Pep Talk
"I don't want to lift weights because I'll get too bulky." It's a common thing I hear as a fitness trainer. And the fear is totally understandable. I don't think many women want to walk around looking like the muscle-bound she-males you see in some fitness magazines. The ones with biceps bigger than their heads and no boobs. You know the ones that I mean. Now, I am not trying to undercut their muscular achievements in any way and can appreciate the hard work it took to get to that point. It's impressive. However, it is a look that I don't really want to achieve, nor do most of the women I encounter in the pursuit of physical fitness.Thus enter the fear. "If I weightlift, I will look like that." NO! This is a huge misconception that is perpetuated not only through lack of knowledge, but by industry professionals themselves. If I have to see one more interview from a celebrity trainer with sticks for arms talking about "doing these special exercises to TONE the muscles, not BULK them," I think I will throw a kettlebell through the TV.
So, for your benefit, here is a list of common muscle misconceptions.
"Men need to lift heavy weights and women need to lift light weights." FALSE! Men and women can train the exact same way and have completely different results -- and this includes the amount of weight they lift! Granted, if you lift heavier you WILL build muscle. However, this means a very different thing for women than for men. See the next point below for details.
"If I lift weights, I will look big and bulky like a man." FALSE! If you lift weights, you will build muscle. HOWEVER, in women, the amount of muscle we can build is limited by our hormones. We do not make the same levels of testosterone that men make, and therefore cannot get big and massive like them. As an aside here, I have encountered one or two women who do have a higher tendency to gain an abnormal amount of muscle size, but this is one or two out of hundreds of women that I have worked with over the years. The majority of us just cannot get that big -- even if we are purposely trying to do it! The women in fitness magazines who walk close to the gender-androgyny border are usually taking a little something "extra" in order to fight their genetics and look like that. You cannot "accidentally" build that kind of muscle as a woman; you need to be intentionally going for that kind of look.
"I want to TONE. I don't want to BULK." I've got news for you. You might want to sit down. Wait for it. Ready? Bulk and tone are the same thing. They both basically mean "muscle building." I feel that the fitness industry has created "tone" as a marketing term, basically to sell weightlifting to women. What the heck does "tone" mean anyway? This is the major difference between bulk and tone: when I talk to men about weightlifting, I use the word "bulk"; when I talk to women about weightlifting, I use the word "tone."
"I want to lengthen my muscles. I want nice, long muscles." Um...what? What does that mean? What is a long muscle? Science lesson: you cannot physically "lengthen" your muscles. Your muscle fiber lengths are fixed. What you can do is increase the size of the fibers (a process called hypertrophy...what we traditionally refer to as muscle growth). Theoretically there is even a concept called hyperplasia, which is increasing the number of muscle fibers you have (but this process is highly debated in the fitness industry). Basically, you can grow your muscles, but you cannot make them longer.
"I don't want all that extra muscle weight on my body." YES, YOU DO! Muscle has several amazing benefits. Not only does it keep you strong and protect your body, but it burns extra calories for you when your body is at rest. That's right. If you have more muscle on your body, you will burn more calories when you are doing things like sitting on the couch. Adding muscle increases your metabolism and that means...wait for it...you can eat more food! (Clean, healthy food, of course.)
CONCLUSION: Muscle is good. Weightlifting is good. Take your fears of bulking and throw them out the window. Pick up a kettlebell and get to work!
Challenge Workout
Set a timer for 10 minutes. Within that 10 minutes, do 5 reps each of the exercises below. When you can no longer complete 5 reps, do 4 of everything. Then do 3, and so on, until you are only completing 1 rep of everything until the timer stops. Take breaks as needed.Exercises:
- Pushups
- Jump Squats
- Hollow Rocks (or Crunches) - see this video for Hollow Rock instructions
