The Myth Of Women Bulking: Muscle Women, Hormones, Etc.

“I don’t want to get too bulky”, I hear from a lot of women who begin strength training. Ah, if only it were that easy. Some women might have seen some freakshow bodybuilding pictures (both men and women) in a magazine or on TV, and think that that’s their future if they start strength training. When the reality is quite different.

Men in the prime of their life, directly training to get as bulky as possible wish it was that easy — today, they weigh 150 pounds, they go to the gym, do 1 strength training workout, and they wake up tomorrow, at a bulky 180. Whoa! Where did those 30 pounds of muscle come from???

The truth is that muscle gain is a very slow, difficult and laborious process. To give you some numbers: a woman can typically gain 20–25 pounds of muscle in her entire life. Of those 20–25 pounds, 10–12 will come in the first year. Five or six pounds in the second year, 2–3 pounds in the third year, and so on. Plus, keep in mind, that most women (men too) don’t actually want to push their body to the limit of their genetic potential. Most women would actually be happy with how they look if they gained 6–10 pounds of muscle.

So let’s do the math: if at the fastest rate, a woman can gain 10–12 pounds of muscle in the first year, that’s 1 pound per month. And even that’s a big “if”. She can only…