So, I've been doing the NROL4W for over 2 months- just started stage 3. Despite the author's assurances that it's really hard to build muscle mass, and women lack the testosterone to get big, I've developed significant size increases (like, over 2") in upper arm girth. Since I've lost over 5 pounds in this same period of time (totally ignoring all the advice in the book about eating at least 1600-1700 cal/day, and keeping my daily calories to ~1300), as well as from the appearance/shape of my deltoids, biceps, pecs etc, I'm entirely certain that this is muscle gain, not fat.
So I did some online searching and found this:
http://www.leighpeele.com/bulky-musc...the-definition and this:
http://www.leighpeele.com/bulky-musc...-part-deux. It basically states that the assertions of Lou Schuler are false. I don't know why this came as such a shock to me, considering all the women "figure athletes" (what a horrible term) and competitive bodybuilders out there. I guess I just assumed that any woman who had "man muscles" was taking steroids. Wrong. It is apparently quite possible to "look like a man while working out like a woman
.
So, while I certainly appreciate any form of exercise that allows me to lose fat while maintaining lean muscle mass, I may need to switch back to lighter weights with more reps, or switch to body-weight resistance exercise routines. Have others of you had this dilemma? Are all of you on this particular board aiming for the "figure athlete" look? If not, what are you doing to avoid getting 15" biceps?