There’s lots of reasons why people may want to lift weights. One of them is to gain size and to look “jacked.” It turns out the very reason why most of these people won’t ever gain any size are the same reasons the rest of you who are concerned with getting too big don’t need to worry. Here are 5 reasons why weight training isn’t make you bulky, despite your best efforts:
1. You have to eat an exceptional amount of food to build muscle mass. This requires upping protein intake to fuel the muscles and lots and lots of chewing. When most people find out about the required amount of food they’ll have to ingest to make their size goals happen, they simply aren’t willing to put in the work to make it happen.You may say that plenty of people find it easy to gain weight. The problem with that argument is that they are eating food that isn’t conducive to building muscle, hence they are overweight with fat, not muscle. You have to eat not just lots of food, but specific food to become well muscled. This not only requires the physical effort to chew it up, but also significant planning.
2. Different styles of training produce different results. In order to build muscle there are ranges of reps and weights that will produce optimal results. This is the reason why sports like Olympic style weightlifting can have different weight classes. If you train primarily with low reps (1-3) and heavy weights (85%+ of 1 RM) you can build strength neurologically without gaining weight. On the other hand if you just want to get huge you can do bodybuilding training where you are working as heavy as you can go for sets lasting from 40-70 seconds and the consequent reps that fall into that range. So if you don’t want to get huge, simply don’t do a bunch of really really tough sets of 10-12 reps and you’ll be fine.
3. If the weights aren’t heavy you won’t grow. There’s nothing magical about 10 repetitions that simply flips a switch and makes muscles appear. The weight has to be significant and very difficult for those reps to count. This is primarily the reason for bodybuilders ever working on low reps. The added strength low reps builds allows them to lift heavier weights for their sets of 10-15 and thus increase size accordingly. For this reason it takes a structured program in order to make any gains past the initial adaptation phase that takes place in the first 6 months to a year of any program.
4. It takes hard work and dedication to get big. The people most people site currently are CrossFit athletes that have become incredibly well muscled in their pursuit of fitness. These athletes workout multiple hours per day 5-6 days per week and have been doing it for years. Even if you’re doing a bodybuilding style program, unless you stick with it for a significant period of time, you’re not going to see any dramatic changes.
5. Results don’t happen overnight. You’ll tone up during the initial adaptation phase of your program and be able to put significantly heavier weights up on the exercises you focus on, but actually changing size and developing an appearance that’s noticeable is a slow process. If this really is a hindrance for you in terms of training, you’ll have plenty of warning to lighten the weights or change exercises before your traps tear through your shirt like the hulk.
Building muscle takes incredibly hard work inside and outside of the gym, dedication and consistency, massive amounts of food and the right training program. If you want to get jacked be prepared to put in the work and shift some priorities in your life. If you’re worried about getting too muscular, these same factors should give you some piece of mind the next time you pick up a dumbbell.
