Topic: Maintaining a girlish figure

[Killer Tofu]

I've recently become interested in Parkour, and intend on training myself with the help of information and discussion on this site.

Obviously, Parkour takes a lot of strength and muscles to do safely...Since I am 5'3", 106 lbs, and female, I would like to keep my physique (if not improve a bit). Are there any tips you have on getting strength and NOT bulk? Lean muscle is what I would like.

Currently, I run (5 miles in 39 minutes and 43 seconds), hike, bike, swim and hit the gym...but I cannot do a full pull-up without assistance. I can do five of them with 50 lbs assisted. My issue is not cardio, but more strength. Any suggestions that won't make me look scary?

[Dom Rocco]

Bulking has more to do with diet than anything. Unless you're eating way more calories than usual, you shouldn't experience any weight gain or end up looking like WWF's Chyna.

At the same time, taking on something new like Parkour and eating the same as always could potentially result in weight loss. That may or may not be something you desire. If it's not, it may be wise to eat just a little bit more so that you're balancing your caloric intake with your new level of activity in order to maintain your weight.

If your goal is to do a pull up, work on doing negatives. That would be using assistance, such as a stepping stool, to make your way to the top of the bar, and then lowering yourself, slowly, and without assistance. Work on those and go from there.

[Andrew Mumu Trahum]

just work on minor exercises until you get strong enough, instead of pull-ups do the flex arm hang.
as for keeping a "girlish" figure... I'd advise keeping a much higher restriction on your junk food intake, most of your figure will be decided on your diet. Instead of doing 50 pushups a night like i do, take it to what you're comfortable with, 10? 15? 20?. also, by practicing parkour motions, your body is going to become stronger (but remember, it is dangerous to attempt without conditioning)  

[Rafe]

As a woman you have a limited capacity for increased muscle mass due to your hormones the pictures you see of giantly muscled women in body builder magazines are almost all of women taking male hormones without male hormones bulky muscles arent really possible and even with them if you don't have them to start with it takes hard work and lots of eating to get that way it doesn't happen by accident. Muscle is muscle by the way you can have more or less of it and can be covered by more or less fat but there is no bulk muscle in contrast to lean muscle. Gaining a few pounds of muscle will not make you look huge or unattractive either.

If you want to be strong the most effective way to develop that is through heavy strength training, squats, deadlifts, overhead press, weight squats and dips, and gymnastics progressions planche, lever, handstand press.

Good luck.

[Dan Elric]

Strength train.  The improvements will be mostly neurological.  Keep up a good diet, do some HIIT.

Basically that's what it boils down to.  Once you get to the point you like just stop and just train endurance at that level I suppose.  You'll definitely have some muscle mass gains, but not all that much.

[David M.]

Strength train.  The improvements will be mostly neurological.  Keep up a good diet, do some HIIT.

Basically that's what it boils down to.  Once you get to the point you like just stop and just train endurance at that level I suppose.  You'll definitely have some muscle mass gains, but not all that much.

Neurological improvements for a time.

Other than that, yes. If you want to gain weight, eat for it. If you want to lose weight, eat for it. If you want to maintain weight, eat for it.

I wouldn't go from training strength to training endurance. Keep lifting to maintain that strength level. You can increase strength without a lot of mass gain for quite a while though gaining weight will help you overcome plateaus that you hit.

[Killer Tofu]

Thank you for the tips everyone. Bulking up would be the main turn off for training for this. I already don't eat a lot, so I guess I'll just keep it at that.

Dom Rocco: Thanks for the tip on the negatives. I've never tried them, but there are machines at my gym that help with dips and pull-ups. I don't have a bar of my own yet, so I'll have to see if I can work with that. I'd hate to take the bar away from those at the gym who can do them.

Andrew: I'll try those flex arm hangs at the gym tonight! I've taken to doing some of the exercises that are suggested on the main site.

Rafe: Thank you for stifling my anxiety about this. It's something I've been worried about (even with my regular routines). I'll have to reference that list of exercises in the future. Some of them I'm a pro at, but I've never attempted some...like dead lifts.

Dan: Please forgive my ignorance, but what is HIIT? High Intensity Interval Training...? I think?

David: Would you suggest being able to just lift my weight? I wouldn't mind if I hit a plateau at or just above my weight.

[Dom Rocco]

Would you suggest being able to just lift my weight? I wouldn't mind if I hit a plateau at or just above my weight.

Check this out for strength standards for both men and women
http://www.crossfit.com/cf-journal/WLSTANDARDS.pdf

[David M.]

David: Would you suggest being able to just lift my weight? I wouldn't mind if I hit a plateau at or just above my weight.

It will be a long time until you hit a plateau that you can't get past with a few training days. I haven't been lifting very long(a year) and have a long time myself I'm sure until I get to a plateau.

The strength standards that Dom posted look good. Apparently I'm an intermediate.

[Dan Elric]

Neurological improvements for a time.

Other than that, yes. If you want to gain weight, eat for it. If you want to lose weight, eat for it. If you want to maintain weight, eat for it.

I wouldn't go from training strength to training endurance. Keep lifting to maintain that strength level. You can increase strength without a lot of mass gain for quite a while though gaining weight will help you overcome plateaus that you hit.

Yes, I can't imagine her going past those improvements too far (because then comes along hypertrophy).  I mentioned endurance because there isn't that much else to improve in.  And yes, you'd want to maintain that level of strength.  And for her goals I'd stick to body weight training.

Speaking of goals there is this:

http://www.eatmoveimprove.com/2009/12/skill-guidelines-for-building-strong-useful-adaptable-athletes/


Yes, HIIT is high intensity interval training.  I suggest this because it is the best exercise for fat catabolism so you'll be able to keep a low body fat %.

[Dom Rocco]

Those strength standards are actually right from Rip's Practical Programming book by the way.

[FastGuppy]

Just a side note: a girl with a six pack is disgusting. You want a flat stomach or just the top abs showing. For looks...

[Killer Tofu]

Hahah. Yeah. Girls with six packs at the gym make me wince a little.

Thanks for the link, Dom. That'll be helpful for setting goals in stages.

I'll definitely start adding more strength to my routines. Since I'm between semesters, I have a lot more time to go to the gym. I average two trips a day, plus swimming at home and push ups, sit ups, squats resistance bands and minor weights at home as well.

[David Jones]

I don't mind defined abs on a woman...

[Steven Low]

Bodyweight or weighted strength training.

http://www.eatmoveimprove.com/2010/03/the-fundamentals-of-bodyweight-strength-training
http://www.eatmoveimprove.com/2010/02/beginning-training-programs/

[Spencer B]

Just a side note: a girl with a six pack is disgusting. You want a flat stomach or just the top abs showing. For looks...

Oh my god it's so utterly disgusting! 

[Alec Furtado]

Oh my god it's so utterly disgusting! 

Love ya Spence


I think most people would agree that PK Gen trains pretty dang hard. IMHO, the female members of their team aren't "huge" at all: http://www.parkourgenerations.com/team.php. The guys aren't even. I've trained with Dan in person and he really doesn't look that built.

You seem to have pretty good conditioning already. Rafe gave some good pointers. Be sure to check out the sticky here to get started, specifically this. Do any sports previously?

[Killer Tofu]

Wow. Thanks, Alec, those women look amazing! YAY! I've been hitting up the gym more often lately to see what I am capable of so that I can set realistic goals for myself. The only sport I've done prior to my individual things now (running/biking/hiking) was swimming in high school and some in college. I'm going to join my school's water polo team this semester, though.

Thanks for the links, Steven. I've seen those ones put up a few times, so I read them. I like reading around on that site a lot.

My stummy is pretty flat unless I eat and drink tea a little too quickly. I don't have the top abs showing, but I have a shallow line that goes down the middle. That's it for definition.

[Dan Elric]

My stummy is pretty flat unless I eat and drink tea a little too quickly. I don't have the top abs showing, but I have a shallow line that goes down the middle. That's it for definition.

the stomach shrinks up real small like while not in use. but it can stretch to a very large size for meals.

[David Jones]

Oh my god it's so utterly disgusting! 

Checkmate.