Ewww, Candace, “don’t get too bulky; you’ll look like a man” – so they said.
I’m still waiting for this so called “bulk”.
The terms bulky or getting to big have come up several times in the last couple weeks. I love it, because it opens up the space to talk and educate about what bulk really is, and what it’s not, and the fact that you are worrying about something that is unlikely to happen.
A lot of women tell me they are scared to lift weights because they don’t want to get bulky. My favorite
one is when women tell me they used to lift weights and they got too big. Granted, some women may tend to carry a bit more muscle naturally, but overall we don’t carry as much as men, and the fear is misplaced. It’s actually pretty hard for women to gain muscle – painfully slow, if that’s your goal. In order to gain muscle, your nutrition has to support that gain. Usually, when women are getting bigger, the majority of the “bulk” is from increased fat, not muscle.
Realistically, a woman can gain 1-2 pounds of muscle a year…yes, I said a year. That doesn’t include chemically enhanced people. So – if you’re gaining more than that, odds are that you’re adding fat.
For starters, bulk is a term that is used way to loosely in my opinion. Muscle is not bulky; you may carry more muscle, but it’s not bulky. The fat covering the muscle may be bulky, but
not the muscle itself.
I can remember my mother saying “don’t get too big,” as well as other folks saying don’t get bulky. Women aren’t supposed to have muscle, eww that’s gross. One - who are these folks telling me or women what we can and cannot do? Bless my mother’s heart in regards to her comment, I don’t really fault her or others for their comments. Most folks are just uneducated, inundated
with negative info about lifting weights, and have no experience with strength training. To top it all off, people tend to associate lifting weights with the women on the cover of Muscle and Fitness…..and let me tell you, you’re not going to look like that!
We can thank the celebrity fitness trainers such as Tracy Anderson telling women to only lift 3 lb
dumbbells.
Lifting light weights is the exact reason why women are not seeing the “tone” in their arms that they wish to see. Light weights will not tone your arms! We need to be lifting heavy weights to get that toned look. Really – how many times a day do you lift a gallon of milk or your purse? That weighs more than 3 pounds! You’d have to lift that weight
for hours to cause enough muscle stimulation to “tone” your arms.
Getting too big, or the current term “bulky”, is really hard to achieve, unless as I said before, you are genetically disposed to have more muscle. Even then, you won’t look like a man. Looking like a man is going to require some testosterone for most.
First, let’s erase the picture out of your of head of the muscle bound women/bodybuilders that have enough muscle to share with everyone. Let me tell you a not so secret – she has help chemically, not only that, she trains for that look and eats in way to support that much muscle growth. It has taken her years to get to this point. Secondly – there is an optical illusion that happens as you get leaner – while you’re actually smaller, your muscles appear
larger! If you visit your local physique competition, you can see this first hand. Women who look huge on the stage put on their clothes (size 0-4), and look like a normal, petite woman….they don’t even have much muscle definition off stage! That look requires tons of dedication and work – it’s not going to happen to you by accident.
Here's what you think happens when you lift the things.
