Again, You Will NOT Bulk Up By Lifting Weights! Here's Why....

Yes, I know I already made a post about why women won't bulk up from lifting weights and training hard. Yet time and time again when people ask me about CrossFit or strength training in general, I inevitably hear: "But I put muscle on really easily. I don't want to get bulky." Ladies, I promise you, you WILL NOT look like those female body builders by adding weight to your strength routine. If you don't believe me, here are a selection of reasons why you won't get bulky from a certified strength and conditioning specialist who has been the strength coach for all VCU athletes for nearly a decade.

1. Women do not have nearly as much testosterone as men.In fact, according to Bill Kreamer in Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, women have about 15 to 20 times less testosterone than men.
2. The perception that women will bulk up when they begin a strength training program comes from the chemically-altered women on the covers of bodybuilding magazines.These “grocery stand models” are most likely pumped full of some extra juice. This is why they look like men.
3. For women, toning is what happens when the muscle is developed through training. This is essentially bodybuilding without testosterone. Since the testosterone is not present in sufficient amounts, the muscle will develop, but it won’t gain a large amount of mass.
4. Muscle bulk comes from a high volume of work.
5. Heavy weights will promote strength not size. This has been proven time and time again. When lifting weights over 85 percent, the primary stress imposed upon the body is placed on the nervous system, not on the muscles. Therefore, strength will improve by a neurological effect while not increasing the size of the muscles. And, according to Zatsiorsky and Kreamer, women need to train with heavy weights not only to strengthen the muscles but also to cause positive adaptations in the bones and connective tissues.
6. Bulking up is not an overnight process. Many women think they will start lifting weights, wake up one morning, and say “Holy sh__! I’m huge!” This doesn’t happen. The men that you see who have more muscle than the average person have worked hard for a long time (years) to get that way.
7. What the personal trainer is prescribing is not working. Many female athletes come into a new program and say they want to do body weight step-ups, body weight lunges, and leg extensions because it’s what their personal trainer back home had them do. However, many of these girls need to look in a mirror and have a reality check because their trainer’s so-called magical toning exercises are not working. Trainers will hand out easy workouts and tell people they work because they know that if they make the program too hard the client will complain.
8. Bulking up is calorie dependent. This means if you eat more than you are burning, you will gain weight. If you eat less than you are burning, you will lose weight. Unfortunately, most female athletes perceive any weight gain as “bulking up” and do not give attention to the fact that they are simply getting fatter. As Todd Hamer, a strength and conditioning coach at George Mason University said, “Squats don’t bulk you up. It’s the ten beers a night that bulk you up.” This cannot be emphasized enough. If you’re a female athlete and training with heavy weights (or not), you need to watch what you eat.

Check out the entire article here. And one last bit of proof....this past month I added 35 pounds to my 1 rep max deadlift (155#...woohoo!) and I lost a quarter inch around my upper arms and three quarters of an inch around my thighs. So clearly adding super heavy weights does not turn one into the hulk. Now go lift some weights! :)