Group: General Fitness & Exercise

Created: 2011/12/31, Members: 383, Messages: 54581

Various general exercise related discussions. Find out what it takes to reach your fitness goals through daily effective exercise. With so many options we try to find out what works best.

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Don't want the bulk

dannigirl021
dannigirl021
Posts: 6
Joined: 2005/02/04
United States
2005/02/10, 08:57 PM
I am very broad shouldered and have muscular arms. I want to gain strength but not look bulky. I was told to lift enough weight so that it is hard for me to complete my set. Will this add bulk? I would like a defined upper body, including my back but don't want to look large. Any advice?
asimmer
asimmer
Posts: 8,201
Joined: 2003/01/07
United States
2005/02/10, 09:01 PM
dianneb
.. ft Popular Status

Gender : Female Posts : 75

Ladies, have a good look around your gym. How many overly large, muscular women do you see lifting weights? Probably not too many- unless you work out at ‘Roids R Us Gym. Now, look around again. How many women with nice, muscular, - yet feminine- bodies do you see lifting weights? In this case, there are definitely a lot more. These women, who have a solid foundation of muscle, still look like women, and they look damn good too! So how do these women train to look this way?

Hours of elliptical climbing?

Nope.

Two cycles through the circuit?

Probably not.

Walking?

Fat chance.

Instead, these women have achieved their sexy, feminine, physiques by weight training - hard and heavy – the same way the boys do.

If you are a woman whose goals are tone and tighten up your body, you need to get off that treadmill and cross-trainer and start lifting and pushing weights so you can truly achieve these objectives. Many women are under the assumption that they should not train with weights like men because they will get bulky and become “unfeminine” – whatever that is. Well, in reality, it’s not likely that they are going to get huge. In fact, most men, men with loads more testosterone and manly muscle building potential, have real difficulty putting on muscle mass. If this is true for men, it’s convincingly true for women, the vessels of estrogen.

So girls, stop worrying about getting huge. Those women who know how to weight train effectively look a lot more attractive (in clothes and when naked) than the women who spend hours doing cardio. Of course, keep in mind that aerobic exercise is still important since it improves cardiovascular health and facilitates reductions in body fat, but it is not the only form of exercise that women need. Nope, you need the weights.

Training with weights is the only way that you can sculpt your female figure to have shapely arms and harder glutes. Wouldn’t it be nice to wave to your girlfriend and not have your triceps wave back at you? And wouldn’t it be even nicer to shake your booty on the dance floor and know that it will stop shaking when you are finished dancing? What women out there can honestly say they don’t want abs like Madonna and Janet Jackson? Even if you do step classes all day long, you will never have these physical attributes. These outstanding features come with contracting and controlling muscles in every part of your body. Cardio and aerobics will not do this, but effective weight training will.
wyrdgirl
wyrdgirl
Posts: 24
Joined: 2001/11/17
United States
2005/02/11, 10:11 AM
Right on asimmer! I have arguments with some coworkers about this. The guys say I'm going to get bulky because I'm lifting a lot of weight. I'm not going to waste my time with 2lb dumbbells!