JJ Virgin explains why women fear lifting heavy will make them bulky. After 30, you lose fast-twitch muscle fibers that power sprints. In 40 years of coaching, Virgin says women who lift heavy get toned and strong, not bulky. She argues women are taught to shrink while men are encouraged to grow bigger.
We can't move as fast. In fact, they say that after the age of 30, only 1% of us will ever sprint again. And it's largely because we're just losing these, these fast-twitch fibers. And as I started to talk more about, you know, my experiment and what I was doing to increase my fast-twitch fibers and increase muscle, increase power. And I had women leaning in, ask me what I was doing. The biggest thing that I heard from them is, well, I don't want to do what you're doing because I don't want to— what do you think they said? I don't want to work hard. I don't want to prioritize myself. I don't want to get big. There you go. I don't want to get big. And, uh, and so it made me really double down into this idea of aging powerfully because I thought, you know what, first of all, in 40 years of working with people, I've never had someone work out, lift heavy weights, and get big. They get toned. They get defined, they get strong, but they don't get big per se. Right? And then I also thought, but you know what, women, we have played small our whole lives. We're shrinking. We're trying to make ourselves smaller, tinier. You look at the diet books and for the men, it's like, get bigger, stronger. And for the women, it's like, get smaller, tinier. I go, maybe it's time to get big and to show up stronger and to get powerful. Right? So that's kind of the double entendre of this aging powerfully.
