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Will I Get Bulky Muscles from Judo? | Ask The Fitness Nerd

November 14, 2008 on 6:49 pm | By Matt | In Ask The Fitness Nerd |

Judo will not make you look fat. Exercise doesn’t necessarily equate to bulky muscles for women. The Fitness Nerd explains why.

Hi Fitness Nerd,

I started taking judo a couple of months ago because I really enjoy doing it rather than using it as a way to keep fit. While I don’t mind gaining a bit of muscle tone, I’m worried about bulking up as I’m a very small female who is a good weight and thick chunky muscles would just make me look fat. Is there anyway I can encourage my muscles to remain small but defined rather than grow big through diet? - Sophie

Sophie, you can relax. The chances of you “bulking up” and looking like a female version of Arnold Schwarzenegger are pretty slim. In fact, I’d say they are close to zero. There are three main reasons for this:

1. Women Don’t Have The Hormones for Huge Muscles

First, most women don’t have the hormonal environment necessary to put on massive amounts of muscle.  Adding muscle requires testosterone — and while women do have some testosterone — they typically don’t have enough to build the freaky muscles that you see on most bodybuilders — male or female. Yes, there are exceptions (and typically they involve the use of anabolic steroids or unusual male hormone levels in women ), but these are quite rare. So unless you have an atypical endocrine system for your gender or are on the testosterone patch, I wouldn’t sweat it for one minute.

2. Body Weight Training Doesn’t Maximize Muscle Mass

Second, judo is an activity that doesn’t involve the introduction of non-body-weight resistance. Building muscle requires consistently overloading the muscles with a progressive amount of weight during weight and resistance training.  This process of overloading the muscles is what builds muscle mass. With judo, you are basically training yourself against your own weight (or against someone else’s in some cases)– which more or less is fairly consistent. While this can certainly build strength, balance and co-ordination (and some muscle mass), it’s typically not enough to add lots of muscle. But again, even if you were pumping iron heavy daily, you’d probably be pretty pleased with the results. So maybe you should try it.

What it will do, is challenge a lot of stabilizer muscles that you might not normally use in your everyday activities, as well as burn some extra calories, which can help you strip off body fat. When people experience a “firming” of their muscles, it’s usually do primarily to a loss in body fat. You can have muscle, but if it’s wrapped in fat, it will seem soft and “jiggly.” Lose the fat, and suddely that lean, gorgeous muscle underneath starts to shine.

3. A “Toned Body” Means A Lean, Muscular Body

Finally, understand that “body toning” is a complete myth and represents nothing more mysterious than a reduction in body fat accompanied by an increase in muscle. It’s often hard to do both things simultaneously, but the good news is that an improvement in either of these factors translates into a leaner look. In fact, one of the tricks men will use to improve the aesthetics of their abs — even if their body fat is a bit high — is to add additional muscle to their abs through resistance training. That muscle can bring out definition, even when body fat levels are higher than a person might want.

Remember this rule: Fat adds bulk (and makes you look heavy) and muscle always looks leaner. So your concern shouldn’t be around whether adding muscle will make you look “bulky”, but rather whether not adding muscle will make you look “fat.” If I could just get people to understand this, we’d close the book forever on this whole silly worry about “bulking up” due to weight training or resistance exercise (or even body weight exercise.) If you are already have a small build, a little additional muscle mass can actually make you look leaner and have more muscle definition and lean curves. Same goes for ectomorphs who are already tall and lean, but may not have a ton of muscle def.

Muscle Is Not The Enemy: Some Female Examples

If you still don’t believe me, check out someone like fitness model Amanda Carrier – who carries a lot of muscle on a fairly small frame, yet looks incredibly lean despite the fact that her BMI (Body Mass Index) would probably put her in the “overweight” category for someone of her height and weight.  Amanda lifts a lot of weights, and she lifts heavy … and she’s not bulky at all.

In fact, the most fit women I know — who anyone in their right mind would consider “lean” — would, generally, qualify as “over-weight” by the standard BMI scale. You can also take a look at highly conditioned martial artists like Bruce Lee or Brandon Lee, who despite being male (and having a hormonal environment that encourages muscle mass), have a very lean and taut physical aesthetic.

For another female example, check out Jen Garner who was very “toned” and lean in her Alias and Elektra roles (without ever becoming bulky), which included tons of martial arts training (and plenty of weight training as well.) If Jennifer Garner is a little too ripped out and muscular for your tastes, remember that she was training several hours a day, every day, to specifically produce that look. Recreational judo training won’t necessarily produce the same result in you, unless you specifically train for it.  This is a continuum, and you control the outcome based on your goals, training schedule and workout routine.

In terms of diet, this is purely a numbers game. You should eat enough calories to fuel your workout, and maybe slightly more to to build some muscle. But even with a slight calorie surplus, you’re not going to build big, giant muscles, Sophia. If anything, you’ll watch yourself lean out. This is highly individual, so you have to monitor what works best for you. But, in general, 5-6 smaller clean meals with a good balance of lean protein, carbs and healthy fats, is the best approach.

The bottom line is focus on doing activities that make you feel good, energize you, keep you excited about exercise and building strength. It’s challenging for most people to find an activity that they enjoy that also keeps them fit. So if judo is it for you, then pursue it. I would be willing to bet that if you ditch your concerns about “bulking up” and just workout hard, you’ll be thrilled by your results. Come back in three months and let me know if I’m right.

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Tags: Amanda Carrier, Ask The Fitness Nerd, Benefits of Weight Training, BMI, Body Fat, Body Fat Percentage, Body Mass Index, Body Toning, Body Toning Exercises, Body Toning Workout, Body Weight Exercises, Bruce Lee, Bulky Muscles, Elektra, Female Fitness, Female Fitness Muscle, Female Martial Muscle, Female Muscle, Female Muscle Compare, Female Muscle Growth, Female Muscles, Jennifer Garner, Judo, Martial Arts, Muscle Toning, Resistance Training, Specificity, Weight & Resistance Training, Weight Training for Women, Whole Body Toning, Women's Fitness, Womens Judo, Womens Martial Arts

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