Exercise without getting 'bulky'?

[renegade7]

I'm about a month into a new exercise regimen, and it's been working out great. It's mostly practice for intramural fencing, but I've also recently discovered a love for rock climbing. I've already lost about 8 pounds and gained a fair bit of muscle in the process.

I call this an exercise regimen, but honestly the reason I do it is that it's fun. However, I see some other guys who exercise a lot at the gym who have those huge bulging muscles and they look like hairless apes and it just looks gross, and I worry I might end up looking like that if I stay with it, which I plan to do because it's become pretty much a part of my daily routine by this point. I'm really enjoying getting back into shape, but I'd very, very much rather be slender and well-toned than "huge".

Is it at all possible to do that? How?

 

[sanquin]

Don't worry. It's actually really hard to get that kind of muscle mass unless you specifically train for increasing your muscles. Look at top rock climbers and such, you don't see them having huge arms right? But they can still relatively easily lift their entire body weight with just one arm.

Those hugely muscular guys probably either used 'supplements' for increasing muscle mass, were already naturally more muscular, or are doing a very strict muscle size increasing training.

 

[Batou667]

Exactly what Sanquin said. Becoming a human boulder doesn't happen overnight and it certainly doesn't happen by accident.

 

[Mr.Cynic88]

Higher weight, less reps = bulky muscle

Lower weight, more reps = less bulky, more toned muscle

And of course, consistent cardio. You don't see bulky distance runners.

 

[lechat]

<---- ex body builder
trust me it's basically impossible to build bulk without focusing exclusively on doing so or having a job which involves nothing but heavy lifting