Written by Ron Kosloff.

Women & Weights

Many years ago one of my students, a young lady named Gloria, was perplexed.

She wanted to lift weights. She wanted to look good, but she was just terrified that she’d end up looking like a man. I advised her that as long as you are not taking any kind of anabolic steroids, like most of the women in contests today do, then looking like a man was not of any concern.

Most of the women competing in today’s competitions look like men because they have been using testosterone-enhancing drugs. It appears to the public that a woman’s head has been placed on a man’s body, and sometimes it doesn’t even look like a woman’s head.

I tried to explain to her that she could never look like that because women manufacture more estrogen and more progesterone they do testosterone. I told her that she was a pure, good-looking woman, and she would never look like a man. When a woman lifts weights, she will develop muscle, but she will definitely never look like a man.

A Lack Of Testosterone

The fact is, testosterone is the primary muscle-building hormone in the body.

Men roughly secrete 85% testosterone and 15% estrogen/progesterone, whereas women secrete 85% estrogen/progesterone and 15% testosterone.

Two bodybuilders that come to mind in female bodybuilding are Rachel McCleesh and Gladys Portuguese. Both of these women had very beautiful physiques. Gladys Portuguese, as a matter of fact, was trained by Vince and used his methods.



Gloria seemed relieved by the information I was giving her and responded by saying, “Nobody ever explained that to me before”.

This conversation and training were about 5 years ago now and she ended up looking just sensational. Gloria is 35 now and still looks sensational. Her husband also lifted weights and was in great shape also.

I recall when I put her on a nutritional program her husband was in complete agreement with me. I put her on my Sterol-11 (NSP Ultimate Hormone Optimizer), plus as part of her program and her husband questioned that.

He said, “You know you there is orchic (bull testicle) in there, and that’s not for women”.

Well, quite the contrary.

I explained it will just increase her testosterone levels while she’s trying to gain. He’ll be manufacturing slightly more testosterone for better gains naturally. I continued to explain to him that she’s not going to take it all the time and it’s not going to harm her. After some time had passed, and the Sterol-11 plus didn’t harm her he understood what I was talking about.

Ultimate Hormone Optimizer (formerly Sterol-11)

Stay Off The Juice

I recall I was in my office one day, some years ago, and the doorbell rang. I opened the door but, the phone rang. I saw the gentleman standing outside. At this point, I thought he was alone. I had to answer the phone so, I told him to come in and I would be right with him. I heard these two deep voices say “Okay”.

I was surprised when I went out in front of my office to see this guy and his girlfriend. She had facial hair, and her voice was deep. She was far more masculine than she was feminine, and that was because she was on the “Juice”.

Of course, when Gloria was on a nutritional program had her eating a lot of eggs and a lot of natural fats. Natural fats produce hormones. Not only did Gloria’s estrogen/progesterone levels go up but her testosterone levels went up also, but it was proportionate. Her estrogen levels were proportionate to her testosterone. 

Women Vs. Men

I personally would much rather train women any day. Women train harder because they’re prepared by nature to endure more pain. When naturally endeavoring to have children you are also naturally prepared to endure pain.

The other reason I prefer to train women is that they listen. They don’t have that macho attitude of “I lift heavy weights” and “How much can you bench??”

They’re not interested in that macho stuff their only interested in looking good.

That’s Vince’s method and that’s the ignorance out there in today’s bodybuilding.