I hope we can figure out the answer to this one. I am also a little upset that I have to write this. Over the past few years there has been a huge push of women emerging into weight training and getting great results from It. Powerful, strong women promoting the use weights for exercise, seems pretty awesome to me. The question still comes up on a monthly basis, “Will this make me bulk up?”
The answer to this question is no. HELL NO!
But I understand where the stigma is coming from, there are a lot of cases where weights are used to add some size for people. Whether this is a kid in high school wanting to get his beach body ready, or the people preparing for a sports season. Weights are going to get them bigger, faster, stronger, right?
Sort of…
You cannot put on size by working out alone. The actual weight training cannot cause that type of response. Think of building a house, you buy every damn tool you can find and get all the best workers to join you but that house is not getting any bigger without the materials.
The same thing goes for weight training, you may be creating an environment for your body to want to change but It cannot physically “grow” without the materials (food). Our everyday diets and our daily activity are the real ways we get our bodies’ to either bulk up or slim down. The weight training creates the environment, the food follows It up with what direction you will be going.
Now, for most of us we may be looking to lose some weight but we want to look good doing It. So we need to do our weight training to maintain our muscle mass, shed the body fat, and have our body “want” to utilize the food we eat the right way. If we just lose weight without keeping our muscle mass and body fat in check then we will just become a smaller version of ourselves. Same look, same shape, just slightly smaller.
If you lost 15 pounds and looked the exact same, would you be happy with your results? I would not be.
Weight training allows us to change the appearance of our body. The shape, look, and feel. We want real change, so don’t skip the weights!
In good health,
Jeff
