Does lifting weights make women bulky?
No, and the physiology is straightforward: building large amounts of muscle requires a large calorie surplus, years of consistent training, and hormonal conditions most women do not have. What resistance training actually does for women is increase strength, preserve bone density — which matters a great deal given how common osteoporosis is in Indian women — improve insulin sensitivity, and change body composition in the direction most people are actually after. The women who look muscular are training specifically and deliberately for that outcome. It does not happen by accident from three sessions a week.
Answers
It took me a year of lifting to accept this was true rather than something people say to be encouraging.
The bone density argument is the one that convinced my mother to start at 58.