Do squats reduce hips and outer thighs?

Hi, CathyP! What squats using weight do is strengthen the quadriceps, hamstrings and gluteals, and build shaping mass in those areas. Squats normally do not recruit the abductors (the muscles that are found along the outside of the hip and thigh) except as stabilizers.

In order to strengthen the abductors, you can do standing or side-lying long-leg raises out to the side, making sure you don't let the leg turn out or up, and working so that you feel the tension in the side of the buttock and outside of the thigh rather than the back of the buttock, hamstring or quad.

It is a common misconception that one can spot-reduce fat stores in a given body area, which is what I believe your question truly is. In order to "reduce saddle bags and trim outer thighs", what you will want to do is maintain a progressively intense cardio program and progressively intense strengthening program, and maintain a good nutritious "clean" diet.

It's helpful to remember the following: THAT we store fat is a combination of genetics and lifestyle; WHERE we store fat in entirely genetically predetermined.

Hope this helps -

Annette
 
It worked for me

What aquajock says is absolutely true, but I found that doing lots of squats and lunges did almost completely eliminate my saddlebags. I worked the legs at least twice a week, three times if I could fit it in, and did lots of stepping for cardio. I lost a lot of inches in the hips and thighs. It was amazing. I did not use near the weights that Cathe uses because my knees are touchy so I was afraid to go too heavy. Maybe those frequent workouts using the large muscles just burned a lot of fat, I don't know, but it worked for me.
 
RE: It worked for me

What might have happened (BTW, when I increased my leg strengthening a couple of years ago I too leaned up even more) is a combination of increased calorie burning during the strengthening workout, increased metabolism for an extended length of time immediately after each workout, increased leg strength that put more power into the cardio routine, AND an increased metabolic rate due to building more "hungry" lean tissue.

Whatever works - Squats-N-Lunges are just all-around awesome for whatever your goals are!

Annette Q. Aquajock
Whatever'll Skin The Cat
 
RE: It worked for me

Thanks heaps for your reply. I asked this question because Cathe seems to mainly do those types of exercise, rather than lying down on your side on the floor - although I found PS Legs had awesome floor leg exercises using a body bar.

Thanks again.
 

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