Coach Marcel | September 8, 2020
I touched on this topic about a year ago and I would like to touch base once again just because it is so common. A lot of women are terrified of “The Bulk”. You can read that previous blog HERE.
It still blows my mind, because I have been in the fitness industry for over 15 years and I rarely come across a female that looks “Bulky”. I’m not quite sure where all these “Big, Bulky, women are”.
It is actually extremely difficult for females to put on a lot of mass. Hell, it’s difficult for most men to put on mass. For those of you that are afraid you will bulk up if you start weight training, here is some info that will hopefully calm those fears a little. 2 main factors that are absolutely required to “Bulk Up” are:
- Nutrition
Most people could not eat the amount of calories needed to put on serious mass. As a female, you would probably need to take in some 3000+ calories to start to see any sort of “bulk”.
If you haven’t ever tracked calories before, this might not seem like much but if you are eating a healthy diet filled with nutrient dense foods meaning, veggies, quality protein, good fats, and complex carbohydrates, it is very difficult to get anywhere near 3000 calories.
I know a lot of people aren’t very familiar with calories and macros so here is a quick example of a well balanced, healthy meal (which you are free to steal) and its nutrition facts.
- 6 oz chicken breast- 35g protein 5g Fat= 185 calories
- ½ cup Quinoa- 4g protein, 2g fat, 19g carbs= 110 calories
- ½ avocado- 2g protein, 15g fat, 9g carbs= 179 calories
- 1 cup steamed broccoli- 2.5g protein, 6g carbs= 34 calories
The total calories count for this delicious meal is 508 Calories.
The point I’m trying to make here, you would have to eat this meal (or something similar) 6 x per day to get anywhere near the amount of calories needed to start your “Bulky” journey.
Of course there are other types of food that will get you there within 1 meal but we have many other blogs on those types of food and that would be a totally different type of “Bulk”.
- Training Volume + Intensity
Next would be the volume and intensity of workouts. Volume is the amount of workouts being done and also the amount of work performed within a given workout. If you have ever come across someone that looked “Bulky” again the amount of training these people are doing is much greater than the average human being that is just trying to lose some weight, gain energy and stay healthy.
First of all, these types of “Bulky” individuals have probably been training for 10+ years, and make a living from it. Someone that looks “Bulky” is probably putting in 5 or 6, maybe even 7 hard days a week, multiple workouts per day of heavy, Intense training. It takes years of developing the fundamentals of moving properly before you can even start to get into the heavier weights needed to add some serious mass.
As a gym owner and fitness professional, I would absolutely love to have someone in my program long enough where we even get the chance to have the discussion on “I think I’m getting too bulky” . If that time does ever come, no worries, we can make some small tweaks that would slow you swole but also keep you very fit and healthy.
If you would like to get started on your None “Bulky” fitness journey just book a FREE consultation HERE.
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