I joined the gym last winter for a year, due to knee spurs that prevented me from doing my aerobic exercise on a staionary bicycle. One thing those hulking coaches down at the gym never mention, was the stretching that is necessary to re-lengthen the muscles after the weight lifting. I've learned the stretches in factory ergonomics training, besides the ones built into the US Army daily dozen used since WW I. I do them before weightlifting, but nobody else down there does, and coach said those were "stupid waste of time".
I would imagine that I, at age 63, could have run rings around those gym coaches with their mega muscles. For certain, my younger relative, who grew up a karate/martial arts fan, who could do 100 pushup, failed the US Army physical training test in the ROTC camp. He was not flexible enough to run the two mile test fast enough. Nor could he regain his flexibility in the 6 weeks duration of the camp.
Those gym coaches were promoting maximum weight for 5 to 8 reps, then a rest, then maximem weight again for 5 or 8 more reps. this apparently builds the maximum muscle mass. I doesn't do a **** thing for the heart, IMHO. I commenced my own training program of donig 25 reps on all the machines, only as much weight as I could do that many reps of. I eventually built up to 30 reps, and 150 on the rowing machine to extend my heart rate >130 over 25 minutes. Read Dr Cooper's Aerobics about the benefits of aerobic exercise. At age 64, my heart and lungs are in great shape despite hereditary high blood pressure and type II diabetes commencing in my late fifties. My chloresterol and trigliceride numbers are down below norms, too. I did get stronger arms chest and back at the gym, eventually building up my arm muscles enough where I could crank an arm machine for 25 minutes with heart rate of 120-150. When I first joined the gym, my arm muscles weren't big enough to run my heart over 110, since I bicycle all warm months.
As far as building visible muscles, look on the internet for muscled women. They can build as much muscle as they want, it has got nothing to do with hormones. I've built some significant muscles since joining, and at my age the pain in my joints is proof positive that my testosterone is the normal half or third the level it was in my twenties. BTW I don't find healthy women unattracitve even if they are stronger or taller or bigger in hips chest orms or legs than I am. Relationships are not wrestling contests and knowing somebody stronger than me would be an advantage in many life situations, like moving pianos. I'm not very big, and am built more like a native long distance runner than a weightlifter, but I do lift weights and do resistance bands to be all I can be.
So anyway, as a pianist, do the stretches in the ergonomics text at different times from your weight workouts. Particularly the wrist bendback ones, and the finger limber exercises, recommended for factory workers.
One recently learned tip, for allmy weightlifting I tore a rotator cuff two years ago helping a relative move. I did not jerk anything and only slid the hidabed around, I didn't lift it. The pilates arm exercises I learned on Body Electric, nor anything I did at the gym, did not build up my rotator cuff sufficiently. After 20 months of trying to heal on my own, I visited the orthopedic surgeon last month. The exercises to build a rotator cuff use resistance bands and are not like anything I have seen anywhere else. I'm doing them on both sides now, so I can maybe build up the untorn rotator cuff, in addition to the torn one. They are both equally weak, despite my other weight training - I'm on the yellow band now, the weakest one, and after 10 days am just building up to the required 20 reps. So look those exercises up, torn rotator cuffs are a serious problem in people that move pianos or anything similar.
Topic: Would weightlifting affect my playing?