Flabby thighs

[Shaz]

Hi Cathe, thanks for making such great strength videos, I'm really enjoying them. My question is that I'm confused about how to eat/exercise right for my body type, and wondered if you could help: I seem to have completely different body types for my upper and lower body. My upper body is very skinny, not much fat or muscle, and I am working hard with your MIS video to hopefully increase muscle, plus I just bought the slow and heavy series. But, my legs are much bigger with more muscle and fat (which is a shame 'cause I can't really see the muscle, although I know its under there somewhere!) To increase muscle you are supposed to eat more and not do too much cardio, but to decrease fat, your are supposed to eat a bit less, and do lots of cardio. So, I don't know what to do to balance out my body. Can you help?
Thanks in advance,
Sharon.

 

[Cathe Friedrich]

Hi Sharon! Unfortunately it is more difficult to find the right balance when you have opposite situations occuring. It doesn't mean that it can't be done, just that is will take a little more experimenting with different ways to train. I would suggest a clean diet along with heavy weight training for the upper body, medium to heavy weight training for the lower body, and 4 days of cardio with the following: running/treadmill, kickbox, step, hi/lo Good Luck !

 

[Cyndie]

I would recommend in addition to Cathe's suggestions that you really focus on lateral delt raises. The FIRM touts this as a great way to make hips look smaller. As a trainer I have done this with a lot of my clients and it works. The other thing I would do is start incorporating tubing into your leg workouts. There are so many exercises so I won't mention them here. Tubing can be very effective for streamlining your legs. It's more of a low weight/high rep type of workout but I think it can really help women slim their legs if done consistently. For resources I recommend going to spriproducts.com for tubing and you can buy a video called Lower Body Resistance by Keli Roberts. She is a phenomenal instructor ESPECIALLY when it comes to tubing exercises. She is on par with Cathe. I have met her in person by taking numerous workshops and have done her various videos for years. You won't be disappointed. Good luck. Changing our bodies significantly is so frustrating isn't it? I know Cathe always talks about clean eating. One thing I do in this regard is try to supply my carbohydrate needs with things such as sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, beans, etc. and limit more processed carbs. Even whole grain bread is still a little processed. I also eat a lot of fruit which supplies carbs and helps control my sweet tooth.

Take care and best wishes, Cyndie