Lifting Heavy Won’t Make You Bulky… or Ruin Your Game! – BowlFit Tips

While there are so many great resources out there these days to learn about fitness and training programs, there still seem to be a few myths that linger around. One I would really like to debunk is this theory that lifting heavy with lower reps will make you “big” or “bulky” while performing sets of exercises with low weight and high reps is ideal for “toning”.

Low weight and high volume/repetitions is ideal for hypertrophy which is increasing muscle size. It can tone your postural muscles however phasic muscles will get bigger, this is the groundwork for body building. Meanwhile, doing heavy sets with low repetitions (say 3-4 sets with only 3 reps of squats at a high intensity of weight) is designed to build strength.

If you do that along with doubling your caloric intake THEN you are going to increase in size. However, if you are not on a diet designed to bulk, you are not going to get big or bulky but rather strong and lean. I most commonly hear this myth from women that claim they “just want to tone” so I want to set the record straight that lifting HEAVY will do just that. Ladies you simply do not have enough testosterone to get big and bulky from heavy lifting without supplementation, calories, and a high volume of training as in the case of women body builders.

Bottom line for bowlers: using a low rep and high intensity rep scheme to build strength IS recommended!!!

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About Heather –

Heather D’Errico MS, CSCS, CFSC, LMT

Heather began BowlFit in 2013 with the hope to provide awareness to bowlers about how crucial training off the lanes truly is. She has been an avid bowler her entire life competing as a collegiate bowler for Robert Morris University, assistant coaching at the University of Central Missouri, and now head coaches at Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, NY.

She obtained a master’s degree in kinesiology with an emphasis on exercise science and interned with the head strength coach at UCM. She became a certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) through NSCA shortly after graduation and began coaching athletes at Next Level Strength and Conditioning in Fairport, NY.

In October 2015 she received her certified functional strength coach certification and then went back to school in July 2016 for massage therapy. She is now a licensed massage therapist and runs a business called Restorative Bodywork in Rochester, NY that specializes in movement therapy and sports massage.

Heather has also been competing on the PWBA tour the last 3 seasons and continues to use her experiences as a competitive and professional bowler to create programs for bowlers. She enjoys the challenges of making programs specific to each bowler as every person needs to focus on different areas for their performance goals. With that said her training motto is “do no harm” and believes each program should most importantly make a bowler FEEL better and play with minimal injuries/pain.