Should women, who do not want to gain mass, skip the hypertrophy? My girlfriend and I started together on Lifter#1 program but she has concerns about moving to hypertrophy after FL-II.
My experience has been that, even with a hypertrophy program, if I'm in a calorie deficit, I won't gain as much muscle mass. Is she still wanting to lose weight/body fat or is she just not wanting to gain mass?
Other than simply not liking the program because I have some serious issues with rep ranges over 6, I didn't have any problems doing it while at a deficit. For me it's about calories eaten and expended, not the workout I do... at least when it comes to losing/gaining weight/muscle/fat. Hard to gain when you don't give your body anything to use to put any weight on.
I don't have any problems when I'm eating maintanence, either. I just tend to swap a bit of unsighly jiggle for something a bit more meaty.
At 125 eating maintanence or slightly under, I never gained a pound on any program I did, regardless of rep range or it's name. *shrug*
I did get some rockin arms/ass/legs/etc... and was down to about 17-18%bf... but no "bulking" at all.
Considering she's a girl and we tend to have a smidge less T than the boys do, unless she already knows she may get bulky (my legs will if I'm not careful with my eating), she shouldn't have any problems so long as she's not eating at a surplus, I'd think.
Plus, there's no harm in trying. Pics and measurements before hand. If she finds after a couple weeks that she's gaining inches or something, then she may want to adjust something. If she's the same or smaller and just more defined, I wouldn't imagine there'd be much of a problem.
There have been several women on this forum who have experienced undesireable (to them) lower body hypertrophy, even on a caloric deficit.
However, if she hasn't already gotten bigger from FLI, II, or III (which have been the offending programs for unwanted growth), she might be just fine on a hypertrophy program, as long as she is still eating to lose fat.
Even if she starts to get bigger, she can just stop. Bulky takes time. Lots of it (I'd like to be bulky. Still waitin')
But, if she doesn't want to get bigger, why do a hypertrophy program, specifically, at all?
Do you guys actually work out together? So, you're looking for a program that works for both of you?
I did HT-1 and gained approx 5 inches across my butt area and if I remember a good inch on each thigh. I ate at a below maintence numbers and still gained, lucky for me I gained in the upper body too so I stayed looking symmetrical. If you put 100% into it HT-1 will give you results. Remember though that you will most likely have to buy new clothes so just keep that in mind.
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Women and hypertrophy
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