A Bulking Workout Plan For Women

A bulking workout plan for women is not dissimilar to a bulking workout plan for men. What differs, usually, but not always, is the muscle groups targeted in the bulk.

What your bulking workout plan looks like depends a lot on which muscles you want to build. If you’re new to bulking, we suggest that you start with a bulking plan that targets all muscle groups, or a wide range of muscle groups. If you’re more experienced, you may decide that this bulk is going to focus on your chosen selection of muscle groups.

Stick around, because here you will find a bulking solution for both options, plus a solution to help you confidently build your own bulking workout plans in the future.

A Bulking Workout Plan For Women Contents

What Does A Bulking Workout Plan For Women Look Like

What Is The Bulking Method

How A Bulking Workout Plan Will Benefit You

Bulking Workouts Come Before Cutting

Choosing Your Bulking Workout Plan

A Free Bulking Workout For Women

A Bulking Workout Plan For Beginners

A Bulking Workout Plan For Intermediate Lifters

DIY Bulking Workout

Eat As You Bulk

Reps/Sets And Rest

Never Stop Progressing

Bulk Independently With Lipstick Lifters

Over 5000 Fiercely Gym Independent Women And Counting

Bulking Workout Plans For Women FAQ’s

What Does A Bulking Workout Plan For Women Look Like

It’s important to note that a bulking workout is not just a matter of what exercises you include in your plan, it is a matter of how you perform the exercises you choose, based on the muscles you want to bulk.

In short; bulking is a method of weight lifting, not a specific workout plan. You can combine any weight lifting exercises to make your bulking plan.

It is true that you should prioritise the larger compound exercises, this is because these are the exercises where you will move the most weight. But you should also include isolation exercises in your bulk. Also, when bulking, you will want to use a high volume low rep method, because this is the secret to building mass during this phase.

What Is The Bulking Method

A bulking workout is a matter of working a plan that will help you build as much muscle as possible in a relatively short period of time. Your bulking phase should last between 6-12 weeks and should be focused on high volume, low rep lifts.

Bulking also requires you to eat in a calorie surplus. This is something we know a lot of women struggle with, especially when using the bulking and cutting method, because more often than not in this instance, the long term goal is to drop body fat. It can seem like a paradox, but it is a tried, tested and proven method, the results speak for themselves.

How A Bulking Workout Plan Will Benefit You

Bulking is a matter of building as much lean muscle as possible in a relatively short period of time (up to 12 weeks max). During your bulking workout, you will be working with an amount of weight that really pushes your limits.

Your bulk benefits you in a number of ways:

More lean muscle

The most obvious and appealing factor of bulking is that it results in more lean muscle, which is exactly what women want from their bulking workout plan.

Boosted metabolism

One often overlooked benefit of the additional lean muscle you build during your bulk is the boost in your metabolism. The more lean muscle you have, the more energy your body burns at rest.

This subject has been covered in detail in this article: Strength Training For Fat Loss.

Get stronger

While the bulking method of training isn’t the ideal approach to building overall functional strength, you do get stronger from your bulking workout plan as a byproduct of it.

Increased bone density

You may not notice this benefit directly, but your bone density is improving with all of your weight lifting workout plans. Your older self will appreciate this further down the line.

Bulking Workouts Come Before Cutting

If you have a fat loss goal, it can be tempting to do the cut first, but you should know that you will be doing yourself a long term disservice if you attempt to cut first.

The exception to this is if you have a substantial amount of body fat to lose, in this instance, you may benefit from a more general workout plan and approach to your diet. You can always come back to this method further down the line, in fact, you should come back to this method.

For women who specifically want to build more lean muscle for the purpose of altering your physique and your body composition, you should do your bulk first. No amount of cutting will reveal a physique you haven’t built underneath. It’s important that you understand that now, because if you focus on cutting all the way down without doing the bulk first, you risk muscle atrophy (muscle wastage), and that will be harder to bounce back from.

Choosing Your Bulking Workout Plan

If this is your first bulk we recommend you choose an all-round bulking plan to target as many muscle groups as possible, with a combination of both compound and isolation exercises. Your objective should be to familiarise yourself with the bulking process.

With experience you can tailor your bulking workout plans to target the muscles you specifically want to work on.

A Free Bulking Workout For Women

Below you will find a general bulking plan to get you started; begin by performing 5 heavy sets of 8 reps of each exercise.

You should train your biggest challenge first, which is usually the bigger compound exercises, working your way down through barbells, dumbbells, assisted machines/cables, and finally, bodyweight exercises.

As a side note; what you are doing here is building muscle, not endurance, so speed is not important; good, clean, quality and loaded reps are. Make sure you get sufficient rest in order to perform the next heavy set fully, but avoid taking more rest than is necessary.

Day 1

Barbell Back Squat

Barbell lunge

Hip thrusts or Glute bridges (barbell)

Leg press

Calf raises (machine)

Day 2

Pull up (assisted if necessary)

Deadlift

Rack pulls

T-bar rows

Lat pulldown

Day 3

Bench press

Dumbbell chest fly

Dumbbell shoulder press

Triceps dips

Lateral raises

For a more structured bulking workout plan, with video demonstrations of each exercise, see your options below…

A Bulking Workout Plan For Beginners

For female beginners, you can use the free workout plans we have available in our Members Zone portal. There is a 4 day split that you can rotate on the days you have available to lift.

Free Workout Plans Available In Members Zone

1 x Back, Shoulders & Triceps Workout Plan

1 x Boobs & Biceps Workout Plan

1 x Bum & Thighs Workout Plan

1 x Legs Workout Plan

Sign up free for instant access >>>

A Bulking Workout Plan For Intermediate Lifters

Intermediate lifters can also use the above free plans. You may want to up the ante by lifting heavier and reducing the number of reps proposed by the above plan. Or you can use the advanced rep/set range proposed by the plan in our portal.

DIY Bulking Workout

If you have an idea in mind as to which muscle groups you want to work on, you may wish to put your own plan together. We can help you do this in a couple of ways:

Free exercise database

You can hand pick your exercises from our free exercise database. Exercises are broken down by muscle group, so just select which muscle groups you want to target and choose your exercises.

Note that this is not an extensive list of weightlifting exercises. We will continue to add to it, but it is a good starting point for most.

Members Zone

In our Members Zone portal we currently have over 130 individual plans across 19 different workout categories made up of over 200 individual exercises, with video demonstrations, offering you unlimited bulking workout combinations for your gym independence.

You can learn more about Members Zone here.

Eat As You Bulk

You can’t bulk and starve at the same time. Therefore, in addition to your lifting performance, your bulking workout requires you to consume quality calorie dense foods. This is so that you can perform at your best.

If you’re unsure how many calories you need; use the weight gain calories provided by our macro calculator as a guide to get you started on your bulking workout.

Reps/Sets And Rest

During your bulking phase you should aim to perform somewhere between 4-6 sets of 3-8 reps. Your sets should be loaded to the point that you start to struggle with the weight towards the last 2 reps. Between your loaded sessions you can also work in some mid weight sessions for balance.

Obviously when lifting hard and heavy your muscles will need sufficient rest between workouts. Rest is especially important for recovery and growth, so don’t skip the rest phase. Judge your rest requirements on how you feel. Trust what your body is telling you, and if you feel exhausted, take a break. Leave your ego behind, it’s not worth it. In addition to affecting your performance, overtraining can also result in an injury which could see you out of the gym for far more than a couple of days.

Never Stop Progressing

Everybody started somewhere and nobody ever started knowing everything. This is a process and provided you continue to strive for progress, you are heading in the right direction.

No matter what bulking workout plan you work with, you should adjust your plan as well as your reps/sets according to your progression. Keep working from reliable resources so that you can make more informed decisions, and remember that consistent effort will pay off.

Since you're a woman looking for a bulking workout plan, you might be interested in our selection of volume training workout plans and muscle growth workout plans as well as several other weight lifting workout plans for women.

Bulk Independently With Lipstick Lifters

Learn As You Lift

As you work through the free plans in our Members Zone portal, pay attention to how the workout is structured, you can use this method to build your own workout plans in the future.

Lipstick Lifters has everything you need to become completely gym independent, meaning you’ll be able to use our portal to build your own workout plans for all phases, and then as you gain more experience, you’ll be able to build your plans from scratch. You can learn more about that here.

Naturally this comes with a learning curve, and that’s exactly what we teach here at Lipstick Lifters. Once you create your free account, you’ll get instant access to our workout plans and you’ll be added to our mailing list where we will send you a free gym independence guide and regular emails with valuable information that will support your long term lifting goals.

Over 5000 Fiercely Gym Independent Women And Counting

Lipstick Lifters has helped over 5000 women worldwide become completely gym independent. From everyday weightlifters, to bodybuilders and powerlifters.

We can help you too. There is a ton of valuable and free content on our website.

Want more workout plans? See here!

Want weightlifting exercise ideas? See here!

Want detailed and valuable weightlifting related content? See here!

Need to calculate macros, BMR, TDEE, your one rep max, or your reverse diet calories? See our free calculators here!

Looking for fresh gym gear so you can look your best? See here!

Bulking Workout Plans For Women FAQ’s

Is bulking suitable for women?

Absolutely. Bulking is suitable for all women who want to build their physique. Keep in mind that bulking is a fast track method to building lean muscle and should be used in cycles. You shouldn’t train this way all the time.

How does bulking differ from cutting?

Bulking is building muscle, cutting is cutting fat. You can learn more about bulking and cutting separately and combined in this article.

What are the benefits of a bulking workout plan for women?

A good bulking workout plan is a woman's fast track to building muscle. You will also get stronger, boost your metabolism and increase your bone density.

Longer term, after you cut, you will find that you reveal a leaner physique than you otherwise would have had you not done the bulking first.

Will bulking make women look bulky or masculine?

One bulking phase isn’t going to cause any drastic physical changes. Bulking is something that you cycle in weight lifting, you don’t just do it once.

No woman ever has achieved a muscular physique by accident, it takes consistent and intentional effort to build lean muscle.

Women do not have the same testosterone levels as men do, so no, you will not end up looking masculine, unless you are using some substance that boosts your testosterone levels.

How do I determine my bulking goals and objectives?

This is a really great question and one that every woman should think about at some point.

As we mentioned above in this article, if this is your first bulk, keep it general, target a wide range of muscle groups. Your objective in your early bulking phases should be to familiarise yourself with the process and get really good at lifting the heavier weights.

With experience you should start to set some specific goals and objectives for your bulk, these should be in line with the muscle groups you want to grow. So think about what you want your physique to look like, which muscles are you content with and which do you want to build? Focus your bulking sessions on the muscle groups you want to build.

That’s not to say you should completely neglect other muscle groups, still work them, but perhaps not with bulking intensity. It’s important to work all muscle groups as they will contribute towards your overall strength and power.

What exercises should women focus on during a bulking workout plan?

Always prioritise your compound lifts that move the most weight, do at least one big compound move in your bulking workout. After that you should focus on a combination of compound and isolation barbell, dumbbell, cable and machine exercises that target the muscles you want to grow.

How many days per week should I dedicate to bulking workouts?

We recommend at least 3-4 bulking workouts per week. Remember that you’re going hard in these workouts and your body needs time to recover, so take your rest days. Avoid doing more than 5 bulking workouts per week.

What should I eat to support my bulking efforts?

You should eat real whole foods in a calorie surplus. See our Macro Calculator if you want to get your daily recommendations for your bulking phase.

How do I track progress and make adjustments to my bulking plan?

Tracking your bulking progress is simple, if you’re lifting more, you’re getting stronger and building more muscle. Keep a note of how much weight you are lifting with each workout.

Avoid making unnecessary adjustments to your bulking workout plan. You need consistency, so once you choose your plan, stick with it for at least 6 weeks and at most 12 weeks.

The only time you should make adjustments during this period is if something is too easy or is causing you any physical discomfort. What adjustment you make depends entirely on what’s happening. We can support this as part of our annual subscription to Members Zone.

When the time comes for you to do your next bulk, you should assess which muscle groups you want to target and put together a new bulking workout plan from there.

Is it possible to bulk without gaining excess body fat?

A little excess body fat comes with the territory of bulking. You can minimise this by keeping your bulking diet clean. But don’t try to reduce your calories in your bulking phase, you need those to perform and support your recovery process, which is what results in building the muscle as intended in this phase.

Excess body fat will be taken care of in your cut, and with the additional lean muscle built in your bulk, the cutting will benefit from your boosted metabolism.

Are there any potential risks or drawbacks to bulking for women?

The biggest risk is injury, either from lifting too heavy, or lifting with incorrect form. Master your form first, do not load any exercise you are not performing properly. As soon as you are happy that you have good form, add weight incrementally.

Can I get more support with my bulking workout plans?

You can. Our annual subscription to Members Zone comes with dedicated online support. This means we can help guide you for as long as you need. If you have any questions about this, email us: Members@lipsticklifters.com