Pauline Nordin - Building Muscle Mass!

[webmaster]

There is a lot of bad information out there on the subject building muscle and how to stay fit. We're being told over and over again about how difficult it is for women to gain some muscle mass due to our hormonal setup. Learn how to finally gain muscle mass women!

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/pauline5.htm

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[davidgalanis]

Good article, but the only thing I would change is, you say for a postworkout shake to have protein/dextrose and L-glutamine and Creatine. The reason I am saying you should change this is because you shouldn't mix L-glutamine and Creatine together. They both use the same receptors for transport to the muscles, so by taking both together, one would be cancelling the other out. But other than that, it's an excellent article!

I just read Pauline's article 'Building Muscle Mass'. I just wanted to say thank you. You article was straight forward and written FOR WOMEN. I know alot out there is written for men but can be applied to women but I just love to read it from a woman's perspective.

I'm trying to add mass right now and I'm researching all the information I can right now. I'm lifting heavy and loving it! I'm now trying to tweak my eating to help with my gains.

I just found bodybuilding.com today and this was the first article I've read. I see there is MUCH MORE to read and I can't wait to dig into it.

THANK YOU!
Angie (from Kansas)

That was a good and informative article. However, there were a few questions I had ...

"Considering yourself training heavy since you do 8-12 reps? Well, scale down to 4-6 and you're good to go. The kind of muscle fibres that yield the greatest power are also those who grow the most. The only way to stimulate growth is working within the power zone which is 3-6 reps per set. Heavier weights equals bigger muscles!"
Relating to this comment, I definitely agree with lifting heavy but 3-6 reps seems very low. Everything I have read says that training in the 6-12 rep range is good for hypertrophy, and lower reps than that focus on strength rather than mass. I disagree with the statement that heavier weights equals bigger muscles - powerlifters may be able to lift a hell of a lot of weight but professional bodybuilders have much more muscle mass.
This article is aimed at women, but why would the rules about the hypertrophic/power zones (ie rep range) be different for women? Can anyone comment on this?

All the other advice was sound though, but I would be interested to see if anyone else thought the same thing about the rep ranges.

Finally! An article that tells women not only that it is possible to build muscle mass, but also how to do it. I have been searching on the internet for how to build muscle mass if you are a woman and all I get are articles and websites on how it is not possible to gain muscle mass because a woman's hormones won't permit it. Most of these sites and articles are assuming that there are no women out there that want to build mass or want to be strong. Well, thanks so much for this article. I recently joined a gym to build muscle mass (I intend to be the next Bev Francis) and I would hate to think that my money was wasted at the gym because I am a woman as other articles have suggested.

To respond to the comment about the low number of reps, yes 3-6 does seem low, however, I assumed this was included because the number of reps that most women perform is usually in the high number, and perhaps this was to give women the idea that less is more. I would agree that 8-12 is probably best, but once you can do 12 at a certain weight then it is time to move up. Still, doing 3-6 reps with very heavy weights is probably going to build more mass than 12 reps with a lighter weight.