is strength training a mistake?

ayoubm3949

All I really want is slim arms! I do strength training (30ds level 3) 3-4 times a week and I run (HIIT train on the treadmill) everyday for 30 mins.

anyways, I feel like all that strength training has made my arms bigger.

am I doing something wrong?

tenunderfour

If you want slim arms - you will have to tweak your diet so you lose the fat on top.

jugar

Don't worry! Strength training won't make your arms big, but will give you that delicious muscle definition and shape that will appear the more you lose fat and allow the muscles to appear. It will happen as you exercise and keep losing -- you'll look amazing!

LaMujerMasBonitaDelMundo

If you want slim arms - you will have to tweak your diet so you lose the fat on top.

^^ so much this... diet plays a major role here. The role of strength training is to condition our muscles & avoid it to atrophy but if you want to lose fat & get smaller then you have to clean up your diet

crisanderson27

All I really want is slim arms! I do strength training (30ds level 3) 3-4 times a week and I run (HIIT train on the treadmill) everyday for 30 mins.

anyways, I feel like all that strength training has made my arms bigger.

am I doing something wrong?

Well, you're lucky...because 30ds...isn't strength training .

More seriously though...your body stores glycogen when its musculature is being stressed. Exercise stresses muscles. The added glycogen and water will cause them to swell (think dry sponge, vs wet sponge). You haven't bulked up, nor gained any muscle.

The other thing happening, is called neuromuscular adaptation. What this is, is your brain developing new pathways to communicate with your muscles, making them more efficient. This causes a very slight gain in size...but more importantly, it causes increases in strength. Your muscles will also be firmer.

Diet (eating at a caloric deficit with adequate protein) plus strength training (or your 30ds, in substitution for strength training), will basically always equal slimmer arms in the long run. Particularly for women. Sometimes it just takes time, due to the overall level of bodyfat you have.

iamthepreston

Agree 30DS is not strength training.

eso2012

Agree with what other say.

What really works for me is Pilates and other form of body weight training. Amazing muscle definition....but you still need to lose that fat on top of it to see the toned arms.

I used to lift a lot of weight so i know what you mean by "getting bigger". technically, no , those are not real bulks, but you do experience a lot of swelling.

crisanderson27

I used to lift a lot of weight so i know what you mean by "getting bigger". technically, no , those are not real bulks, but you do experience a lot of swelling.

You deserve a :flowerforyou: for that .

Sweatintobooksontape

You may gain a bit of muscle at first if you havent done strength training or weight lifting before. However, this will only be a little bit of muscle as your body adjusts to the work load. Really beyond the initial bit you gain you will need to be at a calorie surplus to gain any addition muscle and you should be working at an 8-12 rep range with each set (typically) going to failure in that range every set to build more muscle.

In other words, not lifting heavy and staying in a net negative calorie consumption (burn more than you take in) and you wont build hardly any muscle. You WILL shred lots some pounds though.

Keep in mind too that the more lean muscle you carry, the higher your metabolism will be (generally) and the greater your weight loss will be in terms of fat. Sometimes you need to gain some to loose more.