"But I don't want to get bulky!"

I think the fear of bulking up is perpetuated by myths and lack of understanding of what constitutes true dry lean muscle mass.

Knowledgeable body-building experts will tell you.. if a male doing everything absolutely correctly, perfect diet and exercise with that precise goal of gaining muscle mass, could gain 0.5-1 pound per month of muscle mass he would be doing extremely well. Forget the "THE secret to gaining 30 lb of muscle in 6 weeks" nonsense!

On a new (for me) really intensive strength training program I have lost 2" off my chest and waist in 9 weeks (and I am not really dramatically overweight). I was discussing this with my trainer the other day and another guy happened to be standing there. "Oh!" He looked perplexed at our statisfaction. "You've LOST 2" off your chest?" Like most guys he has a "bulk up" mentality. The reason I'm pleased is that while I'm getting stronger I'm loosing fat everwhere and like most guys the noticeable area is chest/stomach.

To superficially bulk up in a way that can look deceptively cool (for guys who want to look big) is simple.. eat tons of say pasta and push weights. But it will NOT be true muscle mass. It is fluid, fat and some muscle. You simply cannot bulk up muscle easily.

A good strength training program will if anything make measurements smaller. But your muscle becomes hard, dense, without a fat layer. The key is diet. Pushing weights with a poor diet can make you appear bulked, it's what typically happened to me when I first started training. But with a good diet, generally more good protein, you will not bulk up and for women it is even less likely you can do so.

To some extent genetics factor in here. For various bio-mechanical reasons, the potential size of a particular muscle is most governed by its length. And that has to do with where muscles are attached to bones given a particular person's physiology. So to some extent some people will tend to get a more muscular appearance than others. It's a bit like, most sprinters will always have a muscular build, marathon runners will always have a leaner build. They won't magically transform genetically, that simple. Eat right, exercise right and you'll develop your best physique and it will be good!

Thanks for this post, I always used to worry about bulking, and now I lifting heavier and losing weight. Right on point! Now I need to get my ticker to work but I have lost almost 3 lbs in a week, eating clean as well.

KC

The amount of "bulk" one can get from lifting is proportional to the amount of the hormone testosterone in their body. So the super-bulk females are either in some ridiculously small minority of women with high levels of testosterone in their body OR they are using supplementation / steroids. If you check out women in competitive mode, look for "natural" weightlifters - i.e. the ones that aren't pushing supps. I guarantee they'll be slender and extremely ripped (and possibly have a super-fake spray tan, but that goes along with fitness competition).

There are entirely too many stereotypes that float around about women not needing to lift heavy. I call BS, as well as most respected trainers and most on this thread, LOL . I do a few heavy squats and deadlifts at home on my equipment - last weekend I squatted 60. Anyone who tells me "oh noes you're gonna get bulky" can suck it. I hope to increase that 60 to 80.

Now, if you're doing a more cardio-based endurance type of weightlifting with higher repetition (P90X, boot camp, etc) you'll be lifting 5-25 lbs in dumbbells, most likely. Essentially, you want to lift enough weight to push yourself to failure in the time allotted.

Actually, here's a really good blog about women and lifting heavy on Stumptuous:

http://www.stumptuous.com/lies-in-the-gym

And if you've never read Krista's writings over at Stumptuous, bookmark her blog! It's really motivational!

Even P90X says to lift 10-15 reps to failure for women and 8-10 for men ... I lift 6-8 reps to failure :laugh:. But hey, it works ... you don't see any muscles bulging out of me, except when I flex and even then it's very modest.

The ripped look that other women in the elite fitness category requires years of lifting heavy on a calorie surplus. You also have to lean down first before you can get a deep cut. So you're not going to get the look unless you really don't have a lot of fat to lose.