Making progress w/out getting bigger??

[geness]

I have gained 17 pounds in the past five years of training. I assume that it is muscle because i went from being a jigly 114pds size 4 to weighing currently 131 and still wears a size four.

Here's the problem. I am happy with the amount of muscle that i now have and do not want to get any bigger. I still however would like to make progress. Is it possible to make gains interms of strenght and definition without getting any larger. If so what should i do?

Don't get me wrong I love muscle but i want to look more like the fitness models or competitors and if i get any larger I will be leaning towards looking more like a body builder. At 5'4 too much muscle tends to make me look bulky. Any suggestions?

 

[BrickGirl]

Round about whats your bodyfat?

 

[KBgrl]

I think that if you eat more cals..higher protein etc.. you can put on mass , which you dont want......so stay at maintance calories and keep training. you're not going to "get big" if you don't intentionally try to.

congrats on putting on some healthy pounds!

 

[wilson6]

ditto BG,

What's your bodyfat? For most women fat, not muscle is the big part of the bulk problem, but muscle is much easier to lose than fat and thus the justification for not wanting to get bigger ends up as not wanting to gain more muscle, not how do I lose fat to appear leaner.

W6

 

[geness]

I got hydrostatically weighted last year and I came in at eleven percent body fat. I was also not getting my period so I actually let myself gain a few pounds until it came back. According to the calipers I am around 14% or so , so fat covering my muscles is not that huge of an issue. Thanks for the replies. If I dropped my weight and did maybe 15-20 reps per set instead of my usual twelve, what do you think would happen?