Female biceps: how female bodybuilders can bulk

**milleniumgirl** · #1 (**permalink**) 07-16-2009

Female Biceps: How Female Bodybuilders Can Bulk Up

Most experts claim that women can't build big female biceps, and there is a particular grain of truth to that. Testosterone is what allows for huge bulky muscles in men, and the far majority of women can't bulk up huge due to the lack of testosterone, which makes sense since that is a male hormone.

For most women who do strength training for toning and slimming purposes, this is great news. Most women can't bulk up unless they follow a very specific high carb, high protein diet with supplements and an incredibly hard weight lifting regiment. Once again, for most women who want to look really good and not bulky, this is a really good thing. However for female bodybuilders, who aim to have impressive huge biceps, this is an unfortunate detail to deal with. Female bodybuilders who want great female biceps have to take on two obstacles to literally force biceps growth, but it is possible.

The first thing women who want bigger female biceps should do is to concentrate on cutting down the reps, and adding more weight to your weight lifting program. Training in the gym is definitely necessary as opposed to bodyweight training at home. The gym will have professional training equipment that provides better benefits for bulking up as opposed to just push ups and body weight exercises that can only do so much before become toning exercises.

Instead of doing sets of ten or twelve reps, up the weight as heavy as you can safely lift and do two to three types of bicep weight lifting exercises for big female biceps, and do 3 sets of 6-8 reps of each - no more! If you find this is too easy, then it's time to increase the weight.

The second thing that women bodybuilders have to deal with in order to build up award winning female biceps is heavy protein supplements. There's no way around this. Protein is required for building muscles, and since women are naturally at a disadvantage at building up female biceps because of the lack of testosterone. This can be overcome by using heavy protein supplements and increasing the weight of biceps exercises while decreasing the reps. This combination can be very effective in overcoming any natural disadvantages. Female biceps can be built up, but the heavy weight exercises and extra protein supplements are a necessary part of that.

Some female bodybuilders have been known to use hormones, but this is not a natural way of bodybuilding and like the use of steroids, can have harmful physiological effects. Hormones should not be used, especially when heavier weight training and major protein supplements are enough for female bodybuilders to get major female biceps that will hold up in any competition.

Train smartly, train safely, and let an appropriate diet and exercise regiment be your guide to building better female biceps, and you can not only accomplish your goals, but do it in a healthy way that you can be proud of.

[articlesbase.com]

sisco55 · #2 (**permalink**) 07-25-2009

Great post ..

**papertowel18** · #3 (**permalink**) 07-25-2009

Im DEFINITELY printing this out for my female clients!!! Thanks for the post millenium!

**IronpumpedLady** · #4 (**permalink**) 07-25-2009

I only agree with some of this article. Muscle growth occurs from putting a muscle or Muscles thru what's known as Progressive overload, so increasing the weight, reps, and sets will all have a positive impact on growth. Some experts create complicated plans that play around with weight, reps, and sets, increasing one while decreasing the others to constantly shock the body into growing. Keeping the sets and reps the same while just increasing weight will lead to growth but will focus more on developing muscular strength. Keeping the weight the same but doing more sets, or doing a few extra reps, may be more effective at stimulating growth for a few weeks, before a rise in weight is necessary. It is generally believed that with more than 15 repetitions per set, the weight will be too light to stimulate maximal growth.
An adequate supply of amino acids is essential to produce muscle hypertrophy. There are two different types of muscular hypertrophy: sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar (muscles also increase in size due to a small amount of hyperplasia but this contribution is minimal). During sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, the volume of sarcoplasmic fluid in the muscle cell increases with no accompanying increase in muscular strength. During myofibrillar hypertrophy, the myofibrils, comprised of the actin and myosin contractile proteins, increase in number and add to muscular strength as well as a small increase in the size of the muscle. Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is characteristic of the muscles of bodybuilders while myofibrillar hypertrophy is characteristic of weightlifters. Muscle hypertrophy due to strength training does not occur for everyone and is not necessarily well correlated with gains in actual muscle strength: it is possible for muscles to grow larger without becoming much stronger.

As for PRO consumption, as long as your intake allows your body to be in a state of "Positive Nitrogen balance," muscle growth will occur. Basically, a positive nitrogen balance means that you are in a state of anabolism or you are putting on some muscle. A negative nitrogen balance says that you are losing muscle. And if you are “in” nitrogen balance, it simply means you are neither losing nor gaining muscle.
For strength athletes, the RDA of protein is 1.2 -1.7 kg/bdy wt. Again these values are based on the “minimal” intake of protein required to attain nitrogen balance. Nitrogen balance is used commonly to measure protein requirements.

The RDA is defined as the “estimate of the minimum daily average dietary intake level that meets the nutrient requirements….” Though the term “recommended” clearly sounds like optimal, the RDA for protein is defined as the “minimum” amount of protein to prevent deficiency and not the optimal amount for health (.8 kg/bdy weight).
In fact, the recent Dietary Intake report recommends 10% -35% protein of daily energy intake for adults. Protein intake based on this 10-35% of energy levels is more than twice the current RDA of protein. Lately, there has been a growing consensus among nutritional experts that the current RDA of protein is clearly inadequate for optimum health & function.
There is no evidence of high protein to cause any sort of health concerns in people with normal renal function. And since there are studies which did show increase in strength & muscle with high protein, it is better to be on the higher end of protein.

40% of calorie intake is considered the cut off since beyond these levels it gets harder to get adequate amounts of fat and carbs. 40 % for an 80 kg athlete will be 3.75 g/kg.
It has been shown that your total energy or calorie intake can have a greater influence on muscle mass than just your protein intake. Simply put, if you are not eating enough calories, it is quite impossible to be in positive nitrogen balance and gain or even maintain muscle even with sufficient protein. You might have to go for higher protein to be in a positve balance.

My Protein intake and recommendation for muscle growth & strength: 2.75 - 3.25 g/kg of body weight (1.25 - 1.50 gm/lb of bodyweight).

To gain serious muscle, hover around the lower end.
To maintain muscle or gain some muscle on a diet, stick to the higher end.

Stay Strong~~!!!
IPL

**Lacy** · #5 (**permalink**) 08-02-2009

OK Ipl I was gonna say something along similiar lines,just not as defined as you

You know your stuff lady.Nice to see a lady lifter say this stuff from expirience rather than a textbook type article.

**IronpumpedLady** · #6 (**permalink**) 08-02-2009

Thats the bad thing about just (copy/Paste) posting up articles for the "sake of posting!!" The information may not be solid, as we see in this article!!! Which is too bad, because some depend on the info on here to learn from.

Thanks Lacy!!

Stay Strong~~!!!
IPL

**XTREME** · #7 (**permalink**) 08-02-2009

Great thread ladies!!!

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