That said, my husband is 6'2, now almost 185 – up from 165. Doing back/legs together the other day, we discovered that I can actually squat more than he, Roman lift too, and I can do more dips and pull-ups with less weight off-set. He's tall, lean, and can eat whatever he bloody well likes. I eat a burger and feel bloated for 3 days. Genetics are a real kick in the teeth sometimes! Both Ways!

Once I read something like, "Ladies: never be afraid to work out because you're scared of what others will think if they see you toned & lean. That's like being afraid to read in public because you're scared people will think you're a nerd. If you'd rather be fat & illiterate, go ahead with it. Me – I don't care what those people think!"

I was wondering how models and actresses seem to have boobs, butts, and be skinny at the same time. Is it a height thing with taller women being able to be skinny with assets? It seems like for most women, when they get really fit, they lose the majority of their breast size. As a short female, I am afraid of working out to much because I don't want to look like a little girl. Would intense cardio take a lot of the breast or does it depend on the person?

BTW, I absolutely love your site and I come here everyday to look at the articles!

-Jordan

New to the site, loving reading the posts and the feedback!

Wanted to comment on the height post here, as I've been a lumbering giant for a good portion of my life. (25 now, have been 6'3 since I was 17 or so.)

I definitely think that the height has something to do with strength in certain lifts, and the way that muscle gains look on a taller person compared to a shorter one. That latter has been a obsticle for me for years now. Being so tall, and having a ridiculously high metabolism, i've never been able to gain muscle and, consistently keep it. (The heaviest i've ever weighed was 172lbs, and I would say that majority of that was fat and not muscle anyways).

Rusty, or anyone else for that matter, do you have any suggestions for me to stick to so I can continue to gain muscle (I want to get to the 175-185 range) while staying lean? Just don't want to turn into that 'skinny fat' guy!

Cheers!

to increase muscle mass you will need progressive overload. lifting dumbbells that fit on a key chain just won't cut it. i never lift more than 5 reps and when going heavy 2 – 3 reps. if you are lifting more than 3 reps your are not recruiting enough muscle fiber. when you recruit 80% of all your muscle to do a curl you know you're putting in the right amount of effort.

at 115 lbs a 5% bf reduction (25% bf to 20% bf) is 5.75 lbs of stored energy (fat). i know exactly what you mean, adding muscle is not easy. You can add more muscle but that will not address the flab issue. you need to bite the bullet and shed more weight which is harder when you are that close to your goal. when i say weight i mean fat. we all want to hold onto our muscle (lean mass). as we age our ability to add muscle goes down (hormones). you can create a favorable anabolic environment to maximize your muscle building capability by controlling blood glucose, getting solid sleep, resistance training and certain amino acids. fat and muscle are different tissue and they require different strategies.

I totally believe that. I've been heavy most of my life. For years I was caught up in the mantra of the ironheads. "Just add muscle and it will up your metabolism to maintain itself and you'll burn all that excess fat. Stay away from cardio, just add muscle". BullSh!t. I never lost weight until I did cardio. There are a whole host of fat burning enzymes that increase when you do cardio that you don't get from just lifting and as you say muscle is very efficient and doesn't need many calories.

Why does this myth of muscle being the end all be all to losing weight still exist? Is it just perpetuated by 300 lb powerlifters that hate cardio?

http://www.vincedelmontefitness.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/exile-swede1.jpg
http://dbz495.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/supersaiyans.jpg
http://dbz495.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/goku.jpg
http://islampoetry.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/superman-flying.jpg
All achieve the angular look, dbz looking a too angular lol, and superman could use bigger legs and bigger traps. Of course, their looks are probably impossible to achieve but that's my goal. So my question is would you know how to gain a lot of muscle mass (say 190 6-8% bf at 5'10) but still achieve that angular look? thank you so much for any tips.