Strength Training for Women: Will Lifting Make You Bulky? NO! Here’s Why

This is the body recomposition revolution. I am a former personal trainer and educator for over a decade who is obsessed with teaching women 35 plus how to finally drop fat and completely reshape their bodies through science backed nutrition and training protocols optimized to meet your body's changing hormones. Classes in session Welcome back ladies to the body Recomposition revolution. This is episode 3. Today we are addressing one of the most common misconceptions women and people in general have about lifting.

Can you guess what it is? You guessed it, because I know you're thinking it. It is that lifting will make you big and bulbous and masculine or bulky or whatever. And I hear that the phrase if I had a nickel would really make me a rich woman if I had a nickel every time I heard somebody go on about not wanting to be bulky. So today we're going to debunk that. And if you have tuned in before, you know, I like to start my episodes with a learner objective. What are we covering today? What will you learn by the end of this episode?

As I would say in my classroom listening years on, today's learning objective is by the end of this episode, you will be able to explain why lifting weights helps women 35 plus, but everybody burn fat, build muscle, visible muscle and boosts your metabolism. So again, by the end of this episode, you will be able to explain why lifting weights helps women burn fat, build muscle that you can see, and boost your metabolism. And at the end, I'm going to ask you this question. Why is strength training more effective than cardio alone for body recomposition after age 35?

You're listening for why strength training is more effective than cardio for body recomp after 35. That means why it's more effective for dropping fat, gaining muscle. Let's start right off the bat by debunking the myth, the misconception, the all too common narrative that lifting heavy weights will make a woman bulky. If you are tuned in, I'm going to assume you're a woman, but if not, keep listening. This applies to everybody. I'm going to assume you are a woman. You are a woman that is looking to drop fat.

You would love to have that lean, muscular physique. Some of you would love to have kind of a small dancer body, and then others would love to be on the other end of the spectrum and they love the bodybuilding physique. They love that quote, bulky look. And most of you fall somewhere in between. I am right in the middle. Sometimes I'm more towards the left and I like to be smaller and sometimes I'm more towards the right. And the great thing about that is it's all up to you. You can change your body composition, your aesthetic whenever the heck you want to.

And what is awesome and what most people don't understand is that whether you want to be a tiny little muscular thing or on the other end of the spectrum, a a little bit bigger, a little bit more defined, rounded shoulders. If you're on the far right, either way, you are going to have to lift weights and drop fat to build your lean muscle and get that physique either way. And that right there is the cusp of it. That is what I hear from women over and over again. They are always saying the phrase, well, I just want to be small.

I just, I just want to be tiny. Got it. Great. You still have to lift weights because what you're saying is you want less body fat and in order to drop your body fat and to keep it off, you have to have more lean muscle. You have to. There's no in between. Well, there actually is. It's called skinny fat. So if you are not lifting and you're starving yourself, you end up with that small but flabby, malnourished, unathletic. It's not a good look. That's not what we're shooting for on this podcast at all.

That's what you end up with. And then newsflash, you can't maintain it. You end up gaining all that weight you ran off every day of the week plus more because you damaged your metabolism and the first thing to go was your lean muscle, which is what boosts your metabolism. Now I want to be very open and very clear that learning the difference between skinny fat and having a lean, strong physique was not just a switch that turned on for me one day. It really wasn't. It was a gradual realization that took me years to fully grasp.

I have had so many points in my life where I have been continuously lifting, staying on point with my nutrition and getting enough protein. And then somewhere along the line I either had a kid or fell off the wagon nutritionally. And my instinct, my brain's natural response to how am I going to get this weight off is always. Always has been, always will be. It is always to eat way less than I need and start running. I became a certified personal trainer in college. I understand the science, but it is so innately ingrained into who I am as a woman and the messages that were sent to me as a child.

The messages that are still peddled to young girls every single day. But it is getting better that you need to eat less, take up less space, do more, be tiny, do an hour of cardio every single day until you are a skinny fat size 0. So I'm sure while all of you have heard you need to lift to look the way you want to look, you probably are like me and every other woman who falls into that continuous cycle, the same cycle of falling off the invisible wagon that doesn't actually exist or, you know, just kind of falling out of your routine.

You, you put on some weight, whatever. You fall into that cycle of crash dieting, picking up a rampant running habits, losing all that weight, but then gaining it back and reevaluating all your life choices, throwing yourself into endless research and how to get that look. But as I know, you know, just like I knew all those times I've done this cycle, I know you know all roads lead back to lifting weights and getting enough protein. I know it stinks, it feels off. It's but it's truth. It's science.

If you have tuned into me before, you may have heard me talk about my exercise and nutritional training protocols for women and how I base my philosophy around Doctor Stacey Sims. She's an exercise physiologist, she specializes in Women's Health from 35 and beyond, and she bases all of her protocols off of research done on subjects who are actually women because, believe it or not, all the widely known published, distributed and implemented from very credible sources. A lot of that is done on men who are obese or men who are overweight because the scientists assumed that their body composition would respond to training the same way a woman's would.

That is above the age of 35. False. What Doctor Stacey Sims has found, and many other people who are up to date with their research is that that women are not men. Women do not respond to exercise and nutrition the same way men do. And while we are closely aligned in our bodies responses throughout our entire lives, once you hit 35 and beyond, it's not the same. It's not the same and you need to train and eat a little differently. Not super differently. But those tiny tweaks, the tiny tweaks that I implemented into my own training and nutritional protocols made all the difference.

And now here I am, I'm 37. I am the leanest I've ever been. I am the strongest I've ever been. I am also the smallest in terms of pants and dress sizes than I've ever been, that I've ever been. And that's because I finally started following the science instead of what I thought would work. I hired a professional, I did my own research, and then I started this company to help women just like you do the same thing. And I want to drop a little factoid on you, one that stands out in my mind. I always think about it.

It's from Doctor Stacey Sims, and she stated that we lose .1% of our entire body's lean muscle mass every single year after age 35. That is when you start experiencing muscle loss and a metabolic decline. OK, 35 years old is when your body will naturally shed a little bit of muscle every year and your metabolism will in turn go down. So no, it's not in your head. You are getting bigger and you are getting, I don't know what other word to use then a little bit flabbier I guess, because that's what I was experiencing.

I was losing muscle. I mean, I I wasn't losing it so much because I was lifting weights, but I definitely wasn't putting it on to the same degree I was previously before I got into my mid 30s as doctor. Stacey Sims, the boss, says women need strength for life. We need it to support our hormonal changes and we need it for our overall health. It is imperative to have muscle to strength train. Now, I love all of my clients, all for different reasons, but I do see commonalities. I see commonalities in their mindsets about lifting weights and the comfort level of lifting weights in a gym versus at home.

And I think it is interesting. I found this research paper kind of talking about the history of women and weightlifting, and it talks about the evolution of women's resistance training all the way. It dates back all the way to the 1900s. No, I don't want to nerd out on you. I'll try to keep this brief, but I just thought it was so cool to see. Where does this mindset come from? Why are we so afraid of looking bulky, and why are we so afraid of lifting weights? Why do we feel all these feelings? Well, because of societal norms that have honestly been imposed on us since the 1900s.

Very briefly here. 1900s women were limited to light exercise because of the societal norms. During the 1950s and 60s we made slight progress with aerobics and calisthetics. Strength training pretty much remained a man thing. Then the 1970s and 80s came rolling around and the fitness boom started. Aerobics icons like Jane Fonda, all those people. But strength training at this point, it's still seen as a male pursuit. It is on the sidelines to women. And now we're in the 80s, nineteen 80s here. Shape magazine came out and I'm dating myself.

But Shape magazine was right up there next to Oxygen magazine with my idol Jamie Eason. Shape magazine started encouraging women to embrace that strong toned physique. This is right when society started being OK with women having kind of a muscular bod, a muscular look. Now we're in 1990s to 2000s. This is when all the inclusive gyms started, the mainstream gyms, They had environments where women could comfortably engage in resistance training right alongside men. Woo. And now here we are in the 21st century and we are all about strong is beautiful.

This movement is huge. You can feel it. You can see it on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, wherever. Finally, women are embracing it now because this shift of encouraging women to be on the wait floor exists now, and we are embracing it now. The data for women over the age of 45 is so limited. There's so limited. And the data that we do have, as I stated earlier, a lot of it revolves around men. And that infuriates me, but it also makes me so passionate about educating women in general on how to treat their bodies so they can have longevity, they can have health, they can have Wellness.

They can be the strongest versions of themselves that they don't even know exist. And when you are the strongest version of yourself, when you are happy putting on your clothes in the morning, you are the best wife, you're the best mom, you're the best friend, you're the best sister, you're the best coworker, you're the best neighbor. You're the best you you can be when you commit to making the changes in your life that you need to make in order to be stronger, in order to be healthier, in order to like what you see when you look in the mirror, in order to step out of your sweatpants and maybe once in a while, put on some jeans and feel good about it.

It's possible, I promise you. And now we're going to move on to the science behind heavy lifting. Why does lifting heavy? And that's a subjective statement, but why does lifting weights matter? How does it benefit women over 35? When you lift weights, that is stimulating neuromuscular adaptations that leads to increased strength and muscle mass. The more muscle mass you have, the higher your metabolism is. It is vital for metabolic health. And as I stated in the beginning of the episode, after age 35, you're losing .1% of your muscle every single year from this point on.

So if you are not strength training to combat that natural our body's response to shed muscle naturally, if you're not combating that with lifting weights, lifting weights that are going to be heavy enough to stimulate that neuromuscular adaptation, then that muscle you had is going away. OK. And the muscle you think you're getting from lifting those tiny little 5 LB weights around in your aerobics class or your whatever class, that isn't going to do anything. That's why a lot of you who are in those classes that they toss around £510.00 with, that's not focused enough to actually stimulate neuromuscular adaptations, That's not focused enough to give you real strength.

You have to be intentional about splitting your lifting sessions to designate muscle groups where you are honing in on really challenging yourself. So I want to wrap up today's episode with some facts and some facts that I hope will just drive home the objective of understanding why lifting heavy is not going to make you bulky in any capacity that is more geared towards your nutrition and how much you're eating. OK. Lifting weights is just going to increase your lean muscle mass. You don't have enough testosterone to look the way you're envisioning when I say the word bulky.

Let's start at the metabolic rate. So lifting heavy increases resting metabolic rate, which means you burn more calories just living your life. Strength training increases your resting metabolic rate by about 7 1/2%. That's big. So if you are strength training consistently, know that your metabolism is going up over 7%. Just by living your life sitting there on the couch doing absolutely nothing. Your metabolism is higher. You can eat more food. After the age of 35, hormonal changes make muscle building more important than ever.

So after 35, your estrogen goes down. And when your estrogen goes down, so does your muscle mass and function #3 And I'm going to pray tattoo this on my forehead. You can't tone what isn't there. So when you say I want to look toned, what do you have to tone? You don't have any muscle. What are we going to do? Tone your bones? That doesn't make sense. You cannot tone what is not there. You have to have some muscle there to look toned. Muscle is what gives your body shape. This one kind of coincides with the metabolic rate, but building muscle equates to burning fat even when you're not working out.

Muscle tissue burns more calories at rest compared to fat tissue, which helps you drop fat doing nothing again just because you have more of a solid base. Another factoid about why lifting heavy will not make you bulky, but it will in fact do the opposite. It reduces your belly fat more effectively than cardio alone. Yes, you heard me, daily weight training is way more effective than aerobic exercise at getting rid of that belly fat. The belly fat I hear everybody complain about, including myself.

And the reason that is, is because when you are lifting heavy, that builds lean muscle, which increases your resting metabolism and it helps your body burn fat even more when you're just living your life. Now, here's another little myth Buster for you. As you get older, your metabolism is not slowing down. It's not slowing down. What's happening is your body is slowly releasing that lean muscle mass after age 35 because of hormone fluctuations. Your estrogen, your progesterone, that's hard for me to say, and your growth hormone, all of those begin to gradually decline after age 35.

And that does three things. That reduces your muscle mass, which lowers your metabolic rate, that increases your insulin resistance, which makes it easier to store fat, especially around the stomach area, and it leads to more inflammation and cortisol dysregulation. And I I battle that. I battled that. I am still battling it actively, but I combat it intentionally by lifting heavy, by lifting heavy, and by doing my high intensity interval training instead of all of that steady state cardio. So as your estrogen levels decline, that decline impacts your strength.

Lifting helps offset that loss in strength. Now I could go on and on about the benefits of lifting and how important it is for anybody, even outside of aestheticals for health, longevity, your insulin sensitivity. I could go on. But I want to address the overarching point, the objective of this lesson. Now if you were tuned in with your listening years on, you will be able to answer this question. Why is strength training more effective than cardio alone for body recomposition after 35? And what that means is that strength training is better for dropping fat than cardio.

Why is that? Short pause? And the answer is because it builds muscle, which increases your metabolism, it improves your insulin sensitivity, it balances your hormones, and it burns more fat, especially around the belly, than cardio does. Facts, and I also really want to impress this upon you before the end of this episode. And that is lifting heavy is important for both aesthetic ends of the spectrum. If having a little toned tiny dancer esque body is your thing, great. You have to lift. If having a stronger, more athletic presence, maybe a bit heavier really developed muscles is your thing, great.

You still have to lift heavy for both looks for both the toned lean look. Heavy lifting builds dense muscle without size, it tightens up your body, it burns fat, and it gives you that fit but petite shape. And for the more muscular physique, heavy lifting is still the foundation, just combined with more food. OK, more food, more recovery to support the muscle muscle growth. Either way, lifting heavy. Improves your muscle quality, your metabolic rate, and your body's definition. That toned look on both ends.

The only variable here that is to be considered is the amount of food you're consuming. Right now I'm in a deficit I'm cutting down. I kind of want to look a little more lean this summer, so I'm eating less food now. During the winter, I upped my calories. I focus on muscle growth For a while. My shoulders were a bit more developed than I liked, so I cut back. I cut back on lifting shoulders for a bit. You, it's fun. There are a lot of moving pieces that are all up to you. Shape your body, make it look the way you want.

You have control here, nobody else. You. Now, if you're interested in beginning a strength training regimen, you can click on my Instagram link in the bio. You can visit my website, which is also in the show notes. I have an app. I do programming for women of any age, but I specialize for women above the age of 35. But if you would like just a free printable that will show you a few lifts you can begin doing at home, I'm going to include that in the show notes as well because my mission is to help women understand how attainable those physiques that you dream of are.

So in the show notes, I'm going to put a free workout log with some foundational lifts you can begin doing at home with just your body and some dumbbells. That's all I have for you ladies. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of The Body Recomposition Revolution.

Strength Training for Women: Will Lifting Make You Bulky? NO! Here’s Why

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