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Sticky Girls: Weights Won't Make You Bulky

wrestler125
wrestler125
Posts: 4,619
Joined: 2004/01/27
United States
2006/12/22, 11:07 AM
Top 10 Reasons Heavy Weights Don’t Bulk Up the Female Athlete
By Tim Kontos, David Adamson, and Sarah Walls
For www.EliteFTS.com
http://www.elitefts.com/documents/female_athletes.htm

David Adamson and I were driving to the IPA Nationals this past weekend talking training (yeah we’re pretty passionate about what we do) when the subject of training women with heavy weights came up. I’m in my ninth year at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) as the head strength and conditioning coach, and David has been in strength and conditioning for three years. This is a subject we deal with every year regardless of how much training information is available to the public.

The best way to get information is to go to the source. So we asked Sarah Walls, another strength and conditioning coach at VCU. Sarah is also a writer for Muscle and Fitness Hers, a former figure competitor, and a women’s tri-fitness competitor—not to mention a strong female athlete who isn’t bulked up. Therefore, she has a great perspective on the subject.

We, being a good team, put our heads together to find a way to combat this never-ending dilemma. Our way of doing that is through education. And, only one answer to a question is never enough. If you know your job well, then you know that there is more than one way to skin a cat. So we came up with the following list:

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. Testosterone is the reason men are men and women are women. After men hit puberty, they grow facial hair, their voice deepens, and they develop muscle mass. Because men have more testosterone, they are much more equipped to gain muscle. Because women do not have very much testosterone in their bodies, they will never be able to get as big as 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. If you take the missing link that separates men from women and add it back in, what do you have? A man!

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. The “toned” appearance comes from removing the fat that is covering a well-developed muscle.

4. Muscle bulk comes from a high volume of work. The repetition range that most women would prefer to do (8–20 reps) promotes hypertrophy (muscle growth). For example, a bodybuilding program will have three exercises per body part. For the chest, they will do flat bench for three sets of 12, incline for three sets of 12, and decline bench for three sets of 12. This adds up to 108 total repetitions. A program geared towards strength will have one exercise for the chest—flat bench for six sets of three with progressively heavier weight. This equals 18 total repetitions. High volume (108 reps) causes considerable muscle damage, which in turn, results in hypertrophy. The considerably lower volume (18 reps) will build more strength and cause minimal bulking.

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 in Science and Practice of Strength Training, 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. If you bulk up overnight, contact us because we want to do what you’re doing.

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. And, if the client is complaining, there’s a good chance the trainer might lose that client (a client to a trainer equals money).

8. Bulking up is calorie dependant. 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. Let’s be real—the main concern that female athletes have when coming to their coach about gaining weight is not their performance but aesthetics. If you choose to ignore this fact as a coach, you will lose your athletes!

9. The freshman 15 is not caused by strength training. It is physiologically impossible to gain 15 lbs of muscle in only a few weeks unless you are on performance enhancing drugs. Yes the freshman 15 can come on in only a few weeks. This becomes more complex when an athlete comes to a new school, starts a new training program, and also has a considerable change in her diet (i.e. only eating one or two times per day in addition to adding 6–8 beers per evening for 2–4 evenings per week). They gain fat weight, get slower, and then blame the strength program. Of course, strength training being the underlying cause is the only reasonable answer for weight gain. The fact that two meals per day has slowed the athlete’s metabolism down to almost zero and then the multiple beers added on top of that couldn’t have anything to do with weight gain...it must be the lifting.

10. Most of the so-called experts are only experts on how to sound like they know what they are talking about. The people who “educate” female athletes on training and nutrition have no idea what they’re talking about. Let’s face it—how many people do you know who claim to “know a thing or two about lifting and nutrition?” Now, how many people do you know who actually know what they’re talking about, have lived the life, dieted down to make a weight class requirement, or got on stage at single digit body fat? Invariably, these so-called experts are also the people who blame their gut on poor genetics.

These so-called experts are the reason you see so many women doing sets of 10 with a weight they could do 20 or 30 times. They are being told by the experts that this is what it takes to “tone” the muscles. Instead, they are only wasting their time doing an exercise with a weight that is making no contribution to the fitness levels or the development of the muscle.

In case you haven’t figured it out by this point in the article, what is currently being done in fitness clubs to help female athletes tone their bodies is not working. It’s not helping these women get toned, and it is definitely not helping improve athletic performance. Maybe it’s time for a change. Contrary to the ineffective light weights currently being used, heavy weights offer many benefits for women including improved body composition, stronger muscles, decreased injury rate, and stronger bones (which helps prevent osteoporosis). Let’s try lifting some heavy weights and controlling our diet and watch this logical, science-based solution make the difference we’ve been looking for.

Tim Kontos is in his ninth year as the strength and conditioning coach for Virginia Commonwealth University athletes. A certified strength and conditioning specialist with the National Strength and Conditioning Association, Kontos designs, implements, and supervises all strength, speed, and agility programs for all the VCU athletic programs.

David Adamson is in his second year as an assistant strength and conditioning coach for VCU. He is directly responsible for program design and implementation for men’s and women’s track and field, women’s cross country, and field hockey. Prior to coming to VCU, David worked at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, Arizona State University, and Winona State University. In 2003, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, and in 2006, he received his masters in sport leadership from VCU.

Sarah Walls is in her first year with the Rams’ strength and conditioning staff as a graduate assistant working with men’s and women’s soccer, golf, and men’s cross-country. Graduating magna cum laude, she earned a bachelor’s of science degree from Virginia Tech in 2003. Since graduation, she has spent time working at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia in the strength department. While there, Sarah worked with women’s tennis, men’s tennis, men’s volleyball, and men’s soccer. At the same time, she also worked for LifeTime Fitness and helped manage and develop innovative training programs. In addition, she is a contributing writer for the magazine, Muscle and Fitness HERS.

Elite Fitness Systems strives to be a recognized leader in the strength training industry by providing the highest quality strength training products and services while providing the highest level of customer service in the industry. For the best training equipment, information, and accessories, visit us at www.EliteFTS.com.








Copyright© 2006 Elite Fitness Systems. All rights reserved.
You may reproduce this article by including this copyright
and, if reproducing it electronically, including a link to
www.Elitefts.com.



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Iron and chalk.
KC_72
KC_72
Posts: 3,249
Joined: 2006/05/19
United States
2006/12/22, 12:44 PM
Can I get an amen Amy?????

Thanks wrestler...this is a nice reference post when the others post..."I want to get tone...but not bulk up":surprised:

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\\"If you had one shot...or one oppurtunity to seize all you ever wanted...in one moment...would you capture it...or just let it slip\\"
eminem
Ravenbeauty
Ravenbeauty
Posts: 3,755
Joined: 2002/09/24
United States
2006/12/22, 02:08 PM
nice one Steve..

Number 8, I hear that so many times from a lot of my female friends. They just don't get it.

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Bettia

To be motivated, motivate others!
asimmer
asimmer
Posts: 8,201
Joined: 2003/01/07
United States
2006/12/22, 07:37 PM
Yeah, reiterates the post above ' ladies please read and print'. Always good to have reinforcement!

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Until you value yourself you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.
M. Scott Peck
tabby20
tabby20
Posts: 3
Joined: 2006/12/28
United States
2006/12/28, 03:03 PM
My friend told me something at the gym and I was wondering if it is true. She said that lower weight and more reps tone the muscles, while high weighs gain muscle mass. Also I have almost no upper body strength so push ups and such are too hard for me, what is a way to build upper body strength that won’t kill me?

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Smile, this too shall pass!
tabby20
tabby20
Posts: 3
Joined: 2006/12/28
United States
2006/12/28, 03:32 PM
Never mind I read the part I missed, Thanks

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Smile, this too shall pass!
Vedakathryn
Vedakathryn
Posts: 1,585
Joined: 2004/05/28
United States
2007/01/04, 01:34 PM
Excellent post, the subject of "I don't want to get big muscles" is something that grates on my nerves after continually hearing it from women, but your right, the pics on mag covers most likely are the culprit. I was watching a female body builder the other day on television and her and her female friend both, I swear, talked just like a man, if you looked away you would have thought it was men talking and I wondered how they can juice up and still compete, but it seemed impossible that they both got to their sizes and those voices without the juice??

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Veda

It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly. - Mabel Newcomber

Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success. - Napoleon Hill
LisaScott18
LisaScott18
Posts: 12
Joined: 2007/09/25
United States
2007/09/28, 01:48 PM
Great post.. thats all good information to know
rinosgrl1709
rinosgrl1709
Posts: 1
Joined: 2007/10/04
United States
2007/10/04, 09:43 PM
great post
sonia08
sonia08
Posts: 16
Joined: 2008/01/11
United Kingdom
2008/01/11, 02:06 PM
I new here, what an excellent post. I have got a program from your site which is below. I'm just starting out again after 2 years out of the gym, so picked the beginner one. I want to get from 168lbs to 135lbs, can you please tell me if the program below will get me there, and how much cardio should i do?
Also when should i take my protein shakes, and how many calories would you suggest, i am 5ft 7.5".

Ok exercises i got from this site, planned for me.

Monday: legs

leg extensions reps 20, 16, 15, 14
machine leg curls 20, 16, 14, 12

Tuesday: shoulders & calves

front dumbell raises 20,12,11,10
standing lateral raises 20,16,15,14
machine standing calf raises 20 20 15 15

wednesday: no exercise

Thursday: back

wide grip machine pulldowns 20,15,12,10
one arm dumbell rows 20,15,12,10

Friday: chest & calves

machine incline presses
machine falt bench presses
reverse calf raises

saturday: triceps 7 biceps

triceps cable pushdowns 20,16,14,12
dumbell kickbacks 20,14,12,10

barbell preacher curls 15,12,11,10
standing dumbell hammer curls 15,12,11,10

please can you advise if this is ok to start out with, and after this program should i go back and up my experience to intermediate?

Thanx sonia x
MckennaWilson
MckennaWilson
Posts: 15
Joined: 2009/07/26
New Zealand
2009/07/26, 07:08 PM
Awesome post :) I love lifting weights - currently lifting 26lb kettlebells and sometimes 53lbs... I tend to gain muscle quite quickly, I guess because of a history in gymnastics? Anyway, I was telling my boss what I did and she was horrified and scared I'd get massive muscles (I wouldn't care if I did, its better than massive fat!)... and said she used to lift weights and got huge biceps. Now I don't think they were 'huge' but I guess she also is rather muscular. What would you say to someone who HAS built muscle in the past that they didn't like... which has put them off weights for ever?
amie_beck
amie_beck
Posts: 6
Joined: 2012/02/28
Australia
2012/03/04, 07:35 PM
Ok so how much is heavy wieght? 

Im on my 5th day and I was woundering weather I should wait until my 14th day to put my lifting wieght up or can i put it up tomorrow?
Any help would be awesome and do I decrease my reps? I not the best at reading and I couldnt really understand weather to up my reps or decrease they.

Cheers
0777tammy89
0777tammy89
Posts: 4
Joined: 2012/04/07
United Kingdom
2012/04/10, 10:33 AM
Thanks wrestler that has been one of my worries as im using weights to tone up and go boxing . . . but dont want to look like a man :)
RebeccaCurley
RebeccaCurley
Posts: 1
Joined: 2016/07/15
United States
2016/07/15, 10:59 PM
I do bulk up from any kind of exercise. If I run my legs get big bulky muscles, if I lift weights my arms get big masculine muscles. Crunches give me a well defined 6 pack instead of the flat stomach other women have. What could be causing this? I am and have always been normal weight. Could I have excessive testosterone for some reason?? Is there any way I can gain strength without having this appearance?
Aliana.H
Aliana.H
Posts: 1
Joined: 2018/07/14
United States
2018/07/14, 03:59 AM
Great post, thanks for the sharing.