Why Women Won’t Get Bulky Lifting Weights

As a longtime trainer, sometimes I take for granted the general knowledge of the average person when it comes to exercise. In my world myths like eating 6 times a day to boost metabolism, not eating past 8pm, and carbs being the devil incarnate are widely known to be untrue.

However, one concern that continues to pop up among women, particularly those new to resistance exercise, is the fear that lifting weights will make them “bulky.” Bulky in this instance means to put on an undesirable amount of muscle.

The stigma behind women and weightlifting has dissipated in recent years. Nowadays you won’t see women confined to spin classes or curling pink 3lb dumbbells. They work out with real weights. At risk of sounding like I’m virtue signaling I can confidently say that overall the women in my gym train harder than the men. They’re more serious about it and don’t get distracted.

Still, women who are new to resistance training may be hesitant to push themselves. They haven’t been around the gym long enough to see how hard other women train. Nor have they been around long enough to see the result of such training.

Men and women have clear physiological differences, which hampers the muscle building capacity of women. In addition, the diet and training styles of the two usually differ, which yields different results.

Women Have Significantly Lower Testosterone Than Men

Testosterone is the primary hormone associated with muscle strength and size. Women have a fraction of the testosterone of men; 10-20x less depending on several factors. Even a woman with the best genetics for muscle building who lives a healthy lifestyle would have significantly less testosterone than the average male.

The average testosterone range for a female is 15-70 ng/dl, while the average male range is 300-1,000 ng/dl.

Testosterone levels are not a stagnant thing. A man with a healthy diet, lifestyle, and body fat level will likely have more testosterone than an overweight, sedentary man. Still, even the sedentary man will have far more testosterone than a woman.

As a result, the muscle building capacity of a woman compared to a man is lower. Testosterone isn’t the only factor when it comes to building muscle, but it is an important one.

Women Typically Train Differently Than Men

In order to build as much muscle as humanly possible… you need to train in a manner that leads to building as much muscle as humanly possible.

Earlier I referenced that many women train as hard if not harder than most men. But generally speaking, they have different workout goals. Most women don’t want 18 inch biceps and most men don’t perform 20 set workouts for glutes.

Proportionally speaking, the muscular potential of the lower body is higher for women than men. The opposite is also true, as the muscular potential of the upper body is higher for men.

As with most things in life, we tend to gravitate towards what we’re good at. If we’re good at a certain job or sport, we usually enjoy doing it. In that respect, it makes sense that women would enjoy developing their legs and glutes while men would prefer to train chest and arms.

Interestingly, due to hormonal differences, women can tolerate longer training sessions compared to men. One reason is because women are more resistant to metabolic stress. Metabolic stress is the accumulation of acid and ions in the muscle that lead to fatigue when exercising.

So while women may lack the strength and explosive power of men, they usually have better muscular endurance. As a result, women typically have a greater proportion of type I “slow twitch” muscle fibers. These muscle fibers are adept at performing endurance exercise compared to type II “fast twitch” muscle fibers.

When you consider that fast twitch fibers account for much of the size and definition of a particular muscle, it makes sense that women on average have less.

More Women Use PEDs Than You Think

At this point some of you may be saying: “This all makes sense, but I’ve seen women who are jacked and I don’t want that!”

You would be surprised at how many men and women in your gym right now are on some sort of anabolic steroid. There’s a bit of a misconception about the effects of steroids on an individual’s physique. They work, there’s no doubt about that. But just because someone decides to take that leap doesn’t mean they’re going to stroll into the gym looking like Triple H.

You’d be surprised at the number of people that take performance enhancing drugs or steroids that look… ordinary.

It’s a great illustration of just how important diet and training are. You could have every advantage but if the fundamentals aren’t in place, you can only get so far.

From a female perspective, nowadays the average NPC bikini competitor is probably on some sort of mild anabolic. And this is a bodybuilding division that isn’t necessarily judged on muscularity as it is on balance and shape.

Now consider divisions like figure and female bodybuilding, where muscle mass is a judging factor. You can imagine what those women are on. This isn’t meant to take a shot at them; they can do whatever they want. It’s just a fact.

Difference in Dietary Habits Between Men and Women

Up to this point, there have been generalizations made in this article about the fitness goals of men and women overall. Obviously this differs on a case by case basis, and people can work out for whatever reason they please. But the generalizations are necessary in order to highlight the differences between the two.

With that being said, it’s rare that a woman would ever go through a bulking phase in their diet. A bulking phase is a period in which an individual is purposefully overconsuming calories in order to gain weight. Ideally this weight is coming in the form of muscle, but the individual is well aware of the fact that there will be at least some fat gain in the process.

Bulking phases typically come in the winter months, with the ubiquity of Thanksgiving stuffing and Christmas cookies abound, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Whether right or wrong, it’s deemed to be socially acceptable in the fitness world for a guy to go through a bulking phase at some point. If a woman said she’s going through a bulk, it may draw some side-eyed reactions.

As a male lifter becomes more advanced, there reaches a point where they have to go through a bulking phase in order to put on any noticeable amount of muscle. At a certain point the body is resistant to adding more muscle, so you really have to push the calorie intake in order to do so.

Typically a woman would be hesitant to do this, even if they were experienced and wanted to add muscle. At the very least, their caloric surplus would be proportionally lower than their male counterpart.

These dietary differences are another reason why women generally don’t pack on as much muscle as men. Women usually prefer to stay lean year round, while men usually don’t care if they go through periods at a higher body fat level.

In a perfect situation, a bulking phase is a meticulous and strategic approach where calories are increased on a weekly basis. If we’re being frank, most guys treat bulking phases as periods of time where they just don’t care about their diets and eat whatever they want. This usually leads to an unnecessary amount of fat gain which, again, they’re not too concerned with.

Hopefully these principles quell any fears for women looking to start lifting in the gym. This also applies to women that may want to take their training to the next level.

Resistance training is a great way to make significant improvements to your physique. With the right diet and training habits, any woman can develop a lean muscular physique without fear of a bulky appearance.