| What is the most effective way for a female to develop muscle?
Posted: 11/1/2009 4:14:12 PM | What is the most effective & efficient way for a female to develop muscle.
I'm in my early 40's, small frame, and wanting to increase my muscle mass, but not into serious body building. I currently walk 2 to 3 km every day, use free weights twice a week, and mix things up on other days (cardio, pilates, outdoor work, etc.). This is just my routine so what do I need to add to it to get the muscle? Also I need to drop about 5 to 10 lbs that I put on earlier this year.
My diet is fairly healthy. Lots of nuts and seeds, chicken, eggs, veggies, fruit, multi grain bread and a little honey for my tea.
Any suggestions? (there is no gym around where I live) | |
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| What is the most effective way for a female to develop muscle?
Posted: 11/1/2009 5:44:11 PM | OP
Lift weights. If you have no gym nearby, you can do most everything with dumbells and "stretchy ropes" at home. One of the most inspiring books that I recommend is "Body for Life" by Bill Phillips.
I've neglected weight lifting for over a year but previously spent years doing it. Like you, I had a tiny, shallow frame but in short time built pleasing, shapely mass. Before weights, one could count my vertebrae visually. In half a year, I developed muscle along my backbone which hid the vertebrae, sexy shoulders and thighs that my own daughters admired.
Life happened and got in the way. I must get back to it! I'm getting a wussy body... | |
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| What is the most effective way for a female to develop muscle?
Posted: 11/1/2009 6:08:14 PM | | hi... yoga and free weights... A Womans Book of Balance by Karen Andes is an excellent book ..she is in her 50s in this book and she is incredibly fit from her dance , strengthening and yoga rountines.... the pictures and directions make it easy to follow... google The 5 Tibetan Rites as well... blessings for health | |
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| What is the most effective way for a female to develop muscle?
Posted: 11/1/2009 6:13:50 PM | Since you don't have access to a gym, how much weights do you have to work with (barbell, dumbells, etc). There's a great book called 'New Rules of Lifting for women' you should consider looking into.
If you have a barbell, you could even start with squats, deadlifts and pushups. Maybe looking up on youtube for form. But don't be afraid of suddenly 'bulking up' if you use'heavier' weights or even lower reps. It won't happen.
While in the beginning stages is actually when you can signifantly lose fat and put on muscle concurrently. | |
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| What is the most effective way for a female to develop muscle?
Posted: 11/1/2009 7:17:38 PM | | He's right about not having to worry about bulking up. That takes a lot of calories, a long time of lifting, and heavy lifting. I'm assuming you aren't taking in a high enough calorie diet to have to worry at all. You'll burn fat and lean out. | |
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| What is the most effective way for a female to develop muscle?
Posted: 11/2/2009 4:11:41 AM |
He's right about not having to worry about bulking up. That takes a lot of calories, a long time of lifting, and heavy lifting. I'm assuming you aren't taking in a high enough calorie diet to have to worry at all. You'll burn fat and lean out.
Actually, its their hormonal makeup. Most women simply don't produce enough testosterone. The female bodybuilders that many women are afraid they might accidentally turn into are injecting enough steroids that they have higher test levels than most men. Along with the time and effort they've put in. | |
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| What is the most effective way for a female to develop muscle?
Posted: 11/2/2009 7:17:24 AM | Hello miki what Lil Brooker said about the book 'Body for Life' is great advice as that is the book that got me totally motivated and got me off the plateau I was stuck on. Since then I have taken on another different challenge and am currently 2.5 weeks in to that and things are going great. Can't stress enough about the importance of making goals... short and long term.
You sound like you are eating pretty well and balanced but I would advise you to include red meat in to your diet. I never ever used to eat red meat, in fact I was completely meat free for about 10 years so including it was a little alien to me. However since eating it I have found that my strength has increased greatly and I feel the best I have ever felt.
You can be serious about increasing muscle mass without looking like a body builder ... you would need to start taking all kinds of supplements to get looking like that but you can get yourself looking shapely and lean and strong looking.
My long term goal is to look like a fitness model such as Elaine Goodlad (google her and see what a fantastic body she has) she is in her forties and there is no reason why I can't look just as good as her in my fifties... I am getting there slowly but surely.
You can get to where you want to be too. Do read 'Body for Life' it will give you an exercise plan, show you others who have before an after pics that are incredible and it will give you inspiration and motivation. There is also a web site of the same name.
Good luck miki x | |
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| What is the most effective way for a female to develop muscle?
Posted: 11/2/2009 10:33:03 AM |
He's right about not having to worry about bulking up. That takes a lot of calories, a long time of lifting, and heavy lifting. I'm assuming you aren't taking in a high enough calorie diet to have to worry at all. You'll burn fat and lean out.
Actually, its their hormonal makeup. Most women simply don't produce enough testosterone. The female bodybuilders that many women are afraid they might accidentally turn into are injecting enough steroids that they have higher test levels than most men. Along with the time and effort they've put in.
Also true.
As to the poster above I think the only "supplements" that can make a female bulky are steriods or prohormones and things of that sort. | |
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| What is the most effective way for a female to develop muscle?
Posted: 11/2/2009 1:17:42 PM | Wow! This is a great place to get info.
Thanks for all the good advice.
I have dumbells, barbells, & all different size weights. Aswell as a power tower and resistance bands. These are my tried and true favorites. Now I just need a plan to make them work for me! And that's where the books come in. Thanks for the info. | |
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| What is the most effective way for a female to develop muscle?
Posted: 11/3/2009 8:45:38 AM | While it is very difficult for females to gain muscle without steroids it is possible to some degree.
This PDF has pretty much everything you need to know (ignore any product recommendations in it, however).
http://www.freedomfly.net/Documents/MAX-OT.pdf | |
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| What is the most effective way for a female to develop muscle?
Posted: 11/3/2009 4:20:29 PM | OP keep doing what you are doing. Perhaps up the amount of weight training to 3x a week, using heavier dumbells and increase your protein intake slightly.
The general rule of thumb is that heavy weights + calorie dense diet = muscle mass. Keep it simple. Using lighter weights with higher reps is just a very inneficient way to build muscle mass (which is what many women do out of fear of "bulking up", which is so misguided it hurts).
You will never look like a female bodybuilder, trust me on this one. Females simply don't have enough natural testosterone to get "jacked" no matter how hard they train.
The female bodybuilders people see are on boat loads of testosterone and other anabolic steroids - which when used specifically on women actually causes their facial bone structure to change! Which is why they look so manly, apart from the muscle mass. | |
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| What is the most effective way for a female to develop muscle?
Posted: 11/3/2009 9:17:36 PM | Bill Phillips and Lee Labrada have good books. There's also The Body Sculpting Bible for Women. I love Oxygen magazine too. But all you really need are a bench, bands, and dumbbells; sounds like you are on the right track. You can find basic exercises on youtube and elsewhere on the web for free too.
Good Luck fellow Sister in Iron =)
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| What is the most effective way for a female to develop muscle?
Posted: 11/4/2009 3:10:02 AM | | Well...everyone is diffferent. Personally, I eat A LOT of meat, work out 5 to 6 days a week, low weight major high reps. The diet I see you have is all sugar for the most part and unecessary calories and bad stuff. So if you want to drop weight, lose the sugar and bad starch's. Gain muscle, add meat and supplements. I am going for major mass though...and am built big genitically so what I am doing is probably a lot different than what you want. But still, you will not "bulk up" that easy. So do not let it scare you. It is taking a lot of work for me...but I am going for size. | |
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| What is the most effective way for a female to develop muscle?
Posted: 11/4/2009 8:08:47 AM |
Well...everyone is diffferent. Personally, I eat A LOT of meat, work out 5 to 6 days a week, low weight major high reps. The diet I see you have is all sugar for the most part and unecessary calories and bad stuff. So if you want to drop weight, lose the sugar and bad starch's. Gain muscle, add meat and supplements. I am going for major mass though...and am built big genitically so what I am doing is probably a lot different than what you want. But still, you will not "bulk up" that easy. So do not let it scare you. It is taking a lot of work for me...but I am going for size.
Download the PDF that I posted above -- you are wasting your time with high reps... | |
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| What is the most effective way for a female to develop muscle?
Posted: 11/4/2009 9:27:46 AM |
Download the PDF that I posted above -- you are wasting your time with high reps...
MAX-OT is great but not the only way. Granted, while most would likely benefit more from heavier weights and low reps, hypertrophy can also occur from higher reps and simply going for the pump. Especially in those who have always done lower volume and heavier weights only. Personally I feel a mix of the two (heavy workouts alternated with volume workouts) gets the best of both worlds, stimulating both contractile and non contractile proteins for maximum hypertrophy. | |
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| What is the most effective way for a female to develop muscle?
Posted: 11/4/2009 12:40:07 PM | Indeed, variety in rep ranges can only help. Plus, what are we defining as high reps? 10+? 12-15? 15-20? 20+?
Using heavier loads for lower volumes obviously has the benefit of stimulating fast twitch muscle and also improving neural pathways so you can lift heavier for more hypertrophy oriented workouts, while relatively higher rep ranges are easier to recover from and allow for an overall greater volume of work.
Personally I prefer heavier stuff and I quite like working with heavier loads and doing stuff like cluster sets and heavier rest-paused sets, but I will also do more hypertrophy based stuff like 12-15 reps per set, 20 rep squats, that sort of thing.
To be honest if pure size and nothing else is your goal, then you're pretty safe going with more traditional hypertrophy progression methods... focus on progressing with weight in the 6-12 rep range with the same exercises and you should get bigger. It's basic but that's what people have been doing reliably for decades to get bigger. That's not to say there aren't other ways and other loading patterns you can reach your goals with, but that one has stood the test of time. | |
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| What is the most effective way for a female to develop muscle?
Posted: 11/4/2009 1:40:38 PM | Max-OT is certainly not the ONLY way, but it is a well-documented "canned" training system that is far better than what most people do.
The key to hypertrophy is to get stronger every week. Accomplish that and you will grow. Max-OT is an efficient program that anyone can follow in order to accomplish that.
There are certainly are other such programs, but they are typically more complicated and not as well documented. | |
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| What is the most effective way for a female to develop muscle?
Posted: 11/4/2009 3:51:35 PM |
Max-OT is certainly not the ONLY way, but it is a well-documented "canned" training system that is far better than what most people do.
The key to hypertrophy is to get stronger every week. Accomplish that and you will grow. Max-OT is an efficient program that anyone can follow in order to accomplish that.
There are certainly are other such programs, but they are typically more complicated and not as well documented.
Well documented???
Most bodybuilders follow a much higher volume for a reason. While priority should be given to sarcomeric hypertrophy by using increasing loads, sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is still a factor. I even recall reading a study on bodybuilders where they discovered that many actually possessed predominantly a higher percentage of type IIa muscle fibers, which have a higher aerobic capacity than typeIIb and hence required longer time under tension. Initially many had believed bodybuilders would predominantly have typeIIB muscle fibers. If one had to choose only one method of the extremes, I do agree that lower reps/ greater load would be the most efficient way.
To be honest if pure size and nothing else is your goal, then you're pretty safe going with more traditional hypertrophy progression methods... focus on progressing with weight in the 6-12 rep range with the same exercises and you should get bigger. It's basic but that's what people have been doing reliably for decades to get bigger. That's not to say there aren't other ways and other loading patterns you can reach your goals with, but that one has stood the test of time.
Exactamundo.  | |
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| What is the most effective way for a female to develop muscle?
Posted: 11/4/2009 4:40:35 PM | *cough*
You will never look like a female bodybuilder, trust me on this one. Females simply don't have enough natural testosterone to get "jacked" no matter how hard they train.
Oh good lord.
The female bodybuilders people see are on boat loads of testosterone and other anabolic steroids - which when used specifically on women actually causes their facial bone structure to change! Which is why they look so manly, apart from the muscle mass.
You are aware that there are also natural/tested bb federations out there, right?
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