Aztec said,
“Not sure what you mean there, but if I do… muscle is muscle. No such thing as defined muscle or bulky muscle. It’s purely the proportion of fat around it that determines how defined it looks.”
Gotta say, all of Aztec’s answers have been right on the money. I have a CPFT cert from Cooper Institute and two health coaching certs, not to mention tons of strength training knowledge, so I can respectfully add.
If you don’t want to “bulk up” (ie: gain too much dense muscle from using weight), then don’t use weights. Do all bodyweight training, You’ll gain endurance, drop fat, and become more compound-muscle-coordinated.
Granted, you’ll gain ‘muscle’, you just won’t gain HUGE muscles as if you were overloading your muscles with “weight training” (ie: in the gym, using machines or free weights). You will drop fat because you will be putting caloric demands on your body - and adding enough muscle to boost your metabolism. Additionally, your body will work better because you’d be using muscles in tandem and not in isolation.
Want a sample guy regarding this? Dean Karnazes (The UltraMarathon Man) does bodyweight training (pushups, crunches, situps, etc etc) and he has an awesome body despite his punishing training, which, if he didn’t feed himself enough or have the genetics to support it, would be whisper-thin.
You WILL gain muscle (unless your genetics have decided you are tiny and thin). Decide what you want: muscle or less bulk. You should already have some muscle due to your swimming, running, and biking anyway.
That being said, you can try (unweighted)
Squats (complete leg strength: quads, hams, glutes - push from your heels)
stability ball crunches - straight-up and sideways, both sides (complete abdominal area strength)
pull ups with a pull-up bar across a doorway (back strength) - wide and narrow grips
pushups - narrow, medium, wide grips (chest, arm, forearm, and shoulder strength)
single arm pushups (balance, chest, arm, and shoulder strength)
Hope this adds to the fracas.
Lauren
