Toning without Bulking

Hello everyone! I am new to the site (well, more like recently re-motivated) and had a question.

I have an endomorphic top (soft, curvy, likes fat) and a mesomorphic bottom (short, stubby, likes muscle). How do I know this? After kickboxing 2-3 times a week (along with cardio) for over a year, I didn't lose weight and my top half only got slightly more toned, but I went up a pant size (almost two!) on the bottom.

So basically I have a nice womanly top with gladiator legs. I know how to tone the top (reps & weights), but how do I tone and/or slenderize my bottom half without bulking up?

Original Post by morgananicole:

Hello everyone! I am new to the site (well, more like recently re-motivated) and had a question.

I have an endomorphic top (soft, curvy, likes fat) and a mesomorphic bottom (short, stubby, likes muscle). How do I know this? After kickboxing 2-3 times a week (along with cardio) for over a year, I didn't lose weight and my top half only got slightly more toned, but I went up a pant size (almost two!) on the bottom.

So basically I have a nice womanly top with gladiator legs. I know how to tone the top (reps & weights), but how do I tone and/or slenderize my bottom half without bulking up?

Ugh. Here we go again, but I'll cut ya some slack because you're new.

IT IS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO GAIN BULK IF YOU'RE A STERIOD FREE FEMALE. Beat that into your head and never forget it. If you're eating under your maintenence calories, you have to be some one in a zillion rare genetic freak to gain any muscle at all. How can you gain muscle when you're not even eating enough to maintain the weight you currently have?

It is very easy, however, for women to gain fat. It takes more motivation than most people have to even gain a few lbs of muscle. It's just not easy. If it were easy, body builders would sashay into the gym, do a few reps of a few machines then leave in 45 minutes. That's what most women say they do then claim they gained bulky muscles. Ain't happening.

By the way, kickboxing is HARD! I love it

Yeh and you know this how......

I put on muscle faster than any man I've met, stopped exercising really in my teens and can still lift my 210lbs friends of the floor comfortably. I've no idea how to exercise without putting on bulky muscle either; even a week in the pool on holiday last year put 2" on my biceps.When I was a teen and swam 6 days a week I was 120lbs with not a pick of fat (I'm 5'4'') and had a 17'' neck massive shoulders, biceps and thighs with a killer 6 pack.

If someone who understands that peole are all individuals whants to give some ideas for toning with out bulking I'd be very very happy. As it is i just stick to cardio in my fat burning zone.

Original Post by vwiggins:

Yeh and you know this how......

I put on muscle faster than any man I've met, stopped exercising really in my teens and can still lift my 210lbs friends of the floor comfortably. I've no idea how to exercise without putting on bulky muscle either; even a week in the pool on holiday last year put 2" on my biceps.When I was a teen and swam 6 days a week I was 120lbs with not a pick of fat (I'm 5'4'') and had a 17'' neck massive shoulders, biceps and thighs with a killer 6 pack.

If someone who understands that peole are all individuals whants to give some ideas for toning with out bulking I'd be very very happy. As it is i just stick to cardio in my fat burning zone.

The one in a million female is an extreme genetic outlier that will gain muscle easily. Accoriding this board, that's every other woman. It's a pretty safe assumption when people start complaining about muscle, they are dead wrong

Secondly, we already had a giant thread on the "fat burning zone". That's a complete load of poo.

Original Post by vwiggins:

even a week in the pool on holiday last year put 2" on my biceps.

 I'd keep that to myself if I were you, if word gets out you'll have a line of pro-bodybuilders lined up from your front door all the way around the block to try to get some of whatever drug you were on when this happened.

Putting 2 inches on your bicpes from swimming for a week is about as likely as someone's legs growing 4 inches longer during a pilates class.

Original Post by floggingsully:

Original Post by vwiggins:

even a week in the pool on holiday last year put 2" on my biceps.

 I'd keep that to myself if I were you, if word gets out you'll have a line of pro-bodybuilders lined up from your front door all the way around the block to try to get some of whatever drug you were on when this happened.

Putting 2 inches on your bicpes from swimming for a week is about as likely as someone's legs growing 4 inches longer during a pilates class.

my sides hurt from laughing.........you guys need to quit, 2" from a week of swimming...hahahahahahhahahahhahahaha

Original Post by floggingsully:

Putting 2 inches on your bicpes from swimming for a week is about as likely as someone's legs growing 4 inches longer during a pilates class.

LOL! Hahaha! This will be the quote of the day. Thanks!

Original Post by floggingsully:

Original Post by vwiggins:

even a week in the pool on holiday last year put 2" on my biceps.

 I'd keep that to myself if I were you, if word gets out you'll have a line of pro-bodybuilders lined up from your front door all the way around the block to try to get some of whatever drug you were on when this happened.

Putting 2 inches on your bicpes from swimming for a week is about as likely as someone's legs growing 4 inches longer during a pilates class.

 Christ I must have blocked that part of her post right out. What the hell

Wait!  You mean pilates will make me taller?  I always wanted to be taller... 

Original Post by susiecue:

Wait!  You mean pilates will make me taller?  I always wanted to be taller... 

You didn't know? It works best if you drink "Perfect Water".

Original Post by amethystgirl:

Original Post by susiecue:

Wait!  You mean pilates will make me taller?  I always wanted to be taller... 

You didn't know? It works best if you drink "Perfect Water".

 Aaaarrrrrgggghhhh!  You beat me to that punch line! 

Morgan, I'm with you.

I know you all claim it to be super rare for a woman to gain muscule without steriods, but I disagree. I can lift pretty hefty weights. I opt to lift 5 pound "barbie" weights because anything else makes me look obscene. When I wear tank tops I have been accused of having Madonna arms. I don't take steriods or eat 3,000 calories a day. I know the difference between muscles that are puffy from being used and actual gain.

I gain a lot of muscule with very little effort; I have always been this way. When I was in HS, part of my after-school job involved lifting 40-lb paper rolls over my head about 10 times a shift. I had ginormous guns from doing this and nothing else.

Morgan, my solution to this problem is to do lots of reps with smaller weights when weight training. I usually do strength training 2-3 days a week, and 3 days of cardio. I also kickbox, but find that it does not my legs huge - way less then spinning did. I had to quit spinning because none of my pants fit.

Every third woman on this site claims to be the one woman in a zillion who bulks up without trying

Well, then mabe it's not so rare. I'm not saying I can get to body building standards. I'm saying I gain muscule quickly. You guys are being really unsupportive of the OP - someone new on the site.  She asked a question and got jumped on.

There are three classifications of body type for women:

Mesomorphs: Tend to be more muscular, this body type responds quickly to weight training and is more apt to gain muscle mass.

Ectomorphs: This body type tends to stay lean. Even with strength training, they are less likely to build any muscle mass, but will become stronger through lifting weights. Weight loss occurs more easily and they tend to NOT store body fat.

Endomorphs: This body type is more soft and round, often referred to as voluptuous. There must be a loss of body fat before this body type can see a difference in muscle tone due to strength training.

People can have tendencies toward a body type without being at the far end of the mesomorph spectrum. While super-crazy-far-end mesomorphs are probably rare, women run the spetrum of each type. The OP and myself fall somehwre under the mesomorphic spectrum. Probably not high, but we tend toward that body type rather then the others.

I just want to know where that pool is.  I've got the travel website waiting in another tab....

Original Post by mel_e_mel:

I know you all claim it to be super rare for a woman to gain muscule without steriods, but I disagree. I can lift pretty hefty weights.

Plenty of women can lift really heavy weights, it doesn't mean that lifting those heavy weights makes them all 'bulky'.

Original Post by mel_e_mel:

I opt to lift 5 pound "barbie" weights because anything else makes me look obscene.

So, every time you pick up a gallon of milk (which weighs 8lbs) you all of a sudden look 'obscene'? I hope you have someone else pick up your groceries for you since we have obsenity laws here and it would be a bummer if you got dragged out of the grocery store in handcuffs...

Original Post by mel_e_mel:

When I wear tank tops I have been accused of having Madonna arms.

So, they're telling you that you have smallish muscles and look emaciated?

Original Post by mel_e_mel:I'm not saying I can get to body building standards.

 So, you can't get to body-building standards, but lifting 5lb weights makes you look 'obscene'?

Original Post by mel_e_mel:You guys are being really unsupportive of the OP - someone new on the site. She asked a question and got jumped on.

Nobody jumped on the OP, people jumped on whoever it was that claimed her biceps grew 2 inches by swimming for a week.

I have to join Spirochete & Floggingsully here on this one.  I am also a mesomorph so I gain muscle easily (for a girl) and I also kickbox competitively and train with heavy weights and I am NOT bulky. 

I also have a huge appetite and I tend overeat by a large amount on a regular basis (so I'm definitely not in a caloric deficit) and I still don't bulk up.  I am muscular and athletic and strong though.

Maybe you just have the wrong idea of what bulky really is?

I don't understand the offense. If one out of three women of this site say this happens to them, why are people so inclined to scoff at them and tell them it's impossible? I don't know the science. But I do know my own body.

No one is saying they carry groceries and become Hulk Hogan. I am saying that normal physical exercise done on a regular basis over time - like lifting, spinning, etc. - causes some women to gain mass, without steroids, without stuffing their faces whenever they aren't at the gym.

Some people are on this site to lose weight /pants sizes / whatever makes them happy. Women who have a tendency to build muscle mass quickly, and are also trying to lose weight through exercise, are in a bind.  Without extreme dieting, we get bigger from exercise, not smaller. I think that is what the OP was trying to ask.

I'm pretty sure the statement "pilates lengthens your muscles," isn't meant to be taken literally.  Just so all you meat-heads know.

Original Post by mel_e_mel:

I don't understand the offense. If one out of three women of this site say this happens to them, why are people so inclined to scoff at them and tell them it's impossible? I don't know the science. But I do know my own body.

No one is saying they carry groceries and become Hulk Hogan. I am saying that normal physical exercise done on a regular basis over time - like lifting, spinning, etc. - causes some women to gain mass, without steroids, without stuffing their faces whenever they aren't at the gym. 

It is impossible that lifting 8 pound weights would make someone bulky if lifting a gallon of milk out of the fridge every morning doesn't.  Your body can't tell if the 8 pounds it's lifting are a beverage or a dumbbell. 

I think that there are two main groups of women claiming that they get bulky from normal exercise:

• Women who are still a bit heavy and therefore have a layer of fat over their muscles.  The muscles grow a little, the fat pops out and they think they're bulky.  If they kept up the exercise and deficit, they'd find that after those initial gains, they'd slim right down and would not look bulky at all.  Yeah, we look bulky in the in-the-middle stage, but that's the fat not the muscle.  These women may also be overestimating their calorie deficit.
• Women who are very slim and whose definition of "bulky" is rather different from mine.  These women claim they want to be toned, but really they want to be skinny.  They're using "bulky" to mean what most of us use the word "toned" for, and that confuses the discussion.  If your arm/leg is mostly smooth with a hint of muscle, that's not bulk.  If you want to know how to be "skinny-with-no-visible-muscle", ask for that and you'll get the appropriate advice.

Incidentally, I don't mean either of those categories as a criticism.  I would fit into the first category - except that I realise my 'thickness' is from fat not muscle.  I would *love* to be able to fit into the second category, but my bone structure will never let me be waiflike.

And, yeah, I know the pilates muscle-lengthening thing isn't literal.  I still wanna be taller!