Woman lifting weights are becoming more trendy now than ever before, but there still is a stigma out there for some woman about the thought of getting bulky if they lift heavy weights.
Let’s look into this…
Women complain of getting bulky – this is when you try to dominate a certain area that you want to lose weight from eg: legs, thighs and stomach.
So a common reaction is that women start do heaps of high repetition half squats and step ups for reducing the fat around the legs.
Another example is women also start incorporating leg lifts and hundreds of sit ups to burn fat from their stomach.
However some things that could happen here is you start to grow that muscle under the layer of fat that you’re not burning – so you start looking ‘bulky’.
Diet is a huge component, and if you do not clean up your diet you will still have fat sitting over your beautiful muscle that creates the bulky look.
Smart diet and exercise combined should have you losing body fat at the same rate you increase lean muscle.
Bulky then becomes ‘athletic’
Why you look bulky:
Women are building muscle by working that area more with the intention of ‘burning it away’, however they are most of the time NOT burning fat.
This is because they are normally working in a too high threshold (cardiovascular) that will not allow the body to burn fat.
They jump from one exercise to another, incorporating explosive moves placing the body in a stress situation, affecting cortisol levels (cortisol’s home base is the stomach).
There is no control from one exercise to another. Sure you feel spent, but training this style all the time will not effectively grow good muscle mass.
– this can also be common in our stubborn areas such as hips, butt and thighs.
Dissecting these methods:
1. By completing full squats with correct range of movement, from top to bottom back to top is what you should be concentrating on.
2. Work through the entire range of movement with control and mindfulness, to feel the muscles work, to have knees follow the toes, and to not slump through the back.
3. Next step is to increase the weight, again to, a controllable load that you can perform these squats, and now have your heart rate elevating.
4. Once you have your correct weight, correct technique, complete a range of repetitions that are making you feel ‘clammy’ and then rest for a minute in between, repeat this 4 – 6 times.
5. Then you will move onto the next leg exercises eg lunges.
6. Ensure you have good form, once that is correct, load weight accordingly (holding weights on shoulders will incorporate the core more), again be careful not to lean forward to much and that the knee isn’t pulling too much as you lunge down.
If you complete squats and lunges with correct technique the need for ‘sit ups’ will not be needed.
FACT: You work your core continuously when squatting and lunging.
However so many women want to incorporate sit ups to flatten their stomach, but this is not the most effective exercise for the stomach.
Many people pull their neck up towards their knees with their hands and strain their neck, the motion that they are executing is very fast and it’s more momentum than control.
Most important:
If you want to target those areas, you need to work on the diet and supplements plus specific exercises at certain times, meaning well rested, not training back to back days.
One way which is best to work on is creating an hourglass shape is to create good shoulders strength exercises to define a smaller waist.
Cardio work for strong legs:
You want to concentrate on hill sprints, short bike sprints, squat jumps, battle rope and push-ups (for strong upper body)
Please note- you must stop once form is lost, MORE is NOT better.
Here is some great HIIT workouts that are programmed correctly (short time frame) that incorporate legs and shoulders
Don’t keep adding more exercises in – just work hard, but safe and then recover smart.
The more you focus on recovery, the more your body will change.
Another important factor: people with adrenal fatigue – do not go straight into this, only push a little and then monitor it by how you recover.
If you’d like to get strong without feeling like you’ll get bulky I have a couple of programs that may be of interest:
Yang & Yin – for women struggling with belly fat once hitting 40 years of age.
Reset – the accountability program
Hit me up for a free consultation if you like help with your current program.
