I May Have Just Learned What "Bulking Up" Means

I just read an extremely eye opening article by Leigh Peele called Defining Bulky, Once and For All.

In her introduction, Leigh states her purpose as, "to finally give a definition of what the average population believes to be bulky." In actuality, that should read "the average female population" because she didn't include men in her poll. Nonetheless, her findings really have me looking at this topic with a fresh eye.

I believe that when most women say that weight training "bulked them up" it's because they incorporated strength training without proper nutrition and ended up adding muscle without stripping away the fat beneath it.

When woman would tell me they didn't want to "bulk up", I had no idea that many of them considered almost any muscle definition to be "bulky". In her article, Leigh has pictures of Angela Bassett as Tina Turner, Hillary Swank, Jessica Biel and Linda Hamilton - all of whom ended up in the "bulky" category.

I can understand people who think these women are more muscular than they themselves would want to be but "bulky"? If most of us had the body fat percentage of the women in those photos, this country would not be in the midst of an obesity epidemic.

Does it really boil down to semantics?

And if Leigh's poll and corresponding definition is correct, how does that explain the number of women now telling their trainers they want "Michelle Obama's arms?"

Leave a comment and let me know what you consider "bulky."