Will lifting heavy weights make you bulky?

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, adopt it for precisely the same reason. So what are the facts? Does weight training or lifting weights 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

The received wisdom is that performing limited reps with a heavy weight is best for bulking, while increasing “reps” and lowering the weight is the preferred method for “cutting” or definition. For many gym users the intention is to tone rather than grow, and gain strength without becoming bulky or overly muscular.

And to some extent that is sensible, but it overlooks 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 pardon 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 you push it. This is one of the reasons why you’ll see guys in the gym who have been training their whole lives and lift impressive weights, but still look like the sandman on the face of the old Bullworker commercials.

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 failure to allow the body sufficient 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 heavy metal slabs. There is growing enthusiasm for bodyweight exercises, which use the natural weight of our bodies and the simple force of gravity to provide the resistance needed to stimulate muscle growth. It follows the same principle and is usually much cheaper, but the range of movements 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, working out with weights that are heavy and get progressively heavier will result in muscle gain.