High weight/low weight

AlicianaRojas · February 2017

What happens when you switch from high weight low rep to low weight high rep? I know high weight is supposed to make you bulky and low weight is supposed to keep you lean. I also heard that body builders do high reps to get that "bulk" look. I want to switch it up but I want more of a bulky look. Advice?

jjpptt2 · February 2017

A progressive, hypertrophy-centered training plan + a calorie surplus + LOTS of time/patience/consistency will make you "bulky". Nothing else will (assuming a reasonably typical idea of what bulky is).

But more to your questions... the lower the reps and the higher the weight, the more you're focusing on strength gains. The higher the reps and the lower the weight, the more you're focusing on endurance. Hypertrophy (size, or bulk) is somewhere in between.

Look at some different hypertrophy programs and find one that works with your time/schedule, available equipment, etc and give it a run. I'm sure there will be some recommendations coming.

jemhh · February 2017

Bulking requires eating more calories than it takes to maintain.

newbie3122 · February 2017

Gaining weight will make you bulky. Losing weight will make you lean. Weight and rep schemes have more to do with neuromuscular adaptations.

If you want to be bulky, muscular, and strong, just pick a beginner routine, be consistent with it, progressively overload your lifts, and eat surplus.

Z_I_L_L_A · February 2017

I do both...I just lift.

_benjammin · February 2017

newbie3122 wrote: »

Gaining weight will make you bulky. Losing weight will make you lean. Weight and rep schemes have more to do with neuromuscular adaptations.

If you want to be bulky, muscular, and strong, just pick a beginner routine, be consistent with it, progressively overload your lifts, and eat surplus.

^this

sardelsa · February 2017

newbie3122 wrote: »

Gaining weight will make you bulky. Losing weight will make you lean. Weight and rep schemes have more to do with neuromuscular adaptations.

If you want to be bulky, muscular, and strong, just pick a beginner routine, be consistent with it, progressively overload your lifts, and eat surplus.

Actually gaining weight can make you bulky.. but not necessarily, especially being a woman. I'm on my second bulk cycle and I don't think I'm very bulky.

CharlieBeansmomTracey · February 2017

ok first of all a female is not going to get bulky. we dont have the testosterone to do so. if you are eating in a surplus you will gain some fat but you will gain muscle if you are lifting heavy and you will probably be a bit heavier. but your body will look smaller because muscle takes up less space than fat.
in a deficit. you will lose fat and change how your body looks. for example,when I was a 140 lbs and did no weight lifting(this was about 13 years ago). I wore a size 10(us) in womens,now,I have been lifting almost 5 years altogether. for the last year I have been a size 6-8 and I weigh more than 25lbs more. now I know that its not much muscle because I havent really done a "bulk". but its because I have less fat than I did then. The only way a woman will get bulky like a man is if she uses "supplements"(not legal ones). bulking for women does not mean what you think it does though. you wont look like those women bodybuilders