Many people who aspire to good health and a sleek physique, particularly women, avoid weight training because they fear it will make them big and muscular. Many others, particularly men, embrace it for precisely the same reason. So what are the facts? Does weight training or weight lifting make you bulky?
Genetics and gender can define the extent to which that happens, as can age. Women have much less testosterone, essential for the process of gaining lean muscle mass, than men, and the growth process slows considerably with age, although some growth is still possible at more or less any age.
Eat, rest and bulk up
Received wisdom is that performing limited reps with a heavy weight is better for bulking up, while increasing the “reps” and lowering the weight is the preferred method of “cutting” or defining. For many gym users the intention is to tone rather than grow, and gain strength without becoming bulky or overly muscular.
And up to a point it’s sensible, but it misses some essential truths. First of all, weight or resistance training is only part of the deal if the goal of the exercise, if you’ll excuse the pun, is to increase lean mass. Overexerting the muscle causes it to break down, but it needs to be nourished and replaced in order for it to grow. This is where diet, or more specifically protein, comes into play. Protein is the building block of muscle and without sufficient protein intake, muscle will not expand no matter how hard it is punished. This is one of the reasons you’ll see guys in the gym who have been training their whole lives and lifting impressive weights, but still look like the sandman in the face of those old Bullworker ads.
In addition to this, the recovery process is only possible when the muscles have enough time to rest. It is a well established truism that not allowing the body enough time to rest and recover will always lead to failure in the muscle building process.
grow with gravity
This is by no means to say that there aren’t ways to induce muscle growth that don’t involve barbells and dumbbells and slabs of heavy metal. There is growing enthusiasm for bodyweight exercises, which use our bodies’ natural weight and the simple force of gravity to provide the resistance needed to stimulate muscle growth. It adopts the same principle and is usually much cheaper, but the range of motion available can be limited.
So the answer to the question is that lifting heavy weights can make you bulky, but only if that’s what you want and you stick to the plan. By adopting proven scientific principles and adopting a regimen that includes eating the right foods in the right amounts and getting enough rest, exercising with weights that are heavy and getting progressively heavier will result in muscle gain.