Will lifting weights make me bulky?

Nikkiey is blunt about this one: you will not stumble into bulky. On Ep. 175 she breaks muscle size down into three requirements working together: heavy weights, high volume and a significant calorie surplus. On Ep. 34 and Ep. 175 she adds that women have much lower testosterone than men, which makes bulking up far harder. She points to her own 11 years of training on Ep. 373 and Ep. 400. She has muscle, but day to day she describes herself as having nice toned arms and a feminine structure.

So who are the women you picture when you think too muscular? Nikkiey says they have usually worked extraordinarily hard for years. On Ep. 175 and Ep. 34 she adds that some competitors in the bodybuilding world use performance-enhancing drugs. She notes the NPC federation is known for steroid use, while she competed natural in the OCB. On Ep. 56, strength coach Susan Niebergall says many of the bigger powerlifters women see changed their eating on purpose to get bigger, and that is not what building muscle is about for most of us.

On Ep. 221, Alicia Erickson, known as the Midlife Maven, says your nutrition decides how bulky you get. She points to her own lean build after transforming at 51 as proof. Her advice is to get out of your own way with preconceived notions and expect the process to take months, if not years.

The flip side matters too. Nikkiey explains on Ep. 34 that toned is simply what it looks like when you lose body fat and build lean muscle. You can't get there by avoiding weights. On Ep. 400 she warns that light workouts that never challenge your muscles leave you stuck where you are. Fear of bulk is often the very thing keeping you from the shape you actually want.