Can a girl pump up?

Let us reassure you right away: overdeveloped muscles in women are a very rare phenomenon. In general, the growth of muscle mass depends on several factors. Firstly, from the physique: in fragile girls, muscles develop worse than in those whom nature has awarded with curvaceous figures. Secondly, the hormonal characteristics of the body play an important role. Testosterone is responsible for the growth of muscle mass, which in women is usually 10 times less than in men. Therefore, in principle, it is much more difficult for a woman to gain muscle mass, and even more so to become a muscleman, than for representatives of the stronger sex. There are, of course, exceptions when the level of testosterone in women exceeds the norm. This can be determined visually. Such women have a strong physique and extra pounds settle first on the stomach (and not on the hips). Coarse hairs may grow on the chest and around the navel. In this case, there is still a slight risk of gaining excessive muscle mass. This means that you need to select a training program with special attention and better together with an experienced instructor.

Why do girls grow muscles slowly?

It's all about the male sex hormone - testosterone is responsible for muscle growth. In girls, testosterone levels are tens of times lower than in men. Therefore, an ordinary girl (without a naturally high level of androgens) can get pumped up, but it is quite difficult to do so. And the process will be slow.

You need a certain type of training, proper nutrition and at least some genetic predisposition to muscle growth. If a girl is an ectomorph and nothing really lingers on her except bones and skin, then it will be very difficult for her to gain muscle.

How to eat

A proper diet is also important. The growth of muscle mass in our body occurs due to proteins. “Her normal growth requires approximately 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight every day. Don't need extra muscles? Let the amount of protein in the diet be half as much,” explains Vyacheslav Nikadimov.

At the same time, you can cut the amount of carbohydrates in your menu by about a third. “This will also slow down muscle growth,” says Vyacheslav Nikodimov.

Who are all these mutants?

But if gaining muscle mass is such a difficult task, then who are all these mutants? On the Internet you can find many masculine women who have lost their sexual characteristics. Even if you look not at bodybuilders, but at bikini athletes, something is still not right.

Where do they get so many muscles?

For a girl, there are two ways to gain muscle mass:

An ideal daily routine, ideal workouts and nutrition... These are the girls who compete in the “fitness bikini” category. Mostly. They use certain drugs for recovery and muscle growth, but this is completely legal and does not turn a woman into a man. Their form is the maximum that a sufficiently gifted woman can achieve;
Steroid use. Steroids are analogues of male sex hormones. This is the same testosterone that women lack. It is he who makes women masculine. That is, if you do not inject drugs and do not take steroids in tablet form, then it will be extremely difficult to become masculine.

Therefore, the answer to the question “Can a girl pump up?” - definitely not. Women can naturally gain some muscle mass. No more.

Over pumped: what to do

Cardio exercises will help reduce volumes: running, walking, swimming or water aerobics. “The main condition is to exercise from 40 minutes to an hour,” advises Vyacheslav Nikadimov , personal trainer at the TERRASPORT Copernicus fitness club. “In this case, the fat layer, which creates additional volume, will decrease, and along with it the feeling of swaying will go away.”

Strength training can also help you "deflate" if you train with moderate weights and at a fast pace. Try to visit the fitness club more often, 4-5 times a week. “It’s impossible to pump up muscles if they work constantly,” notes Vyacheslav Nikadimov. With such a schedule, they have almost no time to recover (in our body it takes from 48 to 72 hours), which means they definitely won’t increase.

Another option to combat bloated muscles is to stretch before and after exercise. “It helps remove decay products (lactic and pyruvic acids) from the tissues, which not only clog the muscle and cause pain, but also make it more massive,” explains Elena Darkova , fitness trainer at the ROST Family Development Center.

Fitness activities such as Pilates, yoga, and stretching do not pump up, but perfectly strengthen muscles. They definitely won’t harm the feminine silhouette.

Beauty and health are more important than muscles

Many girls may be upset when they learn that it is difficult to build muscles in principle. The girl cannot pump herself up “in real life”.

But it is important to remember why we are doing this. The goal of most girls is an attractive appearance and good health.

Not big muscles. Therefore, develop your body harmoniously, don’t worry about non-existent threats, and get excellent health, appearance and well-being!

So, we have answered the question “Can a girl pump up”? Are there any blind spots left in this topic?

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How not to pump up your legs, arms, buttocks - which muscles grow faster?

We would like to reassure you right away; women rarely have overdeveloped muscles. Several factors influence the growth of muscle mass:

Physique – fragile girls have much less developed muscles than those with curvaceous figures.
Hormonal characteristics - a woman naturally has 10 times less testosterone in her body than a man. Namely, this hormone affects the growth of muscle mass.

Experts say that women most often pump up their legs: the quadriceps and calves. But it’s very difficult to pump up the muscles of the shoulder girdle and arms even during intense training, so you shouldn’t worry too much about them.

In general , the feeling of pumped muscles occurs only among beginners, people who have been working out in the gym for a little more than 3 months. During this period, the muscles became toned and began to grow, but the fat around them had not yet gone away. Because of this, it visually seems that you have increased slightly in volume. However, you shouldn’t quit training because of this. But you can revise the lesson program.

Strength training will make you independent and confident.

Physical strength inspires not only men, but also women. This is a subtle psychological point that is difficult for people who are far from sports to understand.

Yes, in nine out of ten cases you won’t have to carry bags from the store yourself or help your child lift a bicycle to the fourth floor. But when that tenth time comes (and sooner or later it will happen), you will be confident.

No one is saying that moving furniture on your own or carrying your weekly groceries home is an easy task, but weight training will take it from impossible to doable. This is a small personal victory and invaluable experience.

Workout

Strength exercises

Strength exercises are your first and main way to build muscle. A typical strength training routine usually involves lifting weights (dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, weight plates). Exercises like this help improve the endurance of your muscles, but also the growth of myofibers and mitochondria in the muscles. So when you sleep or rest, your muscles rebuild and rebuild—but this time, bigger and stronger. This process is called muscle fiber hypertrophy.

Use your body weight, TRX loops, resistance bands, or any other equipment to increase the physical challenge of your workout.

Table: approximate weight training program for girls

Day	Target	Exercises
The first day	Legs and Buttocks	Leg press, barbell squats, dumbbell lunges, barbell alternating squats, kettlebell squats, single leg TPX squats, barbell hip raises, and walking lunges – 3 sets of 12 reps
Day Three	Chest and triceps	Push-ups, plank, side plank, dumbbell overhead press, dumbbell overhead press, incline dumbbell press, back bends, French press with resistance loops, triceps resistance loops, and chest push-ups – 3 sets of 12 reps each
Day Five	Upper back and shoulders	Dumbbell raises, barbell raises, waist presses, waist stretches, planks, cable face pulls, machine presses, barbell overhead presses, one-arm dumbbell rear and front raises - 4 sets of 7 reps each
Day Seven	Back and biceps	Close-grip barbell press, one-arm dumbbell raise, standing resistance loop stretch, bicep curls, dumbbell curls, barbell curls, plank and return to starting position, biceps curls - 3 sets of 12 reps each

Remember, you need to vary your exercise routine to get better results.

Intense Interval Training

To maintain a leaner figure and give it more pronounced shape, you should add interval training to your routine, which includes fast and moving exercises for 30 seconds followed by 10 seconds of rest.

These short, high-intensity exercises work the fast-twitch muscle fibers that are needed to build muscle (endurance exercises or long exercises like running or walking only work the slow-twitch muscle fibers). Try introducing a few exercises into your routine:

Knee raises, squats, leg swings, squat jumps, lunge jumps, jump rope, rope exercise, leg raises, side lying, Russian twist, forward and backward leg throws, crunches and situps. Be sure to rest 60-90 seconds between exercises. Rest 10 seconds between sets.

Challenge yourself

Force yourself to study more, faster and harder. If you follow the same plan, don't expect progress.

The more you exercise, the more your muscles adapt to your exercises. As long as you don't add weight or difficulty to your workouts, your muscles will stay the same.

Tip: Exercise 3-5 days a week and do strength training on all other days to give your muscles time to rest.

But exercise is only one of the pillars of gaining muscle, and your diet is equally important.

Gaining muscle mass in women

After a few months of exercise, most women notice that their clothes become tight. That is, you can monitor your diet, train regularly, and your volumes will still grow.

The explanation here is quite simple - after the start of fitness training, the muscles actively work, and, accordingly, their volume increases. Moreover, subcutaneous fat is not yet burned, and visually the figure becomes too prominent. The body is especially pumped on the legs.

Glycogen is a kind of “fuel” for muscles, produced during intense physical training. Often, pumping has a temporary effect while the body adapts to sports training. This is usually observed within a month.

Cardio training alone will not make your body athletic.

Constant volumetric lipolytic (fat-burning) training will help you lose weight and partially get rid of fat deposits, but with their help you will not be able to acquire an athletic body. Unfortunately, beautiful figures cannot be built by running alone. And if Michelle Jenneke’s physique seems attractive to you, know that elastic roundness and a flat stomach are forged using weights and dumbbells.

Separately, it is worth mentioning the numerous home workouts published on YouTube. Among the tens of thousands of videos on how to remove fat deposits on the sides, lower abdomen or thighs, a fairly large percentage is occupied by videos with workouts at home, almost lying on the sofa. At the same time, it is rare that any of the model-instructors trains exclusively according to the program shown: most of the female teachers attend gyms and work with additional weight.

The best safe types of fitness

Another option, in order not to over-pump, is to select exactly those sports with which the risk of this problem becomes much less.

These include:

In this case, the entire load falls on the legs. You should not wear weights. The exception is exercises on the floor.
Slide. The “skaters” exercise is repeated on a slippery track. Here, too, all the intensity falls on the legs.
These are barbell exercises that also work the legs.
Dance aerobics. Here, a large load is placed in the area of the calf muscles and lower legs.
Boxing and Taibo. Such workouts fall into the cardio category and are aimed at burning fat. With the right approach, you can maintain a feminine figure.
Pilates, stretching, yoga. These exercises are aimed at stretching. Accordingly, there is the smallest percentage of risk of over-pumping.

If you want to maintain the beauty and slimness of a feminine figure, you should pay attention to these types of sports activities. You should also pay a lot of attention to nutrition.

To avoid over-pumping, you need to remove proteins from your diet. But before and after classes, you must eat light food - for example, vegetable salad, boiled egg, lean sea fish. This also has a positive effect on the formation of the figure.

False alarm

Not everything that is considered “pumped” is such. Let's look at where a false alarm can occur.

You can become like in this photo only by using steroids for a long time. There is no need to talk about years of training.

Many people are frightened by the sight of participants in bodybuilding competitions. But looking at their photographs, you need to understand that this is a uniform that is being prepared purposefully for the competition over several months. In normal, non-competitive periods, the vast majority of competitors look completely different, and their defined muscles are hidden under a layer of fat.

Please also note that the makeup that is applied to the body also contributes to the appearance of a professional athlete. The miraculous “slimming” effect of tanning is known to everyone, and in this case it also works.

“My muscles are growing too fast!”

Women are frightened by the rapid “muscle growth” that begins literally from the first strength training. It seems that all parts of the body that worked in the gym are increasing by leaps and bounds and acquiring powerful muscles. Actually this is not true.

Observe yourself throughout the day, and you will see that you move very little, and the range of movements is very low. Over the few (and sometimes decades) years that you led a sedentary lifestyle, your muscles managed to atrophy, and you stopped noticing them. And now they just started to come to life and work, and not grow.
The effect of muscle growth can also occur when the fat layer begins to melt. This is especially noticeable on the hips. The muscles of the lower half of the body in women are very strong (stronger than in men - they have a more powerful upper body) and “respond” well to the load. Therefore, after just a couple of sessions, it may begin to seem that your hips have suddenly grown.
Don’t give in to provocations: this is minus fat and plus muscle tone. Those around you will confirm that your legs have not improved at all, but have even become slimmer.
A similar effect can occur immediately after training. Measurements may show that the volume of the hips has increased by 1.5–2 cm. Do not be alarmed, the muscle fibers swollen from the load will soon relax and the volumes will return to normal.

Simply developed muscles – at least somewhat pronounced muscle relief – are often considered to be “pumped up”. In this case, of course, we are talking only about what each of us considers beautiful. But good posture, toned buttocks, a flat stomach, no folds on the sides and no sagging in the upper arms seem to appeal to everyone.