I’m fond of saying that women are always afraid of doing what is physiologically impossible. The myth of “lifiting weights will make me bulky” lives on among American women despite the overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary. Think about it, how many muscle-bound women do you see walking around the streets? Let me answer that one: none. I can almost guarantee that you don’t know any woman that is bulky. Fat; oh hell yeah. I bet you know a lot of overweight women. But bulky because of muscle? No chance. And here is why:
The National Strength and Conditioning Association reports:
The average healthy male will have circulating blood testosterone concentrations of between 300-1,200 ng-dL (nanograms per deciliter). Different sources will say different things, but the average is about 600 ng-dL.
Women have circulating blood testosterone concentrations of between 15-65 ng-dL. They didn’t give an average, but lets just say 50.
600 for men compared to 50 for women. That’s quite a difference. And what is the role of testosterone?
Also from the NSCA (I’m paraphrasing a bit): …testosterone is the primary hormone that interacts with skeletal muscle tissue. There are a number of mechanisms through which testosterone exerts its influence,…. but its main roles are to stimulate muscle growth and protein anabolism.
Even with such dramatic differences in testosterone levels, building muscle, even for men, is very difficult. It’s absurd for women to think that they can do what even most men have a hard time doing. Are there some women that are more naturally muscular than the majority of other women? Yes, of course, but they are the distinct minority.
What weight lifting will do is give you that “toned” look that everyone is looking for. But it most certainly won’t make you bulky.
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