Free weight freedom

“No I don’t want to lift weights as I don’t want to get too big and bulky!” Oh how my heart breaks each time I hear this. While I have come to expect such a view from women, I am all the more surprised when it comes from men. It seems thoughts of free weights tend to conjure disturbing mental images of lumbering giants who are bulky, slow, and perhaps even dim-witted.

I specifically call out to those men who seek the slender athletic build one might expect from a Calvin Klein model- Matthew Muscat Inglott

While women’s fear of free weights is a subject I have previously tackled many times in this column, men’s fear doesn’t tend to surface as much. So while I will do my best to defend the great tradition of resistance training for both genders, I specifically call out to those men who seek the slender athletic build one might expect from a Calvin Klein model.

It may come as a surprise that most of the hunks exhibiting the ‘lean and clean’ look actually got those physiques at least in part by lifting weights. So if you think lifting weights will make you big and bulky, here are at least eight reasons to dust off the dumbbell handles and steer that steel up.

Most of the regulars you see in the average gym have been lifting weights for months or perhaps even years. Do they all look too big and bulky? If getting too big and bulky was a highly likely consequence of working out in a gym with free weights, then most people in gyms would look this way, and they clearly don’t.

High levels of technical prowess are required in the performance of resistance training exercises for them to be effective in increasing muscle size. Ambling through sets without stressing the target muscle groups correctly, without the right intensity and without exploiting the appropriate number of repetitions will not provide enough of a stimulus for significant growth.

Every repetition of every set must be performed with focus and purpose. A basic resistance training programme that does not push you to your limit in the majority of your working sets will not result in getting ‘too big’.

To build muscle and bulk requires not only an intensive and specialised training programme, but also careful attention to nutrition. If you are not eating enough of the right foods, your body will simply not grow much further beyond your natural limited capacity to increase muscle mass by means of resistance training alone.

High-calorie, high-protein quality foods are required in abundance for your muscles to grow beyond normal levels, and ingesting such food must become a major priority, often taking up vast amounts of time in preparation and requiring almost religious adherence to succeed.

If you are eating a regular low-calorie balanced diet, you are keeping a very secure cap on your ability to grow. Sports supplement manufacturers make billions every year out of resistance-training enthusiasts wishing to bulk up. Why would such people spend so much money if they could bulk up simply by lifting weights with no additional help or supplementation whatsoever?

There is a sport for people who wish to look bigger, bulkier and more muscular: it’s called bodybuilding. Now if the process of getting more muscular was so easy, then there wouldn’t really be much excitement or sporting challenge involved in bodybuilding would there?

Any competitive bodybuilder will gladly tell you how much hard work and sacrifice is involved in the pursuit of quality musculature, and will confirm it certainly doesn’t happen overnight or by accident.

As Olympic fever takes over this summer, observe the Olympic weightlifters in the lighter weight classes. These men lift far more weight than perhaps any man you will ever see in a commercial gym; however, they have lean and slender physiques; how would this be possible if lifting weights automatically made you big and bulky?

The lightweight female competitors lift weights professionally for hours every day just like their male counterparts, yet many of them sport attractive feminine curves most gym bunnies would die for. Most athletes in virtually any sport for that matter would look big and bulky, because from Formula One to American football, these days most of the professionals hit the gym and hit it hard.

Extreme outcomes call for extreme measures. If you want to develop your muscles beyond the norm, then your efforts are going to have to extend well beyond the norm too.

Hopefully by now I have dispelled the fear associated with big and nasty iron weights. They won’t turn us into The Incredible Hulk overnight, so what will they actually do then?

Lifting weights effectively will increase your functional strength and athletic ability, benefits that will shine through while performing everyday tasks or on the sports field.

You will increase your muscle mass well within your natural range, which means you will notice each individual muscle taking shape and looking more defined.

Most natural trainees will experience more of a reshaping effect rather than a resizing one. You won’t suddenly morph into something bigger all over, but rather your shoulders, chest and arms specifically will become larger and more defined, while your waist will become smaller.

Your overall bodyweight might not even change all that much as with your additional muscle mass also comes additional fat-burning potential. When muscle grows, fat shrinks, transforming your body into the lean and slender athletic machine underwear manufacturers will want to plaster over billboards everywhere.

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