Body image is a very frequent subject that gets brought from our personal training clients in Napa. A popular question among our female clients that we get asked is,
“Will lifting weights and performing resistance training exercises make me look too bulky?”
While it is true that performing resistance training as a mode of exercise creates lean muscle mass on the body, it is a common misconception that lifting weights will give a female the self image of having the body of a lumberjack. For females who want to lose weight and achieve a slimmer overall perception of their body, the combination of performing resistance training, cardiovascular exercise, and adhering to a balanced diet are key components to achieving a leaner and toned body.
The way that we perceive our body in our own eyes when we look in a mirror is subjective. This means that we all have individual preferences in which we are trying to achieve to make ourselves feel satisfied with our body when looking at our reflection or in pictures. Before getting carried away with the idea that performing weightlifting exercises will transform a woman’s body into an NFL Linebacker, it’s important to find out where you want to go with your Fitness routine. Some important questions to ask yourself might be:
” How do I want specific parts of your body to look?”
Do you want to have a physique that looks like a ballerina?
Do you want to feel comfortable in a bathing suit?
Do you want to decrease the size of your arms, midsection, or hips and legs?
Does the perception of muscle on your body make you feel too bulky?
These are all very important questions to ask because they will set a starting point at what is needed to create the road map to achieve these goals. Acquiring and maintaining lean muscle mass in the upper extremities and lower extremities are critically important areas responsible for enabling individuals to have a leaner overall physique.
Having lean muscle mass on the body and decreasing the amount of subcutaneous fat we have surrounding the area of the arms, midsection, and hips go hand-in-hand. This is why it’s important to develop some sort of lean muscle mass. One of the most efficient ways to develop lean muscle mass is to concentrate on resistance training techniques. The definition of resistance training is the action of putting the body in a certain position and moving the body through some form of resistance. A commonly understood example of this may be the standard squat or push up. By performing squats, the body is changing its shape and getting lower to the ground and then reverting its shape to an upright position and utilizing the leg muscles to return to its initial position by using gravity as resistance. The squat exercise can also be performed using weights. Squats utilizes a large variety of muscles of the lower body including the muscles of the glutes and thigh. The push-up exercise has a very similar adaptation to the upper body because it covers a wide variety of muscles. By using gravity to push the body up off the floor, inclined surface, or wall, the muscles of the shoulders and upper arms are being sufficiently exercised. It is important to keep exercises of compound lower body movements, compound upper body pushing movements, and compound upper body pulling movements in your exercise routine to achieve lean muscle mass. Exercises emphasizing these movements should be done at least once a week in the form of resistance training.
Performing resistance training exercises will yield different results for each individual. Performing squat exercises may make a person develop leg muscles that could be perceived as too bulky. This might give a completely different perception for others performing squat exercises. The sight of having developed and slightly larger leg muscles may be enjoyable. Depending on the result that an individual gets from a form of resistance training is all based off of the satisfaction of the individual has of their own awareness and image of their body.
A great way to figure out where you want to be in your life time fitness and exercise journey is to adhere to a balanced exercise program containing various modes of exercise. Different modes of exercise may include:
– performing resistance training utilizing body weight, resistance bands, or weights and weight machines at a local gym.
-Performing cardiovascular modes of exercise such as walking, hiking or running
-working on flexibility and Mobility by taking a Pilates or yoga class.
-doing an active hobby at least once per week. This can include anything from golfing, recreational tennis, recreational softball, or joining a kickboxing class.
It’s important to note that balance is extremely important when adhering to forms of exercise. If you’re afraid of getting too bulky, more than one day a week of resistance training with weights might not be in your best interest. Instead, perhaps performing resistance training with weights and pairing that with a yoga class for instance and some sort of cardiovascular exercise, such as walking or hiking wood deter the effects of becoming too bulky from performing resistance training.
A equally critically important factor is your diet. If your diet is not in check, your body will more than likely appear bulky because you are holding onto extra subcutaneous fat and you are consuming too many inflammatory foods that retain water. Therefore, getting a good grasp on your diet is another aspect to look at before assuming that resistance training with weights will cause the female body to become too bulky. Are you consuming dairy, too much protein, or inflammatory foods that take longer to digest such as breads or cereals. I guarantee that decreasing or even removing some of these items will decrease “bulk”
Utilizing exercise to create positive environments for body image is an important theme among our personal training clients. Understanding what may or may not be caused by exercising with weights is will help us engage the truth of what our exercise efforts are leading too. Before assuming that lifting weights will make us look like Mr. Olympia, let’s see if our modes of exercise and dietary habits are balanced out.
