I do think it's funny that people are dissing my observations (as red herrings) about me and others with sensitive testosterone receptors.
Blood tests show I'm in the normal testosterone range for a woman. I have more receptors for it as I used to have cystic acne as well. I still have oily skin, which means I have no wrinkles, and my skin is pretty elastic, so I'm glad now even though I have some scarring.
I like driving fast, I'm comfortable with risk, am good at maths, work in a science engineering field, and bulk up very quickly, so quickly that I have to wear stretchy shirts, and sometimes have to buy knitted type clothes, rather than woven tailoring.
My muscle popping isn't a quick temporary increase thing due to water. I actually stay bulked up, so I do build muscle if I lift heavy weights.
I like Iyengar yoga too, and build long lean muscle from this, and ballet- though I get massive square shaped thigh muscles from barre work in ballet.
I like yoga and Pilates as it stretches out the muscle fibres so I'm not muscle bound and popping.
Cardio gets my weight down, and swimming gives an overall slender silhouette as all the little muscles are used, not just the external ones.
I often do Pilates type exercise in the pool, and enjoy a Zumba class.
I find I have to watch that I don't eat too much protein if I don't want to bulk up, and will eat complex carbs, like beans, chickpeas, lentils and squash, brown rice, quinoa and oats during the week, rather than animal protein if I want to drop weight.
If I eat eggs, meat, fish and a lot of dairy I build more muscle, so if I'm eating meat or fish, I watch my protein amount doesn't go over 70g per day.
I think weights are important to lift, for bone health and general strength, and wouldn't recommend anyone pisses about with the really light ones, but sometimes, if you're body is sensitive to your testosterone, you don't need to lift really heavy ones.
in Iyengar yoga where poses are held and strength is required, (and just doing sun salutations A and B where you're using your own body weight to do planks, head stands and push ups), that is enough to bulk up if you're sensitive to your testosterone. My shoulders and upper body get massive from inverted poses.
If you're not that sensitive to your testosterone, I'm sure lifting heavy weights will build muscle, but you won't bulk up.
A blanket saying "women don't bulk up if they lift weights" is piffle IME.
OP hiit is best done in a gym IMO where you have someone teaching it... for the first while anyway. It also might be an idea to get a heart rate monitor, and calculate how high your heart rate* should go, before you need to rest and bring it down again. That's the overall plan of the hiit- there is a little rest interval for your heart to normalise between each move.
*There is a formula for that taking in such factors as age, weight / BMI and fitness. I can't remember it exactly, but you could google it. HTH