Avoiding bulking up in the gym: a common concern of women starting to lift.
- Emma Dwyer
- May 18
- 5 min read
 “What should I do to avoid getting bulky in the gym?” This is an oft-heard question as a non-traditional physical therapist who encourages weights over bands. I wanted to write this newsletter especially for my ladies!!! We’ll go over:
And I’ll start with a short personal anecdote to illustrate how difficult it is to get bulky as a woman: I have been actively trying to build muscle for the past 5 years. I have had varying training schedules over those years, but I’ve always had on average 3-4 days at the gym doing heavy strength training (I’ll drop down to two days during race training season, and my sessions are shorter and less intense.) I try as hard as I can to lift as heavy as I can. I select weights that get me to fatigue around 4-6 reps. As an example, I’ve recently gotten up to 100lb split squats, and 120lb deadlifts. I do at least 4 sets of each exercise at a time. Depending on who you are, those weights may sound heavy, or they may sound like they’re light. It doesn’t matter, because to me they are physiologically too heavy for me to do more than 4-6 reps, so they are heavy to me. I choose them on purpose for the specific adaptations they will give my body. If you know what I look like, I can be a walking advertisement of how lifting weights in itself will not get you big and bulky (most especially as a female.) I generally shy away from talking about aesthetics and body-type descriptions because I think they have been overdone and harmful in the past (ie my generation has seen the craze go from waif-thin as the epitome of beauty to unrealistic curves and honestly I think idealizing a certain body type is crazy and just breeds dissatisfaction - we are all unique and diversity is the spice of life, after all!!!) But just to give an example, I have been described by my patients and clients with the following adjectives:
Never have I ever been described (to my knowledge) as:
And this is to describe someone who has lifted heavy weights for five straight years!!!!! What I’m trying to say is that it takes so much time, dedication and effort to put on muscle that some ladies who are actively trying to build muscle can’t. Genetics & hormones play a role, too. A huge part of your muscle-building tendencies have to do with genetics - some women definitely have an easier time of doing it. If you are a woman who knows they put on a lot of muscle mass quickly, then I totally understand and if you don’t want that look, there are ways to avoid it - although I am really jealous and would still encourage you to build muscle!) But women have vastly less testosterone than men, so even if you’re a fast-muscle-adapter, it’s typically much harder for us to build muscle than it is for men. You have to be dedicated to having a calorie surplus for muscle to grow. Muscle-building is energy-intensive and the process itself requires calories in addition to the calories you need simply for activities of daily living. Folks who lift for aesthetic reasons (and especially body builders) pay extreme attention to their diets. In addition to having a slight caloric surplus, they often strive for 1.6-2.2 g of protein per kg bodyweight per day for women (about .7 to 1 gram per pound of bodyweight.)(1) An interesting thing to note is that, when dieting or being in a caloric deficit, a large portion of the weight you lose tends to be lean (muscle) mass, so it’s also very important to make sure you are getting adequate protein and resistance training when dieting. Hypertrophy training is what builds muscle. (This gets a little into the weeds but is very interesting!) Hypertrophy training refers to specific training to grow muscles. It requires folks go to (or close to) true failure, where they couldn’t perform another rep of an exercise. Very broadly, most people will underestimate the amount of reps they can perform. This means that, when given the opportunity to guess how many reps we can do at a given weight, we will most likely stop at a number we think is near failure, but it really isn’t. I see this all the time with folks who have been constantly told at traditional physical therapy that 3 sets of 10 with an arbitrary weight for each exercise is what will get them better. We think the number of reps is what is important, but realistically, it is the number of reps combined with the external load (the weight you’re carrying) and the proximity to failure you have with each set. If you are not going to (or near) your true failure with your exercises, you will definitely not build muscle.(2) What’s very interesting is that it doesn’t matter which weight you choose for muscle building. You can get muscle to build and cause this hypertrophic effect at literally any weight, as long as you perform reps to failure. Strength training, in contrast, is more nebulous, requires specificity to the task you want to get strong at, and often requires less reps and longer rest times to achieve adaptations. So, to recap: It’s difficult for anyone, but especially women, to gain muscle for the following reasons:
And just to plug the immense benefit of strength & resistance training:
An important point I am not preaching one form of exercise for all. I simply want to give information on how our bodies adapt to certain things. It’s up to you to decide what is important to you in terms of physical goals. Annnnnd…. Let’s be honest: the biggest issue we have in our country regarding physical fitness is the lack of it. I encourage you to find whatever exercise you want to do and stick with it or switch it up! As long as you’re moving and enjoying yourself, we will be a healthier, happier society. If you need help achieving your specific goals, always feel free to reach out :) Keep on striding strong! Emma Dwyer References:
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