In my life I have learned a lot from women, the typical domestic things from Mom the cooking, cleaning,and laundry. I have also learned a lot from various women over the past few years when it comes to proper strength training, nutrition, and observing the things women do better than men in the gym!

I am going to take you guys through a few things I have noticed and learned over the past few years from the opposite sex in the weight room. Let me preface this by saying I am speaking in general terms for the “average” population, from people I have trained with, observed, or trained as clients over the past few years.

What can Men Learn from Women when it comes to strength training and nutrition……?

Check The Ego At The Door

Check your Ego at the Door – this has to be my #1, I can’t tell you how many times I have seen dudes load up way too many plates, or grabbed dumbbells 3 times too heavy and start going to town with some of the worst form ever.

I don’t know where this comes from, maybe it’s a testosterone thing, a warped sense of reality, but guys listen to me here, nobody cares how much weight you can lift, or how strong you are, I sure don’t and I guarantee you the sexy girl on the treadmill doesn’t either.

Be realistic with what you can do with proper form and technique, your results will be much better and you won’t look like such an idiot when you are training.

When is the last time you saw a women load up the squat rack with way too much weight or grab dumbbells 3 times too heavy to do bicep curls? – Point goes to the Women on this one!

Work On Conditioning

Aerobic training – this one is tricky since I am not a fan of traditional “cardio” I am however a fan of sprinting, interval training, and high intensity aerobic sessions. On average women I work with as clients, train with, and observe have a much higher aerobic capacity than the average guy. Most women make it a priority to train aerobically, while most men make it a priority to lift heavy weights. Which is fine I love lifting weights more than most people, but it’s also important to do some type of interval training to raise your heart rate.

On average most “aerobic” style classes, spin classes, and most boot camps are dominated by women, why is that? Honestly, I think most men believe they don’t need that type of training, or their current program is good enough and working just fine for them. If their current programs with no aerobic training were good enough we would see a lot more guys out there looking ripped up like Rambo and we don’t. I will say it again I am not a “cardio” fan, but doing some sprints, interval training and raising your heart rate a few times a week would benefit the average guy out there. Score another one for the ladies out there!

Watch The Food Intake

Portion Control – now I know there are exceptions to everything and I have seen some women put down family sized meals, but on average women have better portion control than us guys. Think about it every social setting you go into, work lunches, dinners, birthday parties, holiday parties, the guys tend to do it a little bigger come meal time than the ladies.

When is the last time you witnessed a women eat a whole pizza? I know I never have, and I personally have pounded 2 pizzas before in one sitting. I am an over-eater by nature, and sometimes as a men we feel since we are naturally bigger it’s ok to eat a lot more.

Women tend to order healthier choices when dinning out, and eat less in public or at least in my experiences. I am guilty of this as well, I have only ordered a healthy salad twice my entire life I usually try go with burgers and pizza –like the average guy. If your goal is to get lean and be in the best shape possible, working on portion control is a huge piece of the puzzle and something many women have master compared to the average Joe.

Now again these are just generalizations about both sexes and from personal experience. There are many things guys do much better then women when it comes to strength training and nutrition. However, the things I listed above are typically done on a higher level by women then guys plain and simple. Next time you hit the weight room or venture out to eat at a restaurant check these things out and see for yourself!

Jeremy Scott is a Prolab Sponsored Athlete and the C.E.O and Creator of www.jeremyscottfitness.com