I often get questions from women asking how to “lengthen” instead of “bulking” so I wanted to break down some common misconceptions around these words to help give you knowledge and freedom to strengthen and sculpt your body using the right tools.
Now, because there’s so much to share regarding this subject, I’m going to break it down for you in two parts.
In this post, we will clarify the word and idea of “lengthening”. We will also go over “bulkophobia” and all that entails this subject.
When I first began my pilates practice in 2010, I noticed people in the industry saying things like “pilates lengthens your muscles”.
For the longest time I went about believing that pilates actually changed the length of my muscles and body—meaning, it made me “1/2” taller.
Were these people lying? Had they led me to believe something that wasn’t true?
Well, after many years of practicing and furthering my studies on the science of exercise, I finally understood what these people were actually referring to by “lengthen”. It turns out these people weren’t lying, I just had misunderstood and the same thing is happening with many others.
So here’s what us pilates teacher mean when we say “lengthen”:
First of all, I should clarify that there is no way to change the actual physical structure of your muscles and body in terms of length. You can only be as long as your body is meant to be from the moment you are born.
In pilates, there are 2 ways in which us teacher use the word “lengthen” when teaching.
1.Stretch- To lengthen your foot to the ceiling when you leg is vertical causes your hamstring muscle to “stretch/lengthen”.
2.Make firm- The motion of lengthening a muscle during exercise creates firmness or tautness so you’re not moving dead body weight through space but rather strong firm muscles.
There are 2 ways in which we can create length in our muscles while contracting. Actually, one of them is just about maintaining the integrity of the muscle’s original length-isometric muscle motion.
*Isometric contraction- “muscle tension is created without change in muscle length and no visible movement of the joint.” – NASM
The other one is about stretching the muscle while contracting- eccentric muscle motion.
*Eccentric muscle action- “A muscle action that occurs when a muscle develops tension while lengthening.”- NASM
The more muscles we activate during movement through external resistance or active engagement(making them firm), the more calories we burn and the better neuromuscular connection we create.
Moving this way makes our workouts that much more efficient. Maintaining all of our muscles firm thus respecting the integrity of the muscles’s original length will result in us appearing longer or taller, if you will.
But in fact, we’re actually just embracing our true length rather than allowing gravity and poor posture shrink us down.
And so this is one of the many reasons pilates is known for helping improve our posture as well as help us build longer looking muscles.
Yes, it strengthens our core and upper back muscles but it also teaches us how to move gracefully and with purpose.
So in conclusion, yes; pilates does lengthen your muscles by teaching you how to embrace their true length. The only way you’re going to get taller is through good posture and as we know, pilates is the #1 method for this.
Now, are you concerned with bulking when doing certain types of workouts?
This is probably the #1 concern for most women who reach out to me for guidance. I get multiple daily messages from women expressing their fear around bulking up in their thighs when working out with weights or when doing certain exercises such as squats or lunges.
So I decided it would be a good idea to break down the term “bulking” and unmask the misconceptions of what I now call, “bulkophobia”.
BULKOPHOBIA– the fear around developing “too much” muscle mass or increase in circumference of certain muscles such as the thighs, glutes, arms, etc.
The desire to build “lean muscle” without bulking is common and understandable. I too want to build lean muscles.
So after much reflection on this subject, it occurred to me that not everyone’s definition of “lean” is the same.
In the fitness industry and for those who have studied the science of exercise, to be “lean” means to have higher muscle mass per fat ratio regardless of overall body mass. Often times this involves muscular hypertrophy.
Hypertrophy– enlargement of total muscle mass.
For others, “lean muscles” means, to tone the muscles without causing hypertrophy(enlargement) and/or overall low body mass.
But is it possible to build “lean muscle mass” without causing hypertrophy?
Technically, to build muscle requires us to change our overall body composition to greater muscle per fat ratio.
We cannot have lean muscle if we don’t BUILD muscle. In order to create muscle definition, we have to build muscle and burn fat. It is much easier to burn fat the more muscle we have.
So you do have to increase muscle mass in order to achieve the “lean muscle mass” you’re looking for and often times this involves some form of hypertrophy even if it’s minimal. But this does not mean you have to increase your overall body mass. Unless this is your goal.
If you’re trying to avoid excessive hypertrophy, you have to find the right training formula for your body.
It is not possible to cause major hypertrophy over night which seems to be the concern with many women who reach out saying “my legs get bulky when I do lunges, squats, or use weights”.
Keep in mind that I’m not negating the possibility that if you were only lifting heavy weights for a certain amount of time, that this could have possibly made you bulkier than desired. This was perhaps not the right formula for YOU.
But typically it takes time/years, consistent heavy weight training(5-6x a week), and a specific diet to create permanent muscle enlargement.
Now, if you just feel like sporadic workouts that include weights, lunges, or squats are bulking you, this is most likely not the case.
So what is actually happening to our muscles after certain workouts with weights, squats, or lunges? Why do we feel like we’re suddenly puffy or as if we have bulked?
You’re most likely experiencing…
Post-Exercise Induced Inflammation– this acute inflammation is our bodies’ natural response to high intensity exercise or even too much exercise. This is part of the repair process after breaking down muscle tissue during exercise.
You should not be experiencing this after all workouts. Only after high intensity routines involving high impact, power based moves, and/or weights.
It is temporary and should go away after a day or two.
So if you’re experiencing this all the time there’s a great chance you’re not properly resting, nurturing your body, or are over exercising. This will result in prolonged inflammation of the muscle tissue causing you to feel like you’re bulking but in reality, your body is having a hard time recovering.
Ways you can assist your body in repairing the muscles:
1.Rest
2.Proper nutrition-consuming a balanced whole foods that includes protein, carbohydrates, and good fats(carbohydrates help with muscle recovery).
3.Have a balanced routine that involves strength and endurance training(mix of pilates, weights, cardio) and doesn’t neglect any form of training- that is, if you want to achieve tone and leanness without hypertrophy.
The key is in figuring out the right formula for us. We’re all different, have different body types that thrive more on some forms of training than in others.
Some of us will build muscle more easily than others. Personally, I do. This is why for ME, the right formula involves more pilates than weights but I still need some weights for the following reasons.
As we get older, not only does it become harder to build and maintain muscle but our skins change. That’s right! We lose collagen and elasticity and our skins begin to soften making our muscles appear less firm.
So one thing I’ve learned is that lifting weights actually tightens up my skin giving me firm muscles.
Weight lifting helps speed up our metabolism increasing calorie burn for hours post-workout, help increase bone density, and strengthen larger muscle groups to assist in functional everyday movements.
All up until my early 30s, I used to be convinced I didn’t need weights to get results. And while you can still achieve amazing results with just body weight workouts using bands and other props, truth is, once I hit my mid 30s I realized what a huge impact weights made on my body.
This is why I love incorporating weights into some of my pilates workouts and have been doing this since I created the VB METHOD in 2019.
Adding weights to the elongating movements practiced in pilates is the perfect combination to create lean toned muscles and a fully functional body.
So if you’re trying to build lean toned muscle without causing excessive hypertrophy, you have to experiment and figure out what formula works for you and stick to that. That formula is bound to change as we age as well.
Try incorporating a consistent variety but don’t be too quick to completely take out weights or certain movements because you feel it made you bulked. Remember, this doesn’t happen that quickly and what you’re most likely experiencing is post exercise induced inflammation.
With a little rest and the right nutrition, you’ll see your body and muscles return to their norm.
xo,
Vilmaliz
#VBFITMETHOD
Share Post