The new year is quickly approaching and there are lots of new infomercials on TV touting the latest way to get in shape. Some have merit and others are simply a fad, but hey...anything is better than nothing. If something will get you active for “ten minutes a day” it will not get you in shape, but it could lead to more. You have to start somewhere and the ten minutes may be a real challenge when you begin but as your fitness level improves so should your level of activity.

Most of these infomercials are directed at women who want to lose weight. This is a billion dollar industry and when a company comes up with something new it will spend a lot of money advertising it before the novelty wears off. I have seen a few of these products recently that claim ten minutes a day to a slimmer you, without “bulking up”. They claim to lengthen and slenderize your muscles. What exactly is bulking up? Bulking up usually refers to gaining more weight and body mass and is used a lot in male weight-lifting circles.

For a woman starting an exercise program and good nutrition it should be of little concern. It is just extremely hard for a woman to gain any amount of muscle size from exercise. Even hard bodybuilding style training does not cause much of an increase in muscle size on a woman. We all have a genetic amount of muscle on our bodies that is dictated before birth. Guys can increase the size of those muscle cells by intense weight training and dietary practices. The size increase will happen because of the training, nutrition and higher levels of testosterone, a male hormone, circulating in the males body.

For a woman the same training and nutrition will cause the muscles to firm up, but the size will not happen because of the lack of testosterone. Granted, if a woman is really inactive and deconditioned and has lost some of her muscle mass, training will bring it back very quickly, and this is a good thing. When a woman comes to see me in the gym who wants to lose thirty, forty pounds or more and has concerns about bulking up I explain all the above to her. By gaining the excess body fat, she has already bulked up....and most would gladly trade it for a leaner, firmer, stronger, healthier physique. Make this the year to get in shape!