Women, Concerned About Getting Bulky on P90X?
This is one comment that we get often on this blog… Women concerned with getting bulky or “looking like a man” if they do P90X or any weight work. Let me assure you that this concern is totally unfounded. Here’s the thing… as women, we don’t have the testosterone to get big. What’s more, as women, even if we were eating at a surplus of calories, supplementing to perfection, and spending hours in the gym each day lifting absolute max weight (in the 6-8 rep range) for maximum hypertrophy (in other words, living and breathing with no other goal in mind than to get as big as possible- as a professional bodybuilder would do), you would be considered “extremely lucky” in natural female bodybuilding circles to put on .75 of a pound of pure, lean muscle mass per month.
Here’s a great quote illustrating this point from an article that I think should be required reading for any female looking to lose fat and tone up: “Newsflash, ladies: You will not get “big and bulky” just because you’re doing squats and deadlifts. That statement is akin to me saying, “Eh, I don’t want to do any sprints today because I don’t want to win the 100m gold medal in the Olympics next week.” Getting big and bulky isn’t easy, just like winning the 100m gold medal isn’t easy.”
(As an aside, this max gain of .75 pounds of muscle per month under excrutiatingly-ideal circumstances also means that if you’ve been doing P90X or another program for a month or so and gained more than a pound, it’s not muscle! It might be water being retained in the muscles or some other hormonal flux, but more likely it’s that you’ve increased your calories without noticing it because you subconsciously figure you are working out so hard you can get away with it. It’s critical that you measure everything that goes into your mouth, especially when ramping up activity and especially if you are looking to lose fat, to avoid falling in to this trap.) And, Ps., “a pound of muscle” does not “weight more than a pound of fat.” It takes up less space, sure, but a pound is a pound.)
Like I said, I pretty much love this article from FigureAthlete.com and think it should be required reading for any female looking to get into optimum shape. It dispels so many of the myths and gives you the science behind the hows and whys… including a great section on the dreaded low weight, high reps for fat burn load of crap.
Look– I am not a fan of wasting time. Not mine, not yours, not the people at the gym, not the people in my life who would be sitting around waiting while I toss a 3-pound pink dumbell around for an hour and a half out of a fear of “getting bulky.” Pick up max weight, power through your 8-12 reps twice for each muscle group and call it a day. (Also, that hour you spend on the elliptical 5 times a week reading a book going at a nice, steady 6 is not an efficient use of time, either, but I guess that’s a post for another day.)
Anyhow, read this, and let’s discuss.
Smurf is right!, I’m a 31 year old woman and I’ve been lifting for a few years now. Push ups, pull ups, weight (somewhat heavy) training and I look nothing like a man. I’m still 130lbs soaking wet. But with muscle definition. In other words, you can see a semblance of muscle tone depending on how my body is sitting or standing. But nothing nearly as big or as noticeable as a man’s body. Most importantly, I feel stronger and fit.
I do a bit of cardio to warm up and on off days but spending an hour on the treadmill has never challenged me as much as weight training, unless I’m semi sprinting at a high incline.
The Olympic sprinter analogy is the best!
As I also like to joke, AMS- “I usually use the pink dumbells, but the other day I had to use the blue ones and I accidentally got ripped like Jesus.”
Hi- I am 34 years old, 5’5 and weigh 137 lbs. I am on week 4 of P90x. I have two children (the youngest is 20 mths and I had a c-section with him). I have really struggled regaining toned abs. Last summer, I trained and ran my first marathon. I did not gain any core strength, but all I was doing was running. I got into a rut this winter and my husband suggested P90x. I love, love, love it (except for yoga– as much as I try, I CANNOT get into it). However, I have not seen results yet. Well- I feel stronger and I have more energy, but I haven’t lost weight. In fact, I think I have gained 2lbs. I am not strictly following the eating plan, but I do eat healthy (except for ice cream). I have completely stopped running– which makes me look longingly at all runners. I have to start training for my fall marathon next month. So my question is– how do I incorporate running without risking burnout/ injury? By the way- I work full time as well so my workouts are at 5am every morning before the kids get up. So time is really short around here. Any advice? I want to get down to 125.
First and foremost, it’s a sad reality that to see movement on the scale, you are going to have to follow a regimented eating program. I am currently training for a marathon, too, so falsely believed that since I eat really healthy and run I didn’t have to track my calories and make sure I was at a deficit. Nope, doesn’t work that way.
It wasn’t until I started really tracking and paying laser-focused attention to what I was eating that I finally got rid of the last 15 pounds.
The way most runners work with P90X is by replacing the cardio/plyo/Kenpo days and the yoga day with running. I don’t do true P90X “cycles” when I am training for a race– meaning my running schedule is my “primary” workout and then I work in P90X (or other weight workouts) around those. So, I usually run 4 days per week. If I am running a little shorter one of those days, I might do my run and then do Core Synergystics (I love that workout, and it is great for runners!) and then do one of the upper body workouts with Ab Ripper X on the other days that I’m not running. Personally, being a little injury-prone and gunshy, I don’t do the Legs workout when I am building mileage, so doing just the back moves in Legs and Back is a quick workout that can get slipped in after a run without taking up a whole lot of time. I am pretty flexible with myself, just make sure I’m doing different workouts and taking every 4th week as a “stepback/recovery” week (I do Bikram yoga on my recovery weeks.) I guess the long point I’m trying to make is– once you start training for your marathon, be flexible in terms of working the P90X workouts in. Don’t feel like you need to stick to the program verbatim, do what works best for you.
Hope that helps!
Thank you! I appreciate it. You are right. Last summer I was still breastfeeding and training for my marathon and I think I was just burning so many calories that I was able to eat anything I wanted and still lose weight. However– definitely not the case anymore! You are right- I am going to have to suck it up and watch my intake. thanks again!
Hi I’m not a recent convert of p90x but I have tried it before for like a 30 day period. I did lose the weight and started to get more defined but I lost touch because things became too hectic for me at school and work. I’ve always been the athletic type doing all types of sports, especially during high school, I was mostly a competitive and nationally ranked tennis player. But ever since I was young I’ve always tend to resemble a boy, always having a boyish figure. Partially due to a hormonal imbalance, I actually produce more testosterone than most females due to the fact that I do have hyperthyroidism. Was wondering what I should do to start up with p90x again? Do you think that even with the hormonal imbalance that I won’t bulk up? Thanks. Any advice is better than no advice
Hi Kristen,
If you do have a hormone imbalance (specifically, more testosterone), you are going to be primed to put on more muscle. BUT, if you ask any skinny dude how easy it is to “get bulky,” he’ll tell you “not very,” so I think it’s still entirely possible to do P90X and not get bulky- ESPECIALLY if you are eating at a deficit because you are trying to lose pound. You cannot create body mass– be it fat or muscle- without a surplus of calories. (A bit of an oversimplification, but a helpful thing to keep in mind…)
Step one for you, of course– Get to your endocrinologist and tell them what you plan to. Make sure your thyroid is under control, ask how the hormone imbalance might affect you in reaching your goals…
Step Two: Restart P90X. I’d suggest doing lean and pushing for 12-15 reps-to-failure on the weights, while eating at a deficit.
Step Three: Re-assess after 30 days and see how you are doing and if you like your results. The only way to know for sure is to try.
Best of luck!
im 20 and 5’2 i was about 115 a couple years back but due to the death of my sister i went into a horrible state of depression for 2 yrs which casued me to do nuthing but eat and sleep! i danced for 4 yrs and also did gymnastics, and loved the feeling of doing the work outs for them. so the work out doesnt really bug me the problem is that diets dont work well for me. i had a nutritionist who gave me a diet n i followed it to a T but nuthing not even a pund and i was excersising regularly as well. but when i was dancin n doing gymnastics everything seemed to come off so easily beacsue we where doing intense work outs! i just want to lose about 75lbs mabe less. i already own p90x but havnt tried it yet beacuse i want to make sure this is going to work for me! i think it will if i follow the diet and am followin the work out guied. i just need some advice. i want to be thin and tone again!
HELP!!!!!
Well, let me ask you this… are the P90X workouts something you are going to love and stick to and be excited about doing? There is no magic in the workouts. For you, it’s going to be about consuming fewer calories than you burn- period. I’m betting your nutritionist had you at something along the lines of 1500 calories per day? Start tracking every bite you put in your mouth and stick to it, then shoot to burn another 500 calories per day most days on top of that– it could be by doing P90X (you’ll probably need to add some extra activity to get to 500 calories burned), or Turbo Kick, or walking/jogging/elliptical trainering, or riding your bike, or dancing in your living room in your underwear, or a combination. With 75 pounds to lose, it is entirely about the calorie balance. If you are eating 1500 calories per day and burning an addition 500 5-6 days per week and the scale hasn’t moved in 4 weeks, take a close look at your calorie tracking and make sure there aren’t any kind of bites, nibbles, snacks or whatnot that you’re not counting. If you are confident in your tracking, bring it down to 1400 and stay there for 4 weeks. Once you get to the point where the scale starts to move, stay there and add in some weight workouts 2-3 times a week so you maintain lean muscle as you are losing.
In other words, if I were you, I would find something fun to do while the weight comes off and not worry about P90X-level fine-tuning until I was within 25-30 pounds of goal. Unless you really love this kind of workout, in which case, there’s no reason you can’t start it now.
Thank you so much for this, and for the linked article! Now it won’t be so much a concern about getting bulky, but merely a cost issue about p90x. Thanks again!