Why are women so terrified of bulking up?

Insight, please?

Original Post by hotfuss:

Original Post by crazydiamondchrysalis:

i keep telling my friends i'm lifting so i can bulk up for a fight. heh.

The main reason I run is so that I am ready for the imminent zombie apocalypse.  I guess I can apply that to lifting too.  In case I lose my firearms, I need some major upper body strength for head bashing with melee weapons!

Have you read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies? It's a story of how you can be lady-like and still fight soulless hordes of undead.

Sorry, but it's probably easier becoming a sumo wrestler.

I mean... I wholeheartedly support your fitness goals.

Original Post by amethystgirl:

Original Post by hotfuss:

Original Post by crazydiamondchrysalis:

i keep telling my friends i'm lifting so i can bulk up for a fight. heh.

The main reason I run is so that I am ready for the imminent zombie apocalypse.  I guess I can apply that to lifting too.  In case I lose my firearms, I need some major upper body strength for head bashing with melee weapons!

Have you read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies? It's a story of how you can be lady-like and still fight soulless hordes of undead.

 Really??  I've seen that book around but get distracted easily and then forgot it existed.  I will have to order that!

Original Post by hotfuss:

The main reason I run is so that I am ready for the imminent zombie apocalypse.  I guess I can apply that to lifting too.  In case I lose my firearms, I need some major upper body strength for head bashing with melee weapons!

Velociraptors for me.... 

On a more serious note, because they lack the proper frame of reference for what results from serious training will be.

 This is a 50-year old woman.

 Leigh Peele did a follow-up on her "defining bulk" blog post, on "The ideal female body" - apparently, thanks to Shape and celebrity fitness trainers who're more interested in being famous than telling people the truth the average perception is that gaining muscle is easy while getting thin is hard.

 Odd, that. And people wonder why I'm so annoyed by the claims coming out of the Pilates and Yoga camp.

Pilates and Yoga are great, but not a substitute for weight lifting or in my case BJJ.

It could just be me, but I think of a "bulky" woman as someone who puts on muscle without losing fat, so she just gets bigger and not a lot more definition since she still has the fat on her. That's definitely what I'm afraid of! Of course, no afraid enough to not lift heavy weights.

I always tell my boyfriend that I need to work on running endurance so I have better chances of surviving a zombie attack :]

Because ignorance is bliss for many.

Original Post by melkor:

On a more serious note, because they lack the proper frame of reference for what results from serious training will be.

 This is a 50-year old woman. 

I think I have a new hero.

Original Post by karozel:

Original Post by hotfuss:

The main reason I run is so that I am ready for the imminent zombie apocalypse.  I guess I can apply that to lifting too.  In case I lose my firearms, I need some major upper body strength for head bashing with melee weapons!

Velociraptors for me.... 

XKCD reference for the win!

For the same reason that women want bigger breasts, slimmer waists, poutier lips, and men want defined abs and bigger arms. Everyone wants the body that's popular in their given era. Whether it's the 'S' shaped body in the victorian era or the miniature albeit crippled feet in ancient china.

We're all hardwired to want to attract a mate, even if we don't even want to or realize it.

Well, that's just what I think anyway.

I thought men wanted a bigger penis....actually, i KNOW they would rather that than bigger biceps...heck..I HOPE i'm right!

;)

Original Post by caiteliz014:

Original Post by karozel:

Original Post by hotfuss:

The main reason I run is so that I am ready for the imminent zombie apocalypse.  I guess I can apply that to lifting too.  In case I lose my firearms, I need some major upper body strength for head bashing with melee weapons!

Velociraptors for me.... 

XKCD reference for the win!

other people getting xkcd references ftw!

Original Post by amethystgirl:

Original Post by hotfuss:

Original Post by crazydiamondchrysalis:

i keep telling my friends i'm lifting so i can bulk up for a fight. heh.

The main reason I run is so that I am ready for the imminent zombie apocalypse.  I guess I can apply that to lifting too.  In case I lose my firearms, I need some major upper body strength for head bashing with melee weapons!

Have you read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies? It's a story of how you can be lady-like and still fight soulless hordes of undead.

 I just requested this book from my library after reading your post,amethystgirl!  Definitely don't want to get eaten by zombies - good motivation there, hotfuss.  Or velociraptors, karozel!  Man, what are my dreams going to be like tonight??

Original Post by mhaskell:

Original Post by melkor:

On a more serious note, because they lack the proper frame of reference for what results from serious training will be.

 This is a 50-year old woman. 

I think I have a new hero.

 Me too. I am turning 40 this year and a major reason I started lifting is to avoid the health problems that have attacked women in my family due to their weak physiques.

I am loving the diminished cellulite effects too!!

because men feel inferior when they see a woman who is more fit than they are. so they talk about how unfeminine and ugly it is and make women not want to look that way.

Original Post by danaofdoom:

because men feel inferior when they see a woman who is more fit than they are. so they talk about how unfeminine and ugly it is and make women not want to look that way.

This goes the other way too. Many women want their partner to be bigger and stronger than them.

Original Post by melkor:

On a more serious note, because they lack the proper frame of reference for what results from serious training will be.

 This is a 50-year old woman.

 Leigh Peele did a follow-up on her "defining bulk" blog post, on "The ideal female body" - apparently, thanks to Shape and celebrity fitness trainers who're more interested in being famous than telling people the truth the average perception is that gaining muscle is easy while getting thin is hard.

That 50 year old woman is fantastic. It's so motivating to know that fitness doesn't have to fade with age. She rocks! Thanks for posting - very inspiring to keep up my fitness routine for life.

I'm also a Leigh Peele fan. If only there were more women like her spreading the message that muscles are great, being healthy and in shape is great and being a twig when you're not naturally twiglike is... not so great.

the average woman wants to be what society regards as beautiful or sexy. in america that is lean, toned, thin... big boobs. lol. so typically it is not a bulky chick (in my mind the word butch pops up)

if men stopped finding that type of woman sexier than an muscular chick, then most women would lift more weights. so don't act all confused as to how this behavior is motivated. there is a reason why MEGAN FOX is maxims hottest woman and not SERINA WILLIAMS.

i hate people saying women just prefer to be weak. forget you. i'm in the military and i didn't need to have a body builder physique to make it. >:-P

That 50 year old lady was amazing!

I guess people just have that stereotype image of a female bodybuilder on steroids complete with stubble, a deep voice and newly formed bulge in her pants!

Sounds far fetched, but I tried encouraging a couple of my female work colleagues to take up weight training to help them with fat loss.  They more or less gave the same image as above and refused to budge on the idea of lifting weights.  This was followed by the mention of pilates and yoga lengthening and toning muscles...need I say more?