Can Women Get Bulky?

something I find interesting that most people dont talk about when this comes up is that there are two kinds of muscle fibers.

type I - the endurance muscles - make up more than half of the muscle fibers in women.
type II - the power! - make up about two-thirds of the muscle fibers in men.

we aren't structured the same.

it doesnt work on us like that.

if this were true the way you were presenting it then there would be no female sprinters and no male marathon runners. muscle fibers dont work via comparison, they work on on individuals. so yes, women can train to strengthen their type 2 muscle fibers and men can train to strengthen their type 1 muscles. also, there ae some studies that show that the types of muscle fibers can change depending on how they are used.

Complete and utterly ridiculous response because:

A. I didnt say you cant train or strengthen your muscle fibers
B. I didn't say that either sex is incapable of doing what the other can because of their muscle composition
C. I didnt say either of these things limit a gender
D. I didnt say you cant make one or both stronger
E. You cant change from one type of fiber to another
F. I didnt say having more type I fibers means you cannot be a powerful sprinter
G. I didnt say having more type II fibers means you cannot be an endurance athlete
H. What I said IS a fact.
I. You lack reading comprehension.

back your wagon up missy. why you mad son? note i said "the way you were presenting". if you meant to include those caveats then the issue isnt my reading comprehension but your self expression
go have a cup of rational please

This is an interesting topic. I need to lose a fair bit of weight still (90 lbs) and am trying to do so through a combination of cardio and weights (because truly I hate cardio on its own). I am finding that my measurements have actually gone up in certain areas, which is not what I was going for! I guess I'm building muscle but the fat on top hasn't gone away yet?

I get that many women want definition or want to bulk up. I'm not trying to discourage anyone from those goals. However, I see lots of women that really don't want to bulk up (even a little), or those (like me) who want to slim down muscles they already have. There doesn't seem to be a lot of good advice for how to go about that and all over the place there are people saying "Woman can't bulk up." In some places, it even looks like they haven't read the original post and have just said that indiscriminately.

My purpose was merely to state my doubt. I assumed (correctly) that I would get plenty of counter-arguments. I would be happy to be proven wrong, just as I would also be happy if someone had interesting advice.

Also, yes, I agree with BerryH that some women believe they will "bulk up" as soon as they look at a pink dumbbell. You are quite correct (in my opinion) that water retention and swelling in the beginning can be mistaken and during that time it is important to encourage such women to continue.

However, I take major issues with saying "most" or "all" (I'm not saying you think that, but I'm going by the amount of posts where "women can't bulk up" was given as the only response to any kind of doubt). There are plenty of people here who understand the difference between water retention and real muscle gain. Some people are actually quite in touch with their bodies despite having gone soft. As someone who knows she builds muscle easily and quickly, it is extremely disheartening to hear over and over again that this can't happen or if it does there is no way to prevent it so give up and accept it.

*sigh*

Your original post was not actually asking for advice, but as the responses were not to your liking, here you go...


If you want to lose the definition in the muscle then stop using them. And if you want that area smaller - lose BF%.

I find discussion of a topic leads to many interesting ideas to explore. It doesn't have to have a specific aim such as "advice" or "argument" to be useful. Perhaps I don't even really know what I want out of this and by discussing it I'll find it.

Some things:
1) I find any idea that is given as an absolute hard to take, therefore I have a difficult time accepting that "women can't bulk up" is true 100% of the time and seeing it over and over again bothers me.

2) I am losing BF% by jogging. I am not however losing any muscle despite doing next to no other exercise. I have quite large muscles from having done ballet (to a serious level) from the time I was 4 till the time I was 17. I am now 35 and there has been no loss of muscle. If any other suggestions are forth-coming I'd be very very interested in hearing them.

3) In reference to #1 and #2 I have a fear that some lady out there will follow the advice to weight lift and will bulk up beyond what she personally is comfortable with and then will not be able to rid herself of the gained muscle. I realise this is a rare chance, but some people do go hard core on here and I'd like there to be at least one article/discussion/topic/whatever that they can search where someone has expressed doubt and where perhaps others can also share their muscle building/losing stories so that they have one more piece of information to think about before they get into a serious weight-lifting routine.

4) I didn't realise that is what I was aiming for until just now.

Now I am confused - you seemed to be complaining that you did not get any advice - see bold above.

1) laws of human biology apply to everyone. It is the interpretation of that and definitional differences that cause the confusion. Someones day to day specifics (including weight, activity, genetics, diet) will create the 'building blocks' for their physique. If someone has been eating at a surplus (and many people here were which is why they are trying to lose weight) they will have been developing a certain amount of muscle. When someone 'works' that muscle, the muscle definition shows up in 2 possible ways - new muscle and a slight increase in the size due to the hormonal response of training pre-existing muscle. The former is basically impossible for a female on a deficit (except for possible a slight 'newbie' increase) and the second does not add any significant 'bulk. There may be a slight increase in size but much of it will be water.

2) you are jogging - which means you are using the exisiting muscle. Also, without something like a DEXA scan you cannot categorically say that you have not lost muscle mass.

3) You can always rid yourself of muscle - just do not use it.

4) points 1 - 3 aside, resistance training is very important for health reasons, especially for women as it helps with bone density. To be honest, I would not care about bulking up a little anyway if it meant that I do not get ostoeperosis later down the line.

The other point to make is that BF will come off where it will (its finicky and usually comes off the place you want last) - reduce the BF = reduce the mass.

Edited to fix typos but there will be more!

"And because having muscles helps to create more definition in anyone's physique, which looks good aesthetically."

I think the point of the article was, not every woman has the same idea of what looks good aesthetically.

Just so you know, I wasn't implying that having big muscles look good, I was talking about muscles in general. Muscles are what gives our body definition, like the narrowness of someone's waist is because of their muscles. We all have them. Now as far as how big our muscles are and how appealing is in the eye of the beholder. We are all striving for the perfect combination of muscle and fat based on what we perceive to look good. So you and I agree, the difference I didn't explain all that in my answer because the poster wasn't looking for that. They wanted answers regarding how to be less bulky or reduce the overall look of big muscles in order to have a "smaller" look/frame.

I've been told my butt looks like it belongs on someone half my age. :happy:

It does!!

You basically need to eat like 3-4x what people on MFP eat to get that way, and it mostly has to be chicken. I read that J Cutler orders pounds and pounds of chicken to last him each week. We're talking 4 oz chicken for breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, plus veggies, some carbs and protein drinks.

I think we are all safe

You do not need to eat chicken to get bulky. There are professional athletes, including body builders who are vegans--eating dead birds is a personal preference, not a necessity.

She was specifically refering to Jay Cutler the Mr. Olympia champion. Dead birds and dead fish and meat in general seem to be his personal choices and is necessary for him to stay on top and be #1.



OP I really think diet and genetics play a HUGE part in women and bulking. Yes women can bulk up but like some have said most women on mfp are not training to be olympians and even with that it takes years and years and years of solid training and a great diet to get bulky. So most women on mfp are NOT likely to bulk on a calorie restricted diet, thus saying don't be affraid to lift weights and such because of misinformation or lack on knowledge in that area in general. A lot of women get worried when the thought of lifting weights = bulking in their minds when this simply is not true on a calorie restricted diet.

Whenever this conversation comes up, I keep thinking about this article:

http://www.leighpeele.com/bulky-muscles-and-training-females-the-definition

That is a great article!! It makes it so much clearer what many women perceive as bulky vs what I see as muscular! Thank you for sharing!

I thought this was an interesting article in and of itself, but what really attracted me to it were the pictures of the varied body types of Olympic female athletes. Not all, but a lot of these women have bulky thighs, or at least bulkier than many women want. Some of them probably weight-lifted to get there, but not all of them - it would depend on the nature of their sport.

Now, I realise that these women trained hard and long to get those physiques, but it certainly makes one wonder about all the claims that women can't bulk up. Personally, I think many women can bulk up (at least more than they'd like too) and don't even need to do heavy lifting to do it. Take a look at these pictures and see if you don't think otherwise.

http://www.stumptuous.com/why-dont-you-look-like-a-fitness-model

If a woman eats to excess in terms of calories and takes in enough protein she will build muscle, that goes without saying. Dieting and building up muscle is nigh on impossibe.