I indoor rockclimb with my best friend, a 6ft 3inch guy. we both started a couple months ago. He's absolutely miles ahead of me in the things he can climb! The skin on his hands is so much tougher than mine and his muscles build so much quicker than mine. He's already looking more muscular, I haven't changed at all! I love being a woman and I love my femininity, but goddamn I wish I had what men have in terms of building strength. Any advice?
You need to avoid comparing your own progress to the progress of others, even your friends and even if you are doing the same activity.
Be patient with yourself. You probably have changed more than you think. Don’t worry about how good you are at rock climbing (just worry about doing it correctly because doing it correctly is the same as doing it safely) or how fast you are building muscles-just have fun!
As for the tougher skin on his hands-in my personal (and admittedly limited) experience Women tend to use hand lotions a lot on our hands and Men tend to not do this. As a result it takes longer to build up callouses (I built them up on certain areas of my hands that a pencil or knitting needle rubs against a lot but this is after years and years of knitting and drawing).
Also-eating protein helps to build up muscle.
-FemaleWarrior
