The most popular question I get in e-mails from females (hey, that rhymed) is about weightlifting. They tell me how they don’t want big muscles. They don’t want to get big and bulky like a guy or like a big female bodybuilder. They just want to be slim with a flat stomach and defined muscles in their arms, shoulders, back, legs etc., they don’t want to be huge or anything crazy like that! So, they then tell me that to avoid getting big and bulky like a guy, they workout with lighter weights for higher reps. They say that this will stop them from becoming a huge manly looking bodybuilder. Well, to put it simply… that is 100% complete and total nonsense!
Some women use this light weight with high reps approach to stop them from getting too big and bulky, and some don’t even workout with weights at all for fear of becoming huge like a guy. Lots of women seem to fear weightlifting. They are scared that they may one day wake up and look huge and bulky with big muscles like a guy or one of those huge freaky female bodybuilders. Well ladies… have no fear! What I am about to explain is how you can and SHOULD do weightlifting, and how it doesn’t matter if you use lighter weight with higher reps, heavy weights with less reps, machines or free weights, or any type of weightlifting there is… you will NEVER EVER get big and bulky like a guy or a freaky looking female bodybuilder.
Here’s the magic secret word… Testosterone. Say it with me… Testosterone. This is the magic ingredient that allows guys to get huge, and stops women from getting huge. The way it works is like this. Men have lots of testosterone. Because of this fact, we can get “huge” and “big and bulky” and whatever other fancy words you want to use. We can get big muscles. We men can get big and bulky looking, the way that most of you ladies don’t want to get. On the other hand, you females don’t have anywhere near the amount of testosterone that us guys have. Because of this fact, you can not get big and bulky like a guy. You will not wake up one day and look like a huge bodybuilder. You can workout just like a guy, with big heavy free weights with low reps, and do big manly exercises like the bench press and military press and squats and deadlifts and any other exercise there is… and you can workout like this for years and years and years, but, because of that whole testosterone thing we just talked about, you will never get that “big bulky huge muscles manly guy” look that you are afraid of getting. It just can’t happen. Don’t get me wrong, you ladies certainly can increase muscle just fine. However, no matter how hard you try, your bodies just can’t get as big and muscular as many ladies are scared of getting.
Wait! I’m going to read your minds now. You are thinking, what about those female bodybuilders? Or even some female wrestlers and other female athletes. You know, those freaky looking women who look big like a guy. The ones who if they weren’t wearing a bikini top, you wouldn’t be able to tell if they were male or female. Well, just like I said above… you females can’t get that big because you don’t have enough testosterone. However, these “freaky” females you’re thinking of, use steroids and God knows what else to increase their testosterone levels so that they can get big and bulky like a guy! I’m not making this stuff up! They all have, at one point in their lives, used steroids or a drug of some kind to increase their testosterone levels, therefore allowing them to get so big.
So ladies, unless you are planning on taking steroids any time soon, you have NOTHING to worry about. You can workout however you want, use free weights all night long, use heavy weights that guys can’t even lift and lift them for low reps, you have nothing to fear. You have no need to be scared of weightlifting anymore.