another chick with thick thighs!

J

jazzy75

Active Member
It's been asked before and it will be asked again but I really want to have thinner thighs. I'm 28 and have been an active exerciser for the past 8 years. (6 days a week at least). I only discovered Cathe and other advanced video options within the past 2 years and am thrilled to have so many options for my home workouts.

That said, despite how active and fit I may be, I feel like my legs are my downfall, making me appear heavy. At 5'6" and 140 lbs, I'm far from skinny but think trimming up the legs would do wonders - for my confidence if nothing else. For cardio (5 days a week) I do step, running, hi-lo, interval tapes and kickboxing and use the cross trainer elliptical machine at the gym at work. I try to do 2 upper and 2 lower weight workouts each week and am slowly trying to incorporate 2 yoga workouts each week.

I've been doing Leaner Legs, S&H rotations and things of that nature for lower leg work (No more than 35lbs of weight). Some recent reading has me wondering if this is the best approach for my pear shape? Some swear by pilates and yoga for slimming their legs but I'm stuck in the heavy weight arthlete mentality. I fear I'll lose muscle mass. Can pilates, etc really tone and slim? Do I have to stop weight work altogether?

Thanks for letting me vent a bit.
Any suggestions, advice or rotation comments are welcome.

Cheers All
 
Hahahaha... I have the same problem. It doesn't seem to matter how skinny I get, thick I get, or muscular I get, my legs are always disproportionaly larger than the rest of my body. I refuse to give up weight training, but am not sure if heavy weights really do make your legs larger than pilates or not. I don't go excessively heavy, of course, but I believe it's better to be a bit thick and have functional muscles than to just be slim. I would love to hear an answer, too :)
 
I also have thick thighs, with fat at the knees and the inner top that resist any weight loss. I'm only 5' so its even more ugly. Lifting helps but I have found that running really changes the shape of my thighs and make them much leaner. You mention that you run. I think longer distances is what does it for me. I like to go running outside for at about an hour and a half once a week during warmer months and then my thighs fatten up again in the winter when I mostly stick to step for cardio.I train for charity 5k and 10k races in the fall to motivate me, but I don't run fast.
 
I read in an issue of Muscle & Fitness Hers last year that a good way to slim down large muscles without losing strenth is to do giant sets. For example, if you want to slim down the legs, do 50 to 75 reps of squats using only 10 pounds or even less. That way you are making the muscle more compact. I haven't tried this yet but it sounded reasonable. M&FH said you can do more reps for arms (up to 100) with a super light weight or even no weight. Think about how hard doing 100 side laterals for your shoulders would feel even w/out weight!

Hope you can use something out of this.

Ladychimpion
 
well, Im going to jump in here and say I'll try the giant sets.
Since I too have heavy legs. They have improved using Cathe and combined kickboxing. But when the fat is so heavily concetrated in your legs it certainly at least for me takes heaven and earth to work your legs to a more leaner shape. It's a slow coming for my legs so
I estimate at least a year from now my legs will look at least 85% better than they had the previous year and that's providing I stick with the regimen. If anyone comes up with a quicker solution my ears are open no matter how unwilling my legs are to give up the bulge.
Im hearing people swear by the bun & thigh rocker but Im cluttered in my apt and certainly don't want to add to the collection.
tjaded
 
Well, I am right there with you. I got that same pear shape as well. Of course my butt and legs are the last to firm up when I am dieting and exercising. My suggestion would be to look at your diet and see what you are eating, maybe you could use some work there that might help. Also, work on building up your shoulders. It puts your body in better proportion to take away the look of the pear shape.

Kelly
 
Another pear chiming in here! :)

I've been desperately trying to slim down my lower half and I've found that the lower weight/higher reps has really helped a lot. I've also really started to concentrate on my upper body and hoping that being a little "bigger" up top will help make things look more balanced. I'm also staying away from the step for a while and doing more biking, walking and running. A few years ago I really concentrated on running for cardio and it did wonders for my legs!

Good luck to all!
Michele
 
Hi all. I'm definitely not an expert, but I do know that floor work definitely helps with the slimming of thighs. Maybe try that out?!?!
 
I am the same height and size as you w/ the same "problem" area!;-) That said I recently read in a book(Body Zone) for our shape we need to do very little lower body strength training. We get most of our lower conditioning from cardio. It said to use little to no weight and use very high reps. It said not to do squats,or lunges. It also recommended doing some cardio about 6 days per week. I have started(2.5 weeks) doing this and have noticed a change(hips and thighs down about .5 inch.) I still do my Cathe tapes but use little to no weight. I am not doing her squats or leg presses though. I do the ball work on PLB, deadlifts and plie's. Hope some of this helps. Susan
 
First of all I have been known as thunder thighs, to give you an idea about my physique. However I have about 18-20% body fat.
If your legs have too much fat , then I would UP the cardio. If they have more muscle than you wuld like then I would still UP the cardio. It is very hard to build muscle when doing increased cardio.
I think this may be why running works for many.
I have found that to uppping my cardio to like 250 +plus minutes per week and lifting heavy does not increase my leg size. It actually decreases my leg size, which I interpret to mean that I had extra fat or I have gotton rid of some muscle (to use as energy) or both.

It is also important to eat in amounts that don't have you put on pounds. It is always CALORIES IN VS. CALORIES OUT.

Remember, research has shown that where you loose it first is where you gain it back first. If that happens to be your legs, then be careful of this.
Good luck, and take a close look at Brenda in the Intensity Series! She has large legs and looks great! For some of us it is just out genetics.
I enjoy my legs and my husband is partial to them. he says he doesn't want to have to " shake the sheets" to find me! LOL
 
Try running 2 to 3 times a week for around 5 miles each time at about 9 minute miles or faster if you can(this is in addition to your weight training or power yoga and other cardio days). If you get bored doing flat runs you can go on trails with hills or whatever(of course you would go slower on hills). Also, watch what you eat. I know it sucks but you gotta do it. Really, though, try the running 2 to 3 times a week, even just for about 3 or 4 weeks and I really think you will see a difference. Good Luck!!
 
I totally agree with the running advice. I've been "thunder thighs" for years-its just my shape-but when I was physically able to take the pounding of running 12 miles a week my thighs were awesome. I did a couple of 3 mile runs and a 6 mile run per week. I ran very slowly-only about an 11 minute mile pace. I also continued some step aerobics and high rep/low weight weight traning. I think you can see from all the posts that running is really the ONLY thing that works for some reason for us pears. I had an injury unrelated to the running which has sidelined my running career, and I've just had to accept that I will never look that good again!
Beth
 
I'm not alone!!!

Wow - thanks to all for chiming in. I do run about 3 times a week for about 30 minutes a time. Since I'm working out at lunch, I have to shorten my workouts but I incorporate 4 or 5 interval sprints to make the most of my time.

I'm really going to have a hard time lightening up on leg work but maybe it is having an adverse effect. It certainly isn't all muscle as that's where I hold any extra weight. My diet is relatively clean but perhaps now that it's Lent and I always give up sweets and candy, this might be a great time to experiment.

Maybe we should set up a "thunder thighs" check in to monitor our progress and discuss what's working!
 
>I read in an issue of Muscle & Fitness Hers last year that a
>good way to slim down large muscles without losing strenth is
>to do giant sets. For example, if you want to slim down the
>legs, do 50 to 75 reps of squats using only 10 pounds or even
>less. That way you are making the muscle more compact. I
>haven't tried this yet but it sounded reasonable. M&FH said
>you can do more reps for arms (up to 100) with a super light
>weight or even no weight. Think about how hard doing 100 side
>laterals for your shoulders would feel even w/out weight!
>

Do you remember which month of MFH this article came out in?

Thanks

Crystal
 
RE: I'm not alone!!!

>Just wanted to add that you can count me in on a "Thunder
>Thigh" check-in! I am soooo with ya'!

Hey - just wanted to let you know that it looks like we're going to start a check-in over at the VF forum. are you a member there?
 
RE: I'm not alone!!!

>SPINNING will strip your thigh fat.

Do you think a recumbent or regular stationary bike has the same effect as a spinning bike?

Crystal
 
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