avoiding a "bulky" look on a petite frame

T

tweinbach

Member
Hi Cathe,
I'm trying to figure out the best workouts for a petite frame (107 lbs). I'm 5' tall with a crazy short torso, short legs and no hips...a pretty much straight up and down figure...and I'd like to look as long as lean as possible. I've typically always stuck with Taebo workouts and exercises using 3 lb weights with fast high rep movements. Of course, I've been doing that type of workout for so long, the results aren't what they used to be. I just purchased the Hard Strikes DVD and really like, but I thought I might try the new upper body workouts, too. Which upper body workout in the Xtrain series (or any series of yours) would you recommend? And which leg exercises would help give that long and lean look? I am realistic and aware that my body can only change so much :) Hope what I'm asking makes sense!
 
I am also very petite and have gotten good results from barre workouts--TurboBarre in particular is great for really burning out the lower body, plus the upper body work (light weight, high reps) is perfect for getting definition without bulking up. I also highly recommend Cardio Barre by Richard Giorla. HiiT workouts will be your best friend for leaning out. Good luck!
 
Cardio leg blast for lower body and the legs one are good. I think the chest back shoulders and bi n tris on the stability ball would be good as ell. I dont know if ud want burn sets because you go heavier on that.
 
kariev said:
For me, Horizontal Conditioning has completely changed my body in ways weights never did. I'm completely addicted to them! I have more definition then when I did weights. Check them out Horizontal Conditioning
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Ok, I have been pushed over the edge to order one of these workouts!! Which one do you suggest I start with? Do I *need* all of them or can I get away with a few? TIA!
 
Hi there,

I'm also a shorty coming at 5ft, with short legs, except I'm a pear-shape. I can tell you from my own experience that lifting heavy has done wonders for my body. No "bulk" here :). Although I love barre and light weight/high reps, I would never exclusively just rely on that type of training for my body. For me, variety has been the key, and that includes moderate-heavy weight training for all muscle groups. Why not venture over to the dark side :D and try moderate-heavy lifting? You might be surprised at how well your body responds. I would recommend ALL the Xtrain upper body and lower body workouts. With that being said, the best results for legs/glutes I was able to obtain with STS Meso 2 (moderate-heavy weights). I always had this fear installed in me that heavy lifting would turn my saddle-bags into gigantic thunder thighs :eek:, when in reality the exact opposite happened :D. So bottom line: you never know until you try ;).

Good luck!

Natasha
 
jacmar said:
Ok, I have been pushed over the edge to order one of these workouts!! Which one do you suggest I start with? Do I *need* all of them or can I get away with a few? TIA!
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I started with volumes1,2,3, and bootcamp. Bootcamp is extremely hard so definitely don't start with that one. Initially I had to take so many breaks so don't feel discouraged initially. I have all of her year 1 hardcores and 101's ( the 101's are 30 minutes long) and I'm now working on year 2. Theses never get easy and always give me DOMS all over. The workouts are similar but different at the same time.
 
Thank you all for chiming in...much appreciated! I think my biggest concern is because I have no hips (though, I do have a booty) I worry about looking like I have "man shoulders", since I don't have the hips to balance out my upper body :) Thank you for the suggestions!
 
tweinbach- don't worry about working your shoulders at least some, though. When you build nice shoulders, it tends to make your waist look smaller. :D I also LOVE Horizontal Conditioning. It really helped to cinch in my waist and flatten my abs more than crunches ever did, and it works the arms, chest and shoulders really well, too! The only thing I ever felt was lacking when I did HC a lot was my bi's and tri's. They got a wee bit weaker, which now that I have XTrain Bi's and Tri's I'm going to use that to supplement my arm strength here and there. Heavy weighted leg workouts also slimmed my lower body, just like Mini-Natty. I'm 5'2" and tend toward a pear shape. Between Cathe's weighted lower body workouts and my Hiit cardio (to burn that excess fat) my lower body has never looked better! Not bulky at all. The key is to burn the fat while you lift. If you build muscle but don't burn off the fat (either through diet and/or Hiit cardio...which I swear by versus steady state) than you may very well look bulky instead of lean. HTH!! :D

ETA: Oh, I wanted to add that everybody is indeed different and what works for one person may not work for another, even if we're the same height, same gender and both pear shaped. I just wanted to let you know what worked for me. I was always afraid of lifting and weights and the "bulky" thing and was pleasantly shocked and suprised that not only wasn't the case for me...it was the opposite! :eek: You never will know if you don't try and it may take several months before you see the payoff since when you first start weight training many women will experience water retention at first. This tends to freak a lot of ladies out and they give up heavyish weights too soon. Sometimes it takes years to figure out what works for us, and then suddenly something changes with our physiology (menopause, post pregnancy, etc) and what worked before doesn't work the same way. Then it's back to tinkering again. :cool: Hope that makes sense...
 
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I'm also short (5'3") with a very muscular frame. (People always say that I'm "tiny" though...I'm like, who are they talking about?!) I had always been afraid of heavy weights bc I was scared that I'd look really really bulky. But STS made me an absolute devotee of heavy weights. I leaned out remarkably with STS and heavy weights. No more light weights/high reps for me! Super clean eating, heavy weights, and hiit cardio workouts are where it's at! :)
 
Thanks so much for mentioning the Horizontal Conditioning. :) I've been educating myself on this type of workout - went to the woman's site, watched the You Tube videos, etc. I think it looks like a great workout and I finally ordered Volume 1. I want to see if I like it enough to buy others.

I feel that Cathe has conditioned my core enough to bypass the beginner ones for sure. Since I'm 5'2 and weigh 127 (always fluctuating back and forth!!) and seen some people say it worked for them to get the last few lbs. of I'd give it a try for $19.99 and $3.00 shipping.

THANK YOU again for this thread and mentioning this. I'm always wanting and NEEDING more core strength. Yay!! Wish me Luck!!
 
Cosmo Mom said:
Thanks so much for mentioning the Horizontal Conditioning. :) I've been educating myself on this type of workout - went to the woman's site, watched the You Tube videos, etc. I think it looks like a great workout and I finally ordered Volume 1. I want to see if I like it enough to buy others.

I feel that Cathe has conditioned my core enough to bypass the beginner ones for sure. Since I'm 5'2 and weigh 127 (always fluctuating back and forth!!) and seen some people say it worked for them to get the last few lbs. of I'd give it a try for $19.99 and $3.00 shipping.

THANK YOU again for this thread and mentioning this. I'm always wanting and NEEDING more core strength. Yay!! Wish me Luck!!
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These w/o are amazing, so hard! I definitely thought I was in the "advanced" category for w/o but these kicked my butt!! I have vol 1-4 and BC, I too skipped the beginner ones and sometimes wish I would have tried them. I am trying to work them in with Xtrain but I found that my body couldn't handle both, these w/o really use every muscle. I am thinking of doing xtrain one week, HC one week, and rotating them. If anyone else has a good way of incorporating these with Xtrain please let me know.
 
Wow, great feedback! I'm definitely going to start incorporating HiiT workouts. Being 41 and weighing under 110 lbs, I guess I don't have a lot to complain about! Perhaps bulky muscles aren't my problem, just getting that extra "stuff" off around them is probably what I need to work on. Oh, the joys of getting older! ;)
 
When you guys say "heavy" what exactly are you talking about? I'm also short (5' 3") and I know I need to change my workout regime since I'm in my 40s and I can tell that my old workout routine is no longer working.

I've always been afraid of bulking and I think I might be someone who needs to use heavier dumbbells (and also put the fork down!). Does heavy mean 10 lb dumbbells for squats, lunges, etc? Or something heavier? What do you define as "heavy" for arm work?
 
poachedsalmon said:
When you guys say "heavy" what exactly are you talking about? I'm also short (5' 3") and I know I need to change my workout regime since I'm in my 40s and I can tell that my old workout routine is no longer working.

I've always been afraid of bulking and I think I might be someone who needs to use heavier dumbbells (and also put the fork down!). Does heavy mean 10 lb dumbbells for squats, lunges, etc? Or something heavier? What do you define as "heavy" for arm work?
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Hi poachedsalmon - Heavy is different for different people. It is the amount that you can lift/squat/whatever for 10-12 reps before you fail (either you can't do another rep, or you lose your good form). If you can do 16 reps then it's not "heavy" for you. For some people (especially if they are new to weight training), 10 lb dumbbells might be heavy. Others might need to use a barbell with 50 lb or more for squats and deadlifts.

For myself I usually use 15-17.5 lb dumbbells for biceps curls (one in each hand) and anywhere between 30-50 lb total for squats, lunges and step-ups depending how many reps I'm doing.

A good way to determine a good weight to use is to do the "one rep max" tests, which estimate the heaviest weight you can handle for one rep of a particular exercise - you then take a percentage of that.

Stebby
 
Horizontal Conditioning Bootcamp

kariev said:
For me, Horizontal Conditioning has completely changed my body in ways weights never did. I'm completely addicted to them! I have more definition then when I did weights. Check them out Horizontal Conditioning
Click to expand...

I've seen you post this a few times so I was intrigued enough to try one. Whoa. I bought the Bootcamp DVD and am completely impressed. It is a workout to say the least.

I loved it so more will be coming when the budget allows.

Thanks for the recommendation.
 
Stebby said:
Hi poachedsalmon - Heavy is different for different people. It is the amount that you can lift/squat/whatever for 10-12 reps before you fail (either you can't do another rep, or you lose your good form). If you can do 16 reps then it's not "heavy" for you. For some people (especially if they are new to weight training), 10 lb dumbbells might be heavy. Others might need to use a barbell with 50 lb or more for squats and deadlifts.

For myself I usually use 15-17.5 lb dumbbells for biceps curls (one in each hand) and anywhere between 30-50 lb total for squats, lunges and step-ups depending how many reps I'm doing.

A good way to determine a good weight to use is to do the "one rep max" tests, which estimate the heaviest weight you can handle for one rep of a particular exercise - you then take a percentage of that.

Stebby
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Thanks, Stebby!

I know "heavy" is subjective, I just wanted to get an idea of what is heavy for other people. I suspect that I have been cheating myself out of effective strength training for years because I was afraid to increase my weights for fear of bulking. I've stuck to 8 lb dumbbells for legs, somehow convincing myself that that is "heavy" for me. I can tell you I can easily do more than 10 reps with 8 lb dumbbells, I just haven't pushed myself beyond that.

Plus I read other people's posts about the DOMS they get from STS Total Body or Muscle Max and I never get DOMS. I'm sure it's because I never work my muscles hard enough.
 
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Hi Tweinbach.....

I would suggest Xtrain Chest, Back, Shoulders, XTRAIN Bi's and Tri's and XTRAIN Legs.

Let me know how it works out for you :)



tweinbach said:
Hi Cathe,
I'm trying to figure out the best workouts for a petite frame (107 lbs). I'm 5' tall with a crazy short torso, short legs and no hips...a pretty much straight up and down figure...and I'd like to look as long as lean as possible. I've typically always stuck with Taebo workouts and exercises using 3 lb weights with fast high rep movements. Of course, I've been doing that type of workout for so long, the results aren't what they used to be. I just purchased the Hard Strikes DVD and really like, but I thought I might try the new upper body workouts, too. Which upper body workout in the Xtrain series (or any series of yours) would you recommend? And which leg exercises would help give that long and lean look? I am realistic and aware that my body can only change so much :) Hope what I'm asking makes sense!
Click to expand...
 
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