“I want to do CrossFit and I love the type of training it is BUT a lot of the women look really bulky/muscular, and I don’t want to have those huge muscles. I just want to tone up.”
At some point you, or someone you know has heard that sentence before, or some sort of variation of it regarding women getting huge muscles or getting “bulky”. We are here to de-bunk that, and let you know it is most likely not going to happen any time soon.
If you flip through instagram, or facebook, whatever social app you use, you’ll probably see women like Annie Thorisdottir, Dani Speegle, Emma Mcquaid, and many more who are in fact women with extremely defined muscles. These women are training for the CrossFit Games, to be the fittest on earth. Which requires an immense amount of training in all aspects of fitness including body building to build strength and prevent injuries.
In order for you to build muscle to that level, and begin to see muscle definition to that extent, you need three important things (amongst many others), which MOST people at a CrossFit gym do not do.
Body Building Consistently
You need to be doing body building consistently, and lifting heavy while doing so. It is highly unlikely that you will gain 10lbs of muscle (for example) and be absolutely shredded to the point where people will say “woah, you’re huge (like what a gym bro would say)” by just doing an hour of CrossFit 3-4x per week.You’ll, for sure, get more toned up, which in turn you will see more muscle definition from muscles you already had, because you’re burning enough fat to see them shine!
Dieting With CrossFit In Mind
You need to be dieting for the specific goal of gaining muscle mass. In order to build muscle, you need to eat the right quantity and the right foods, AND a surplus of calories in order to gain weight. Most of the population actually undereats which is a major problem and can cause muscle LOSS! Without realizing it, we can easily be at a 600 calorie deficit which is counterintuitive to weight loss and muscle building. In order for you to look “bulky” or muscular, you will most likely need to be eating 300 or more calories over your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) in calories, which is a wild amount of food if you’re doing it the right way.
Lifting To Near Failure in CrossFit
You need to be lifting to near failure when possible. Lifting heavy promotes muscle growth, or hypertrophy when done correctly and with a program. If you lift heavy often, and track your numbers, you’ll be able to follow a plan that gets you to build muscles since you are pushing their limits by using calculated data from results you’ve tracked day in and day out. Staying at the lighter weights and higher reps, instead of the lower reps and higher weights, will give you the toning result instead of the muscle building result.
Long story short, if you are nervous about CrossFit because you believe it will make you super buff and jacked up, there are many things, among the previous three mentioned, that need to be considered. It is relatively unlikely that you will look like the women you see on CrossFit Games instagram with just training CrossFit for an hour a day 3-4x a week. You will look phenomenal once you are consistent with it, but it takes time, lots of preparation and planning, and training to get to that body type.
With all of that being said, muscles have become something that a lot of people are striving to have as health is becoming more and more prominent in our society. It is important to feel amazing in our bodies, and important to realize that the fitness journey we all embark on is a beautiful thing whether you want to gain muscle or tone up or just be really fit. Women in the CrossFit world have done some incredible things, and all very in muscle tone and muscle mass. The whole point of CrossFit is to move functionally well through our training methodology… and look better naked which is a plus;)
We hope this article helps you in some way, and will encourage you to at least take the biggest and most difficult step, which is to just walk into your local affiliate. We promise you, it is going to be the best decision of your fitness journey!
