Ten Reasons Women Can not "Bulk Up"
- 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.
- 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!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
By Tim Kontos, David Adamson, and Sarah Walls For www.EliteFTS.com
I wish there was a "like" button on here because I have no real response, but I like it. 
haha thank you! I'm just sick of the misconception. My own sister told me the other day "I'm afraid your going to bulk up and look like a man" I'm like OMG! I'm not taking roids! And my inbox is full of girls asking me the same questions. I want every woman to know that they can be strong and fit!
Excellent.
My favorite example when I hear something like that (the women bulking up thing) is to tell them to go to a gym (pretty much any gym) and look at all the men there. Take note of how many of them are excessively bulky. Now take note of how many scrawny late teens early twenties men are there. Usually there's a lot more that fit into the scrawny category who are trying to bulk up and are at that stage in life where they are most likely to bulk up. It's hard to bulk up for them, it's even harder for someone without all that testosterone flowing through their blood (i.e. women)
Original Post by raychulj: I want every woman to know that they can be strong and fit!
As someone who get's "chicked" by tons of women at triathlons, this I know! 
Good stuff!
HELL YEA! We need to spread the truth! Saturday I leg press 500 lbs and Deadlifted 225 lbs. Do I look like a man?
Original Post by smartjock256:
Excellent.
My favorite example when I hear something like that (the women bulking up thing) is to tell them to go to a gym (pretty much any gym) and look at all the men there. Take note of how many of them are excessively bulky. Now take note of how many scrawny late teens early twenties men are there. Usually there's a lot more that fit into the scrawny category who are trying to bulk up and are at that stage in life where they are most likely to bulk up. It's hard to bulk up for them, it's even harder for someone without all that testosterone flowing through their blood (i.e. women)
Yes! I also post on a weightlifting board and every new guy there is convinced they are some kind of freakish ectomorph that can't put on any muscle no matter how much they eat and lift.
Yet amazingly this board is comprised mostly of women who are the exact opposite, and put on massive amounts of muscle if they so much as look at a barbell.
Original Post by solid555:
Yes! I also post on a weightlifting board and every new guy there is convinced they are some kind of freakish ectomorph that can't put on any muscle no matter how much they eat and lift.
Yet amazingly this board is comprised mostly of women who are the exact opposite, and put on massive amounts of muscle if they so much as look at a barbell.
Its an amazing phenomena.
Original Post by raychulj:
HELL YEA! We need to spread the truth! Saturday I leg press 500 lbs and Deadlifted 225 lbs. Do I look like a man?
225 at a body weight of 140 is very good. Nice job.
Is that the max you've done? What do you squat?
Original Post by solid555:
Original Post by raychulj:
HELL YEA! We need to spread the truth! Saturday I leg press 500 lbs and Deadlifted 225 lbs. Do I look like a man?
225 at a body weight of 140 is very good. Nice job.
Is that the max you've done? What do you squat?
145 is the heaviest I've gotten on squats so far. I prefer the angled leg press at my gym because I mess up the form on squats too often.
Original Post by ajaro:
Original Post by solid555:
Yes! I also post on a weightlifting board and every new guy there is convinced they are some kind of freakish ectomorph that can't put on any muscle no matter how much they eat and lift.
Yet amazingly this board is comprised mostly of women who are the exact opposite, and put on massive amounts of muscle if they so much as look at a barbell.
Its an amazing phenomena.
LMAO!!
Original Post by raychulj:
145 is the heaviest I've gotten on squats so far. I prefer the angled leg press at my gym because I mess up the form on squats too often.
That is still a body weight squat, so that is great. Keep working on the squat form, because squats are about 1,000 times better than a leg press.
Here is a great series of videos on the squat: http://www.youtube.com/user/johnnymnemonic2. Also, for breaking down the form you can't beat Mark Rippetoe's book "Starting Strength".
you look amazing! wow, how did you do that?
did u follow a book or make up your own routines?
Original Post by raychulj:
HELL YEA! We need to spread the truth! Saturday I leg press 500 lbs and Deadlifted 225 lbs. Do I look like a man?
Seriously?? I can only leg press 100, and after 1 set of 50, my feet fall asleep!
I must be doing something wrong >.>
ill keep talking to myself...lol
are you using the machines? i thought i heard free weights are "better", for some reason.
Original Post by agruskin:
ill keep talking to myself...lol
are you using the machines? i thought i heard free weights are "better", for some reason.
You can get more out of free weights due to all the muscles and effort it takes to stabilize (and often more complex motions). For example, a squat will use many more muscles to lift and stabilize (core mostly) than a leg press. Leg press isn't by any means bad though for specific leg workouts. I seem to remember hearing of a dominant cycling team that used one legged leg presses for their main leg exercise. But overall, unless you're really trying to isolate an area, free weight exercises like squats will do a lot more for you overall. I love squats/front squats
Original Post by spinach_spy:
Original Post by raychulj:
HELL YEA! We need to spread the truth! Saturday I leg press 500 lbs and Deadlifted 225 lbs. Do I look like a man?
Seriously?? I can only leg press 100, and after 1 set of 50, my feet fall asleep!
I must be doing something wrong >.>
Well, for one, you're doing too many reps. Do 3 sets heavy weight at 3-5 reps
Original Post by solid555:
Original Post by raychulj:
145 is the heaviest I've gotten on squats so far. I prefer the angled leg press at my gym because I mess up the form on squats too often.
That is still a body weight squat, so that is great. Keep working on the squat form, because squats are about 1,000 times better than a leg press.
Here is a great series of videos on the squat: http://www.youtube.com/user/johnnymnemonic2. Also, for breaking down the form you can't beat Mark Rippetoe's book "Starting Strength".
thanks!
Hey, sorry it took me so long. Yea, my boyfriend's a trainer so helped me out alot. He's also Diabetic and we live together which makes this lifestyle ridiculously easier than it would be otherwise. Right now I'm Doing "The Ultimate Diet 2.0" by Lyle Mcdonald. It's the toughest most rewarding diet and training regiment I've ever done.
