write ups and cycles for pennies that's how Dante explained it. The 20 repper makes people grow, he only skips it if someone doesn't need more leg size. She doesn't, so skip the widow and stick to the low rep imo.

[Getnbigger]

I've trained DC for 3 years now and during that time my best spotter has been my wife. My wife is a figure competitor and over the last year I've worked out a pseudo DC program for her that she uses up to 3 weeks from her show that incorporates higher reps and a few additonal plyometric exercises for lower body. After the Master Nationals last weekend she told me within minutes of getting off stage that she cant wait to eat more and start DC training again to gain some more size. LOL, god i love her!

Check out her spot on MD a couple weeks ago where she mentions DC training:
http://forums.musculardevelopment.co...ters-Nationals

Thats great stuff. My wife is my training partner as well, glad to see it works for both of you!

[Getnbigger]

Why not keep her to low rep, high intensity leg training (1-3)instead?

Most of the gains would be in efficiency rather than size.

I'd think you wouldn't want her doing the 20 reppers as these are the main driving force for leg size in a dc program. In the original write ups and cycles for pennies that's how Dante explained it. The 20 repper makes people grow, he only skips it if someone doesn't need more leg size. She doesn't, so skip the widow and stick to the low rep imo.

This is a good idea. I think I will make sure not to incorporate the widows for her leg days. She absolutely loves beating her log book. I think thats the biggest reason she likes the thought of DC. Thank you for the reply.

[DefIguana]

Found this in CFP:

doggcrapp: My opinion is train a woman like a man--she keeps a log and have her use progressively heavier weights on key exercises after you have accessed her body and noted what needs to be done. Alot of it I would have to put in after seeing the woman's body. If she is built like a field hockey player with muscular legs and wants a fitness model look, I would have her high rep legs with lighter weights and build other parts of her body. If she is painfully skinny I would stick with plan A--progressively heavier weights on key exercises. Unlike a man with who your trying to put on as much muscle mass as possible (usually), you really dont want to be building blocky legs on a woman. Some women have naturally blocky legs and it throws their body off. You almost have to overtrain their legs with severe daily cardio and high rep training to get their legs down in size. I never have women train calves heavy either--ever. Thirty reps minimum on those. I think highly defined calves look great on a woman but big calves totally screw up the flow. Unless they are pretty hardcore into fitness magnus I wouldnt have them doing rest pauses just straight sets. I say make it fun for them--make them beat their training log from last week all the time. Progressively heavier weights on delts, arms, lats, and then cardio and high rep the crap out of their legs. Tough question to answer without knowing if I am looking at Kate Moss or Anna Nicole Smith. I would have Kate doing everything heavy and progressive. Anna I would do as stated above.

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[bmxican]

Found this in CFP:

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thanks for sharing that!

[Getnbigger]

Found this in CFP:

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Ya definitely, thank you for sharing this. I have incorporated some of these ideas into my wife's routine the past couple workouts. She has now done 6 dc workouts pretty successfully. She can't believe how wiped out she is with so little volume. We are keeping all of her leg movements 30+ on rest pause sets, and 20+ on straight sets. Thank you for the help.