Muscle Maintenance Not Building???
Correct me if I am wrong but I have the understanding that in order to build muscle you have to progress in your weight routine (increase weight, reps, etc), eat enough protein, and be in a calorie surplus.
But what about the people who have no desire to build anymore muscles than they already have? What if they want to just maintain the muscles they got? Do they stop progressing in their weight training routine? I know they should be in calorie maintenance mode if they are satisfied with their weight and I know they should still consume enough protein as well. But can they stop progressing? Do they just do the same weight routing at the same weight or reps to just maintain the muscles they do have and not build anymore? Or should they still increase weight and or rep? Why or why not?
Women who post on here complaining about being "too muscular" are almost without exception carrying more fat than they would like and mistaking it for muscle. (feel free to post a pic proving me wrong)
Here is the blog of a woman who is a powerlifter. She is very strong and if a person was to have hooge muscles due to lifting alone - she would be it. See if you can find a picture of her with massive muscles?
You don't accidently build slabs of visible muscle, especially if you are a woman (unless you aren't natty). If you think you are looking too big (fat or muscle), check your diet because you are eating too much.
Original Post by michaelduff:
Women who post on here complaining about being "too muscular" are almost without exception carrying more fat than they would like and mistaking it for muscle. (feel free to post a pic proving me wrong)
Here is the blog of a woman who is a powerlifter. She is very strong and if a person was to have hooge muscles due to lifting alone - she would be it. See if you can find a picture of her with massive muscles?
You don't accidently build slabs of visible muscle, especially if you are a woman (unless you aren't natty). If you think you are looking too big (fat or muscle), check your diet because you are eating too much.
I'd admit when I first thought about bulk (as in months/years ago I thought it meant): one who has still too much fat % but visible muscle tone, that amplified the weight you still had on. My mother would come home from military training lost some weigh/inches and showed some muscle tone but looked bulky to me, so I feared the bulk since we share the same genes. So, yes, I think it is a definite mistake a lot of people make.
I don't think like that anymore but I still have an bf%/fitness ideal that I guess be modest in the bodybuilding world. Your link, I personally wouldn't want to look like her 2010 and on photos, her 2009 (especially Feb/Mar) are I think perfect bf%/muscle tone showing in my opinion. But I agree it doesn't happen on accident (getting too muscular/bulky or low body fat %) and eating too much is/would be the real issue. To each his (or her) own, of course :)
Physically speaking, female bodies are incapable of growing muscles the way males do (the rate and mass). So to all you ladies out there, do not think, not even for a second, you will look "muscular" if you lift weights.
This is not bad nor good. Its perception depends on your viewpoint. However, I should mention there are exceptions to this where some females build muscles in a fashion more similar to males. But this is very rare. Genetical exceptions happen in the population all the time, but rarely. Take Lance Armstrong as an example. A normal adult has a VO2Max of 30-40 (that's a measurement of oxygen intake). He has a VO2Max of 80, explaining his high lactic acid threshold. Now is he an exception? Yes, genetically speaking. But does he have to train as hard as the others? Yes, high VO2Max makes him last longer in endurance type exercises, not necessarily faster. The very same way, some males are genetically capable of building muscles at a faster rate or have more vascular bodies.
The same goes for some women. As I said, women do not build muscles the way men do, that is not to say they don't build muscles at all.
Muscle is one of the two cell types in the body that cannot divide (the other being nerve cell type). So that means once a piece of muscle is cut or gone for some reason, it's gone forever. So a muscle cannot regenerate but it can "grow", that is, to become bigger. Male bodies have testestrone (male sexual hormones) which gives them specific characteristics such as bigger and denser bones, muscles etc.
Females have the female sexual hormone estrogen (which has feminine characteristics). So that and genetics are why a typical female physically cannot grow "musclular". So if you think you look muscular, take these steps:
- Ask a few friends what they think: one's self tends to be insecure about their own body.
- Make sure you body fat ratio is suitable for a female: remember: a female body should have about 20% body fat for its feminine look (not a curvy look, but a feminine one). So if you tend to have a low body fat percentage, regardless if you work out or not, you will have a more masculine look anyway. And if you do work out, even more so.
- Make sure your hormones are adjusted in your body. The very same way estrogen will cause larger breasts in males, testestrone will cause masculine features in females. At this step, see a doctor and insist for a check-up.
Also, taking steroids will cause some of these undesired (side) effects and many other dangerous ones. But chances are, if one is taking steroids, they know about the risks, so they wouldn't be wandering around reading this post.
I always say to the ladies, if they are not obese or highly overweight, a scale should NEVER be a measurement of their health. Instead of a scale, take a pair of pants or jeans and mirror as a measurement tool. That works best for in-home assessments.
An interesting string of posts...I am weighing in on the traps concerns...I'm 66 yrs old, doing weight training as a goal to reduce osteopenia--or at least arrest it. In the process, I am generally happy with my newly developed strength and balance. My trainer continues to admonish my dependence upon my traps--a habit developed from tension response over the years. In order to "take my traps out" of other shoulder/back exercises, the trainer generally has me exercise my traps first, to "tire them" so that I won't activate them unconsciously. It seems to be working. And my tension headaches are very rare nowadays. Traps are interesting muscles--for me, they never want to be left out! Shoulder rolls are great to do, prior to any shoulder work, to remind them to behave!
Perhaps I'm mistaking the tone, but some of these responses have started to sound really condescending, and some of the people who've made them need to read the OP again. She doesn't think she's too big, she's not mistaking muscle for fat. She likes how she looks and wants no more muscle. She's not starting out a pink dumbbell routine and scared she'll become a hulking monster overnight.
One of my pet peeves is when women think they'll get bulky if they lift weights and so they go and deadlift 10 pounds, but that doesn't apply here.
Original Post by janasedai:
Perhaps I'm mistaking the tone, but some of these responses have started to sound really condescending, and some of the people who've made them need to read the OP again. She doesn't think she's too big, she's not mistaking muscle for fat. She likes how she looks and wants no more muscle. She's not starting out a pink dumbbell routine and scared she'll become a hulking monster overnight.
One of my pet peeves is when women think they'll get bulky if they lift weights and so they go and deadlift 10 pounds, but that doesn't apply here.
Its the internet, things will go where they go.
If the OP is (still) worried about adding more muscle... simple, don't eat at a caloric surplus. Its not the heavy lifting, its the caloric surplus that causes added body mass. Heavy lifting only increases the ratio of lean mass to fat mass added.
Genetic freaks (a la the Lance Armstrong example) don't often post here (LittleSimonGeorge excepted
) but plenty of people come here believing they are the unicorn.
Original Post by janasedai:
Perhaps I'm mistaking the tone, but some of these responses have started to sound really condescending, and some of the people who've made them need to read the OP again. She doesn't think she's too big, she's not mistaking muscle for fat. She likes how she looks and wants no more muscle. She's not starting out a pink dumbbell routine and scared she'll become a hulking monster overnight.
One of my pet peeves is when women think they'll get bulky if they lift weights and so they go and deadlift 10 pounds, but that doesn't apply here.
I don't know the OP's stats, but looking at her profile I believe that she is eating at a deficit and trying to lose weight. If that is the case, then there is a pretty good chance that she is mistaking fat for muscle. It is difficult to draw conclusions based on people's subjective descriptions of themselves. The last time I had this discussion on CC, the person that was worried about having too much muscle turned out to have an underweight BMI. So without specific stats I have to give advice based on what I know about human physiology.
Building muscle is at least 70% diet. When you train muscle fibre is stimulated. When you rest it heals and if the right nutrients are consumed in enough quantity it will grow. BUT, the rate of growth isn't continuous because it is dependent upon the level of testosterone within your body. For women the level is naturally low & for men naturally high.
Protein does build and repair muscle tissue amongst other things, glycogen (from carbs) is stored in the muscles but the level of growth will never be that great no matter how much protein and carbs are consumed because your natural level of testosterone is what really decides.
If it helps, take a teenage male, when they hit puberty their voice deepens, muscle tone develops and body hair grows. These are the big physical growth changes occuring quite rapidly, but they are not from a sudden high carb, high protein, efa diet and wght training programme, they are down to a flood of testosterone into the body.
A bodybuilder (male or female) will be concerned with increasing the level of testesterone within their body, there are things that can naturally stimulate an increase in production but this is a very marginal increase. The usual way is through chemicals which supress estrogen (males have this too but at lower level) and increase testosterone. This is the only way muscle mass will increase beyond your bodys natural predetermined composition. &n bsp;
For yourself this means what ever progressions (wght, rep, pace, rst periods, sets) the continous change won't be that significant unless your about to mess with your body's hormone balance, which i wouldnt recommend! What you will achieve with these progressions is further body fat reduction which will make the definition of your muscle tone more visible. If you reduce your current calories and continue to train the body will feed off your muscle tissue causing you to go backwards, remember toned muscle burns fat so retain what you have, so dont suddenly diet down.
Hope this helps :)
Original Post by tina0367:
Frankly if I am putting this much time and effort into my diet and lifting program, I want to get to the point that someone can look at me and tell I lift weights!
I have no issue with anyone's personal preference in how they look. They should be happy with themselves. :)
and I can definitely understand that. and dont get me wrong I understand the great benefits of muscles. its just that for me personally I want to simply maintain mines and not build anymore and the men who give advice on topics like this usually come from the standpoint of building or the women who give advice tend to have a little more muscle than what I want for myself.
Original Post by solid555:
I rarely see women with a lot of muscle. When you do see women with noticeable muscles, it is almost always a case of low body fat. If your muscles stand out because you have very low body fat, then the solution is to gain some weight.
Women that are overweight, or at the higher end of the normal BMI range, ought to be concentrating on fat loss rather than worrying about how much muscle they have. Unless they are advanced lifters, they probably have a lot less muscle and a lot more fat than they think they do.
see again the disconnect atleast on my end with statements like this concerning these topics. though you may "rarely see women with a lot of muscle" we can look at the same girl and in your opinion she dont have that much muscle and I look at her and think "I wouldnt want that much muscle for myself". so I try to keep things simple when I say muscle maintenance instead of say things like "keep from looking too masculine or musclar" because different perceptions of what is too much vs what is too little starts clashing.
and I definitely understand that girls with low percentage body fat will have muscles show up more. but again my issues isn't so much the amount of fat because I totally get it. I have no questions on what it takes to lose fat lol. if you have more fat than you want on your body well yeah you need to be in a calorie deficit and lose that. but on the muscle side of things there are people who really don't want anymore muscle than they currently already have and when you try to get answers people look at you like you got four eyes, ten tails, and bat wings.
now I am currently in fat loss mode right now but that doesn't mean I or other people trying to lose fat shouldnt focus on maintaining muscle while in fat loss mode. matter of fact isnt losing muscle an issue when trying to lose weight? dont most people recommend you lift weights & have good protein intake while trying to lose fat and atleast at minimum keep up current strength if at possible especially if there is cardio going on during the fat loss stage? I have been pretty athletic for most of my life and its not that hard to tell if someone has muscle underneath fat unless you are just extremely obese and inactive. I am in no way advocating that people who are overweight should only worry about their muscle and not worry about their fat. however I am totally for people that focus on losing weight (fat) without losing their muscles. and specifically for this topic I just wanted to know how to maintain what you got because again most posts are talking about building and not maintaining. and yes I did want to know about muscle maintenance in terms of a person being completely satisfied with the amount of muscles they currently have because I don't really see information touching base on that.
Original Post by michaelduff:
Women who post on here complaining about being "too muscular" are almost without exception carrying more fat than they would like and mistaking it for muscle. (feel free to post a pic proving me wrong)
Here is the blog of a woman who is a powerlifter. She is very strong and if a person was to have hooge muscles due to lifting alone - she would be it. See if you can find a picture of her with massive muscles?
You don't accidently build slabs of visible muscle, especially if you are a woman (unless you aren't natty). If you think you are looking too big (fat or muscle), check your diet because you are eating too much.
I am very glad you posted that example! again I really dont have any desire to look like that young lady muscle wise. I mean where she was in Feb 2009 was perfectly fine in my opinion. and her progression past those months looked more masculine TO ME and I personally dont want that.
and yes I know there are women who when they say 'too muscular" they were thinking body builders, but for me personally when I say some women have a little more muscle than I would like well I mean exactly what I say. these ladies were not exactly body builders. they were lean but they had exactly what I said. a little more muscle that I would like personally. but there always seem to be a disconnect when somebody says that. so thank you michael for posting the pic.
and same thing I said to solid I say to your response. having fat over the muscle and getting big and bulky? yeah I get that. more fat than you want needs to be lost. but my focus was more on the muscle.
Original Post by solid555:
Original Post by janasedai:
Perhaps I'm mistaking the tone, but some of these responses have started to sound really condescending, and some of the people who've made them need to read the OP again. She doesn't think she's too big, she's not mistaking muscle for fat. She likes how she looks and wants no more muscle. She's not starting out a pink dumbbell routine and scared she'll become a hulking monster overnight.
One of my pet peeves is when women think they'll get bulky if they lift weights and so they go and deadlift 10 pounds, but that doesn't apply here.
I don't know the OP's stats, but looking at her profile I believe that she is eating at a deficit and trying to lose weight. If that is the case, then there is a pretty good chance that she is mistaking fat for muscle. It is difficult to draw conclusions based on people's subjective descriptions of themselves. The last time I had this discussion on CC, the person that was worried about having too much muscle turned out to have an underweight BMI. So without specific stats I have to give advice based on what I know about human physiology.
okay look. lets clear it up right now.
I, imsatindoll, am trying to lose fat but just maintain what muscles I do have. I am not satisfied right now with the fat on certain parts of my body (mainly belly) so I am in calorie deficit through cutting calories from my meals and burning calories through cardio to hopefully lose it the fat in the desired areas I have no control exactly where the fat will go away. but again I didn't mention any of this because I already know what needed to be done as far as losing fat. that was never my question.
I am however satisfied with the amount of muscles I have (muscles I gained before I gained the fat weight because again I have been athletic most of my life) so my focus is maintaining my muscles. I dont want more muscles and I dont want to lose muscles I got. simple as that. right now I am consuming high amounts of protein and lifting weights with dumb bells as well. when the dumbells get easy to the point I dont feel like im working anything I progress the weights. thats my current routine.
however all I wanted to know was if I am satisfied with the muscles I do have can I stop progressing? that was all.
when I lose the fat and I feel like I want a little more muscle tone than by all means I can continue to lift more. but I was just worried that if I kept my weight lifting routine the same right now would I end up losing my muscle? do I have to progress or not? when I reach fat loss goal weight and am satisfied can I continue the same or do I still have to progress?
these were my simple questions. I didn't feel like my stats wouldn't make much of a difference as far as getting an answer on maintaining muscles. and yes I wanted to know for those in both calorie deficit and maintenance because obviously I am in a deficit and when I reach goal weight or atleast have the desired amount of fat off I will be at maintenance.
so I hope I cleared this up for everybody.
If you want to stay the same then continue to do whatever it is you are doing - don't change anything you are doing now. Eat the same, exercise the same and then you will stay the same for a bit anyway. But this isn't going to last. You will either start to lose the muscle mass you have now due to not "working" them also your metabolism slows down as we age and then you will start to gain weight despite "eating the same"
Also women should lift weights to keep bones from deteriorating as well. Building strength also builds bones. Keeping your muscles strong will help you later in life when you fall your hips won't brake so easily. keeping your muscles strong will help you up off the couch to go use the bathroom
There are just so many pros to "building" muscle strength I can't imagine not wanting to improve. "tone" or "bulk" don't matter. Do it to preserve your health and ability to live alone and take care of yourself in your later years - you may think it stupid now, but wait till menopause hits you and doctors recommend HRT's - without muscle mass the chance of osteoporosis when taking HRTs greatly increases. Personally I don't take HRT's anymore because I do lift weights and exercise and I have reshaped my body so even though I weigh more I wear smaller pants than I did at my "thinnest" weight.
Original Post by dbackerfan:
If you want to stay the same then continue to do whatever it is you are doing - don't change anything you are doing now. Eat the same, exercise the same and then you will stay the same for a bit anyway. But this isn't going to last. You will either start to lose the muscle mass you have now due to not "working" them also your metabolism slows down as we age and then you will start to gain weight despite "eating the same"
Also women should lift weights to keep bones from deteriorating as well. Building strength also builds bones. Keeping your muscles strong will help you later in life when you fall your hips won't brake so easily. keeping your muscles strong will help you up off the couch to go use the bathroom
There are just so many pros to "building" muscle strength I can't imagine not wanting to improve. "tone" or "bulk" don't matter. Do it to preserve your health and ability to live alone and take care of yourself in your later years - you may think it stupid now, but wait till menopause hits you and doctors recommend HRT's - without muscle mass the chance of osteoporosis when taking HRTs greatly increases. Personally I don't take HRT's anymore because I do lift weights and exercise and I have reshaped my body so even though I weigh more I wear smaller pants than I did at my "thinnest" weight.
yes I believe solid mentioned that it would stay the same if I keep the weight lifting routine the same until age gets in the way....ty for going into detail why.
The same way you know if you are solid or not. You just know. There is no way to measure muscle, excluding what may show up on a sonagram. I'm muscular.
actually you can measure muscle...have your bf tested. If you don't train and eat to put on muscle, you probably aren't going to put on muscle.
I have women come up to me all the time and asking about what I do for my legs and butt and it is inevitable that when I tell them I squat really heavy weights and run sprints they almost always say..."I can't do that I already have too much muscle in my legs". I literally have to bite my tongue so I don't reply "honey thats not muscle, thats fat".
There is nothing wrong with wanting to stay the same or not wanting to have a lot of visible muscle...if that is the aesthetic you prefer, so be it. But please, before you say you have too much muscle, do your research and get your bodyfat tested.
And by the way this isn't a rant on anyone specifically, more like a lot of pent up frustration at the fitness industry and how it markets **** that is misleading and keeps people from reaching their goals (specifically women).
Original Post by solid555:
Building muscle probably has more to do with diet than with what you are doing in the gym. If you are eating at a deficit or maintenance, then worrying about building muscle is a waste of time.
False. While diet plays an important role for weight loss, building muscle comes from lifting weights. You will not see huge gains in the amounts of muscle mass while "cutting" ,however, it is still possible to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. If you are lifting weights you are working your muscles. Working the muscles is what creates muscle definition, not diet alone. If you eat mostly protein based diet, you can get plenty of protein for muscle without a surplus of calories.
