weight lifting & looking ripped question!

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ieva015
ieva015 Posts: 93 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
so today when i went to the gym i saw two incredibly looking woman. i mean not just skinny itty bitty tiny girlies but ripped, lean and stong woman! both of them did not have visible fat at all. i was so incredibly jealous, i never saw anything as beautiful as their bodies in real life. EVER.

so my question is, can i achieve this ripped, lean, muscular look with just weight lifting? and how?? i hate cardio so much, and i dont have much time for it as well..

what im currently doing is monday and thursday upper body workout and tuesday and friday lower body workout (3 sets, 12 reps, with heavy (for me) weights) for about 50minutes to an hour, and eating bellow my maintenance. do i need to make my workouts longer and/or harder?

im 18 years old female,
5'3 (162cm) ; 120 lbs
my main goal is to lose weight because im really chubby and have visible muscle definition.
thanks!
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Replies

  • pooleekylie
    pooleekylie Posts: 103
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    Diet is 90% of the challenge. No cardio isn't necessary, but every little bit helps. Work hard and you'll look every bit as great as they do!
  • qtiekiki
    qtiekiki Posts: 1,490 Member
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    Diet is important. Make sure you get enough protein. Small calorie deficit. Macros are important, but I am not an expert with that, so hopefully someone else can chime in. Weight lifting can achieve the look, but I personally like to do some HIIT workouts on my non-strength training days. Good luck
  • iWaffle
    iWaffle Posts: 2,208 Member
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    can i achieve this ripped, lean, muscular look with just weight lifting? and how?? i hate cardio so much, and i dont have much time for it as well..

    Weight lifting is pretty essential if you want to look fit and not just skinny but cardio isn't necessary to achieve this look however it can help with the progress. A lot of their success is just keeping a strict diet and continuing to work out with heavy (heavy for them) weights.

    Keep in mind that they probably have gone through several buld/lean cycles. First of all lose the majority of your body fat. For women that means getting down around or under 20%. Then alternate eating some excess calories to build muscle and cutting calories slightly to cut fat. There are lots of strategies to this. Some people like to eat positive on training days and negative on non-training days. Others simply focus on having periods of time (say a month or two) where they bulk up and then spend time cutting the excess fat from the bulk phase. Experiment and see what works for you.

    Your workouts will stay the same no matter what phase you're in. Your food intake determines if you're building muscle or cutting fat. Also keep in mind that having a high protein intake will help preserve lean muscle while you're cutting. Try to eat 1 gram per pound of your body weight per day or at least 1 gram per pound of lean body mass.

    Hard to say with the detail given if the exercise you mentioned is the best. I would do 3 - 4 exercises for each body part each exercise having 3-4 sets of 12 but I would add not to just stick with 12 reps every day. You're doing the right thing to keep it in that range but do some alterations to this. Take some days and increase the weight so that you can't do more than 6 reps until failure. You want to challenge your muscles in different ways so that they can't get too adjusted to your workout. The 12 rep range is best for adding size and the 4-6 rep range is better at improving strength. Switch it up occasionally and attack your muscles from both angles.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    Lifting + Diet will do the trick.

    The leaner you get the more you may have to change things to really get the look you want (target certain muscles more than others, continue to refine your diet, etc etc.).

    Not knowing anything about you or what exactly the look is you're going for (how lean? how strong?), I'd start with compound lifts and a good diet. Do that for a couple of years and re-evaluate. At some point you will probably want to start working in or focus on iso lifts so you can really "sculpt" your body based on your strong/weak areas.

    Some say that cardio is necessary to get REALLY lean, like competitively lean. Not sure where I fall on that topic... also not sure just how lean the girls you saw were.

    But for 95% of the people out there, diet + lifting + determination + patience = win.
  • Plates559
    Plates559 Posts: 869 Member
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    If you want to look ripped you gotta start lifting like the boys.

    Eat right, lift heavy, have patience.
  • MariaMariaM
    MariaMariaM Posts: 1,322 Member
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    Look through my pics on my profile. I think I achieved that look. I don't do much cardio, maybe20-30 min 3 times a week. I also have a good diet but indulge once in awhile. Last time I measured BF% it was around 17% (calipers gave lower numbers but I upped to account for user error)
  • iWaffle
    iWaffle Posts: 2,208 Member
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    The leaner you get the more you may have to change things to really get the look you want (target certain muscles more than others, continue to refine your diet, etc etc.).

    I think that's pretty much true. You can probably get down to 20% (Really lean for women, should see some abdominal definition) without cardio but when you get to the point of wanting to take it down another notch or two you might need to use a few tricks like fasted cardio in the morning, being really strict on the diet, etc. You can probably do it with little to no cardio but it takes extra work to go from very athletic to very lean and athletic. Cardio could help decrease the period of time needed at that point but I wouldn't say it's totally necessary.

    Don't totally neglect cardio. It's good for more than just trimming fat. I did some hiking this last week in Colorado and when you got over 12k feet it was pretty obvious who had good heart lung capacity and who didn't. It's great for your overall health. Maybe look at it from that point of view.
  • GasGas450
    GasGas450 Posts: 11 Member
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    Spot on advice so far, IMO.

    Everybody's different. I always think of Arnold's quote from the movie "Pumping Iron": "We are all competing against our own DNA".

    And another old cliche that seems to have withstood the test of time, (and I have lived it to prove it to myself):

    "Abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym."
  • Plates559
    Plates559 Posts: 869 Member
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    20% isn't REALLY LEAN for woman....
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    20% isn't REALLY LEAN for woman....

    It's all relative, but I tend to agree. 20% is pretty lean for the average person, but not for someone with high goals/expectations. To look strong/fit, my guess is you'd have to get down around 15%.

    .
  • HeavyLiftGirl
    HeavyLiftGirl Posts: 1,267 Member
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    20% isn't REALLY LEAN for woman....

    That's true. If you look at my bikini photo in my profile pics, I am 20.4% BF. I am now at 19.7%, and am starting to look less skinny and more muscular. In other words-- what you want to achieve is:

    1- Losing any/all remaining fat (get to your goal weight)
    2- Start eating a higher protein diet
    3- Start lifting about 3 times a week with pilates or some other lighter training on the other days.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    Keep lifting and throw in pull ups, chin ups, deadlifts, squats, etc etc..I think some of that was covered in previous posts..

    If you hate cardio - try doing plyometrics or sprint intervals. I have never been a fan of long distance running but for some reason I love sprint intervals...

    You might also want to look into IF - internmittent fasting - I have started experimenting with this as a way to melt body fat...

    Something else that is beneficial is carb cycling so that you have low carb days, medium carb days, and high carb days...essentilly low, low, med, med, high and then repeat cycle...

    The trick is to get your body to burn fat and not muscle...
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    oh and this **** aint easy so keep at it!!!
    :)
  • MariaMariaM
    MariaMariaM Posts: 1,322 Member
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    Keep in mind that 15% might be too low as it will start interfering with some things like you period. I think I might be close to that limit because my periods are starting to change patterns. My goal is to keep BF % around 17%.
  • geekyjock76
    geekyjock76 Posts: 2,720 Member
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    Amenorrhea has more to do with chronically sustaining days with too little energy availability than low body fat percentage, actually.
    im 18 years old female,
    5'3 (162cm) ; 120 lbs
    my main goal is to lose weight because im really chubby and have visible muscle definition.
    thanks!
    Honestly, you shouldn't lose weight or have that as a goal - it should be adjusting the ratio of lean body mass vs fat mass more in favor of the former.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    Another point to add...

    Your profile lists one of your monthly goals is to "not go over 1200 cals"

    Again, I don't know who you saw or what they looked like, but if you want to get so you are lean and strong (dare I say, muscular?), you're probably going to have to build some muscle, which will likely mean eating a surplus for a couple of months, which means eating a lot more than you currently do, probably 2-3x what you currently eat.

    I applaud you for your goals, but make sure you are taking the smaller steps to get there and not jumping headfirst into something that may be unrealistic for you at this point.

    Focus on your issues now and form some good habits. Then start thinking about looking like the elite.
  • ahamm002
    ahamm002 Posts: 1,690 Member
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    so my question is, can i achieve this ripped, lean, muscular look with just weight lifting? and how?? i hate cardio so much, and i dont have much time for it as well..

    The best way to achieve that look is to combine heavy resistance training (i.e., so you reach muscle failure by doing 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps) with a good diet that containes at least 1 gram of protein for pound of your lean body mass (for most people, that's quite a bit more protein then the typically get). Check out the book New Rules of Weightlifting 4 Women.

    HIIT cardio can also help significantly with conditioning, and you may find that you like it more than steady state cardio. That said, you may find that if you take your cardio outside that you like it a lot more, and Fall is a great time to exercise outside.
  • iWaffle
    iWaffle Posts: 2,208 Member
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    Or you could always just ask californiagirl2012 what she does. :laugh:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/californiagirl2012
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    Or you could always just ask californiagirl2012 what she does. :laugh:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/californiagirl2012

    *sigh*
  • wareagle8706
    wareagle8706 Posts: 1,090 Member
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    Your profile says you're 20, not 18? Not sure how you can be chubby at 5'3'' and 120lbs as I'm 5'1'' and 125 and not chubby. But maybe you mean you're not as "toned" as you'd like to be.

    One thing I would suggest (although I do agree with your 3 sets, 12 reps) is to try heavier weight with lower reps. go up by 5 lbs and see if you can still do 12 reps. If you can, go up another 5 lbs until you can only do 8-10 reps. Try the 8-10 reps for a while and see how you feel with it. I would also do a go-to-failure set at the end of your normal 3 sets. Take the weight back down a bit and just rep it out til your dead.

    Weight lifting is a slow process but if you stick with it then it will get you where you want to be!

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