The Female Secret to Avoiding “Big Muscles” at the Gym

(Photo by pictures to watch on Flickr>)

Are you trying to get in shape, to get lean, toned, and into your “bikini body” but don’t want to bulk up by doing all those bench presses and bicep curls and all the rest?

Want to know the secret to not looking like a female bodybuilder, if that’s a look you’re trying to avoid?

This is the secret: lift weights and do strength training.

What?

It’s very hard to “bulk up” like you’re probably thinking. It requires a specific diet, where you eat a lot, go through a whole “bulking/cutting” phase, and make serious, big-scale changes to your nutritional intake in order to maximize your time in the gym.

And you’ve got to be in the gym a lot.

So Squats and Bench Presses and All That Won’t Make Me Huge?

Just think of this — if just doing these exercises could suddenly bulk you up, every guy in the world who wanted huge muscles would have them already.

You think it’s easy to bulk up like that?

There’s a reason that steroids are still (unfortunately) in use. It’s very, very hard to achieve big-muscle results just by working out — it takes work, work, work.

Working Out Smarter

One of the best things about getting rid of this ridiculous myth that “lifting weights will give me muscles” is that it opens up an entire new world of fitness to you, one that is so much more optimized to losing weight and getting lean & toned without wasting years on those damn cardio machines. Yep — years.

Once you realize how much faster and better these workouts are for your body, getting over this idea that “big muscles” will suddenly appear on your body without a boatload of hard work might be the best thing you could ever do for your own fitness level.

Where Can I Start?

Watch some of my workout videos. Read some of the articles here. But most of all — talk to a trainer at your gym. Lifting free-weights and doing some of the most effective strength training isn’t a cakewalk, and you need proper instruction in order to know how to use a squat cage or be confident when you do incline presses.

But don’t worry about it — everyone goes through that beginner’s phase, and quickly gets out of it. You’ll become an old pro in no time, and then you can really start concentrating on pushing your body — and most of all, on watching the fat literally melt off as these ultra-effective compound strength exercises make more of a difference than years and years and years on a stairclimber.

So what are you waiting for?