Want To Tone Up and Have Definition But not look muscly?!?!

Everyone starts somewhere! I used to think that i would be bulk too

Compound lifts like others have mentioned will target many muscle groups. Like I mentioned Starting Strength is an excellent way to start :]
http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ:The_Lifts

[facepalm] Sorry to be unassisting. But is March "Nat'l Women Get Freaked Out About Weight Training Month?" I feel like every other post has been either a woman being afraid or a mand telling women not to be afraid. Read books, people. The knowledge you get from them will far surpass the knowledge of MFP "doctors."

Hahahaha! It's just good timing!

I got a lot of great info from my MFP friends and I wouldn't change that!

But for reading, I recommend www.stumptuous.com it's a great weightlifitng for ladies site!

I'm not a genetic freak, although I am pear-shaped. Short of getting liposuction, that's my shape. Realistically, I don't expect to lose much more weight, although I used to weigh much less in my youth. I don't use heavy weights on my lower half because any muscle added there would only make me look bigger. I use weights only on my upper body.

I like this program: http://visualimpactforwomen.com/

focus on compound lifts.

you won't get bulky or muscly. it takes years of heavy lifting and eating properly to put on significant muscle

<whispers>

What's a compound lift?

A compound lift is an exercise that uses several muscle groups, instead of an isolated movement. For instance a pushup works the chest, biceps and triceps. A squat works your quads and glutes. An example of an isolated movement is a bicep curl, which....only works the bicep.

Thanks everyone for the information.

I basically have the same goal as the original poster. I want to add a little more strength and maybe get a little definition. I have lots of activities each week and not a lot of free time. I'm going to do about 30 mins of lifting at home (at 5:30 AM - yawn!) 3 days a week and do my running 3 days a week.

I had been doing low weight and high reps before (15 to 20 reps) with some results but not a lot. It seems like you guys recommend going to more weight and less than 10 reps is that accurate?? What do you think the top 5 exercises are that I should do??

Thanks!

High reps makes it more of a cardio workout really. Lower reps and higher weight is best

my top 5 are from starting strength!
Deadlift
Squat
Press
Cleans
Bench

I build my workouts around these. Most important^^

Thanks Sarge! I need to go buy some new dumbells and a bench to make it happen. I canceled my gym membership a couple years ago when we bought an elliptical.

BTW, you look great!

focus on compound lifts.

you won't get bulky or muscly. it takes years of heavy lifting and eating properly to put on significant muscle

<whispers>

What's a compound lift?

aww. that's cute!

A compound lift is things like squats and deadlifts that you do with free weights and use your whole body.

Also, some buff six pack carrying lady wrote on here that she used 10-15 lbs weights and got definition and that she was leaving before the heavy lifting police came! haha! But seriously, I'd like to see more of your pics and figure out why you got so babe-a-licious with light weights, but I had to go heavy to see any change. Why do you suppose that is??? Cuz I would do 10-15 lb weights and nothing really changed for me but the amoutn of time i spent in the gym.

Bwahahaha! Thanks! Maybe my arms are just predisposed to have muscles? When I first started seriously exercising (pre kids), I'd run for 20 min, do my light weight arm routine one day, and a 20 min. pilates video the next. That was it. I saw more improvement from those 5 pounders than any other thing. After kids, I joined the Y and started taking classes (gotta love the childcare), but kept with my 5 lb. lifting routine (and I guess I was lifting my kids a thousand times a day too). Of course, after reading about the benefits of heavier lifting, I've been slowly upping my free weights (like in the last 2 weeks or so). Before that, I was doing 10 lb. bicep curls and the rest were the 7.5 pounders (and those weights were probably started just 3 months ago). Maybe it was just the high number of reps? I don't know, but it worked for me. I say if all you have is 5 pounds, then lift it a lot!

Here I train we say:
10 and higher for endurance
10 and lower for strength
just basic

Normaly I do 2-5 sets and 4-12 reps depending on the muscle group and how I feel.

And I would not be afraid to get huge muscles if I where a girl, because of the lower amount of testoterone.

focus on compound lifts.

you won't get bulky or muscly. it takes years of heavy lifting and eating properly to put on significant muscle

This.
I WISH getting muscly was that easy lol.

Exactly. I had to eat a *kitten* ton of food and lift some pretty heavy assed weights for hypertrophy to acquire my build and I still feel like I could use more muscle sometimes...

Body weight exercises are good too.... think squats, lunges, and pushups.

Try using some of these Tracy Anderson videos on youtube. I love the arms routine and the one for legs (it is long but great results). Basically you just want less weight and more reps to tone not bulk.

http://www.youtube.com/results?q=tracy+anderson&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7GGHP_enUS415&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=w1

YOU WONT BULK! LIFT HEAVY!!

Try using some of these Tracy Anderson videos on youtube. I love the arms routine and the one for legs (it is long but great results). Basically you just want less weight and more reps to tone not bulk.

http://www.youtube.com/results?q=tracy+anderson&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7GGHP_enUS415&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=w1

YOU WONT BULK! LIFT HEAVY!!

Exactly! The June picture is how my arm looked at 135 pounds using 5# dumbbells and body weight exercises. The March picture is me at 132 pounds after doing heavy weights for about 7 months.



For example, I typically curl 40-50 lbs (20-25 lbs per arm), which isn't a crazy amount, but it's five times more than I did before. And my arms just got smaller.

But if you are woman who tends to put weight on only in certain areas, any kind of heavy duty strength training will only make you look bigger and even a small increase will be problematic. Most women develop bigger shoulders and arms from strength training, which they're very happy about. They don't mind buying a larger jacket. They might mind having to buy bigger jeans.

I have found this not to be the case. And I definitely don't want to buy a larger jacket! My top half is already larger than my bottom half. But back to your point, my arms and chest have thinned out significantly from heavy lifting for the past 10 months. I almost kissed my friend the other day when she said my boobs looked smaller, lol :-)

Lift heavy and train like a man

Have been lifting like that for 2 years now



Not so bulky eh^^

Try Starting Strength to learn how

Yeah look at your manliness......*drool* you look fantastic lady :flowerforyou:

oh my god, you look how I want to look! Well done girl!!