Bulky muscles?

G

gfa240

Member
Hi Cathy,
First off, let me thank you for all your wonderful workouts. They are easy to follow yet very challenging! I am totally hooked on working out with you now.:p
I am 5'3", 116lbs and have been working out for about 10 years now and for the last 2 years, I have been following your workouts. Since then I have been gradually increasing my weights . I know you have heard this a thousand times before, but I feel that my upper legs are getting a little bit bulky. I know that weight training is supposed to build lean muscle and shouldn't really bulk up the body but I can notice some change.The fat around thighs and butt doesn't seem to be going anywhere, no matter how many reps or how much weight I do. I also do cardio twice a week(run 4-5 miles) and eat very healthy. I am not sure why that's happening. :confused:
Any advice you could provide is greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
p.s. please come by Los Angeles one of these days, would love to meet you in person.
 
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Hi

I did cardio 5 times a week and had the same problem.
Are you just running for your cardio? Try to surprise your body with kickbox, I love Kick Max and Kick, Punch & Crunch, try step workouts, bootcamp and other cardio.
Do you have STS? The leg workouts are great. I did the 3 month rotation and now I started the 6 month rotation and my body totally changed. Plyo legs and those heavy weights worked.:eek:
I also do a looooooot of stretching and yoga.
Hope this helps.

Timea:)
 
Thanks guys,
I didn't see much difference even when I was running 7-8 miles 3 times a week.:( I do kick boxing sometimes and plenty of yoga. I have been working with STS since Jan09. It firms up the body tremendously but there is still a layer of fat on top that won't go away. Of course, I don't have any problems with my weight, I am and look healthy and athletic but for the intensity of exercises I am doing, I was expecting a bit more, thought I would get rid of this stubborn butt fat! :eek:)
 
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gfa240 said:
Thanks guys,
I didn't see much difference even when I was running 7-8 miles 3 times a week.:( I do kick boxing sometimes and plenty of yoga. I have been working with STS since Jan09. It firms up the body tremendously but there is still a layer of fat on top that won't go away. Of course, I don't have any problems with my weight, I am and look healthy and athletic but for the intensity of exercises I am doing, I was expecting a bit more, thought I would get rid of this stubborn butt fat! :eek:)
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What are you eating?
 
my diet

I recently went 100% vegetarian (I was 70-80% before that) so now I take my protein in form of whey protein shakes, milk,eggs, nuts and 0% fat yogurt. Other than that, my main food is vegetables, fruit, fruit blends ( berries , tropical, kale, etc) and whole grain/wheat bread and cereal. Once in a while, I snack on low fat, low calorie ice cream:p but not often. Nothing diet or with aspartame in it. I am happy with my weight, just feel like after increasing the weights for my workouts, the upper legs are getting a bit bulky and the fat in still there. So I am wondering how to stop the legs from getting bulky, maybe its the fat on top of the muscle that is making it look larger?/\:confused:
I don't know, I was hoping Cathe could provide some insight.
 
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i'm sure cathe will post when she gets a chance. have you ever tried whats called freestyle training for your legs? if you do a search on the open forum you will get a lot of results. basically its working your legs everyday with just you body weight or super light weights for high reps. this may streamline your legs a bit.
 
I am similiar in size. I am 5'4" and 112 lbs 16% bf. I follow Burn the fat feed the muscle. I think you should check it out because to get rid of your fat at your size it really is going to be about fine tuning your diet. I limit fruit to 2 servings per day as well as follow the othe principles in bffm.

hope this helps
 
Thanks for the suggestion :D but there is so much goodness in fruit and vegs that I am not sure cutting it is the best way to lose fat.They mostly contain no fat or if they do its in the form of mono/poly unsaturated fat and very very low in calorie. There are tons of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants in fruit that is virtually impossible to get through anything else.
Thanks you for reading anyways:cool:
 
You could also try replacing your cereal (not sure what kind you are eating) with old fashioned or steel cut oatmeal and replacing your wheat bread with sprouted grain bread like Food for Life Ezekiel.

Sometimes just keeping a food journal and counting up your calories can be helpful. Maybe it could help you sort things out.

Good Luck
 
gfa240 said:
There is so much goodness in fruit and vegs that I am not sure cutting it is the best way to lose fat.They mostly contain no fat or if they do its in the form of mono/poly unsaturated fat and very very low in calorie. There are tons of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants in fruit that is virtually impossible to get through anything else.
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ITA!
Though subbing carbs from veggies (especially leafy greens) for carbs from most grains would be helpful.

And I agree that something like a Freestyle approach for lower body would be helpful as well.

You might work your upper body and lower body differently: higher reps and moderate weights for lower body, 3x/week, and lower reps and moderate/heavy weights for upper body, each body part 1-2 times/week.
 
Thanks everyone for all your suggestion:). I am still not sure why the leg muscles are getting a bit bulky while I am not lifting very heavy and doing a rep of 16-24,that's relatively high reps. I was hoping Cathe could recommend something .
 
gfa240 said:
Does anyone know how often Cathe gets a chance to answer questions?:)
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It varies, but usually not daily (and when she's actively working on new DVD's, she can be absent quite a bit).

Also, she doesn't necessarily answer every question.
 
what is freestyle training exactly? Is it doing the same workout without weights? If I don't lift weights I don't feel the burn. I can easily do 40 squats and lunges (w/o weights that is ) without getting tired much. :confused:
 
gfa240 said:
what is freestyle training exactly? Is it doing the same workout without weights? If I don't lift weights I don't feel the burn. I can easily do 40 squats and lunges (w/o weights that is ) without getting tired much. :confused:
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The basic concept of Freestyle training is to train the lower body most days of the week, using lighter weights than you would typically use for a lower-body workout, sometimes with no weights. Laura Dayton and George Snyder wrote a couple of books on it. The idea is to somewhat overtrain the muscles so they get stronger and toned, but without much if any added size. I recall that their routines use a lot of lunges (in all different directions), and they even used to sell 'lunge poles' that were attached to a base and you could hold onto for balance.

Debbie Siebers' "Slim Series" is somewhat of a Freestyle program (though the concept really doesn't work very well with upper body, IMO, and can easily lead to increased risk of overused injuries in the smaller joints of the upper body).
 
I looked into the freestyle workout. It seems like they have a very high number of reps which I don't think so much repetitive motion is very good for the joints. I mean 40 lunges is gonna take a toll on your knee joints after a while. What is the proper balance between weights and reps when you don't want to increase muscle size? If you go with light/moderate weights, you are gonna hit a plateau after a while and not feel anything so you HAVE to increase weights, now is that gonna cause the muscles to grow larger?
 
Bulky legs

I'm sooo glad you have posted this problem. I hope Cathe responds to this, because I have this same problem and I have posted it a few months ago. I LOVE Cathe's workouts but I have noticed my legs have gotten bulkier (since doing her workouts for about 5 years now) even though there is muscle definition. I do a ton of cardio..HIIT, RUNNING,STEP, SPIN, AQUA, etc. along with my weight training (and I do eat clean). My legs used to be leaner. I do LOVE doing Cathe's workouts and that doesn't stop me from buying all the DVD's, but I would like my legs to go down in size now and get that leaner toned look as appose to them looking bulkier. Any help and suggestions would be appreciated!!!
 
gfa240 Do you have Cathe Butts and Guts or Leaner legs? I just did leaner legs and we did every set twice or three times, that is more than 40 lunges, squats, plie squats. Plus we did those crazy low ends, pulses. Did you do the Butts and Guts Leg Blast premix? It is just 47 minutes long but really kills you. And she does mooore than 40 walking lunges and squats.

chrismeyer I also work out with Cathe since 5 years and had the same problem. It looks like you are doing everything right. Are you watching your portion size?
Are you doing yoga and stretching?

Timea
 
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