MILO BRYANT: Weights - bulk up, or not
It’s question-and-answer time, folks, so let’s get right to them.
Question: One of the myths you wrote about concerns women bulking up from weightlifting. I am 18 years old and my sister is 23. Both of us were high school track athletes who specialized in sprints and hurdles.
We lifted on a consistent basis for four years. Neither of us bulked up anywhere except in our butts and thighs. My older sister has not lifted much in last five years and has lost a lot of that bulk. She can wear pants now that she couldn’t in high school.
Is it at all possible to gain some bulk in specific areas from lifting? Also, is there any kind of lifting or strength training that could help prevent that while keeping muscle tone? (One of the main lifts I did was dead lifting, while my sister did a lot of squats).
Sarah
Answer: It is possible to gain a lot of muscle in an area that gets repeated use. Olympic speed skaters are a great example. Look at the size of their thighs and butts compared with the rest of their bodies. Their quads, hammies, glutes and gastrocs (calves) make their upper bodies look disproportionately small.
The answer to your second question is an emphatic “Yes!” We resistance train for five things: explosiveness, strength, power, hypertrophy (pretty boy/girl muscles) and endurance.
You mentioned you did a lot of dead lifting, for which I’ll question your sprint coach. Dead lifting is all about strength and mass. It shouldn’t have been your primary resistance-training lift. Sprinting is about generating explosiveness, power and speed. One must be strong to do those, but there comes a point of diminishing returns.
You earned your butt and thighs because you were training those muscle groups in a way that was supposed to result in a gain in size.
Switch your training to a muscular-endurance program, and the size gain will be minimal.
Q: Milo, I’m 51 years old, 5 feet 9 inches, 155 pounds and have been in great physical shape. I’m trying to gain a little weight. I eat very well — very little fat, and I bring my lunch to work every day. I have some great workout equipment, and I only take Sundays off. I’m very dedicated to my eating habits and lifting. Any advice would be very much appreciated.
Maurice
A: Maurice, I hope you know you irritated a lot of people with that whole “I wanna gain weight” thing. I couldn’t stop laughing thinking about some readers’ reactions!
A few months ago, I wrote about the easiest equation in fitness: calories in > calories out = weight gain, or calories in < calories out = weight loss.
To gain weight, take in more energy than you put out. Try taking in 250 to 500 extra calories a day while sticking to your workout routine.
Milo Bryant has two National Strength and Conditioning Association certifications and he appears on KOAA's Comcast Channel 9 most Wednesdays at 4 p.m. You can contact him by e-mail at milo.bryant@gazette.com or read his blog at milobryant.blogspot.com.
