Cathe help me lean out my upper body

S

StepEdith

Cathlete
Cathe

I have a siutation on my hands I'm told is more common in men than women but that about 15% of women fall into.

I am like a reverse pear so to speak. My arms are thick, my chest is big and I am thick in the stomach waist area. My legs and hips are not the issue. My thighs measure the same around as a couple of my cousins that are many lbs thinner than me matter fact.

I'm wondering which of your weight tapes would be best (I have everything including the new series except S&H)for my upper body and how I should train the lower body differently from the upper and also what type cardio you'd advise for this body type.

Thanks so much Cathe, and if anyone has any ideas for me please chime in here.

Edith
 
Hi,

Have you checked the video/dvd rotation threads? There are two different tank top rotation threads with lots of ideas that may help.

Just my .02!:)


Cathy
 
I did a tank top rotation last year and got bigger in the top half of my body so that's why I'm sorta in a casting about for suggestions mode right now.

I agree that's a good idea but either I did something wrong on that rotation or need something different cause I looked a lot more beefy and blocky afterwards!!!
 
Hi-

I am sure you will want to hear what Cathe's response will be, but in the meantime, may I suggest incorporating some Kickboxing into your workout? If you don't have Cardio Kicks, that would be a great place to start.

You wouldn't be using any weights if bulking is a concern, and all of those jabs and punches may lean out your upper body nicely.

Also, the kickboxing would be great for your midsection if you are having trouble with that too! When you are putting 100% into the upperbody work of kickboxing, its amazing how much of your abs/core get involved.

Good Luck
 
Lynn thanks so much I do have Cardio Kicks and just love it. I wonder how many times a week I should do it?

I'm kinda getting the concept that I need to do like ME, PH, CTX Upper (all of which I already have thankfully) and cardio. Maybe Kickbox twice a week? I also have Cathe's ab hits and the whole new IS not just ME ;-) so I'm curious how PUB and C&W are gonna fit into the slowly evolving rotation everyone is helping me build here. Well heck I have just about all things Cathe

Having a thicker upper body and wanting to thin that down and not having any problems at all with the lower body bulking up seems to be more of a problem in the minority that I thought is was. :7
 
Hi StepEdith-

I don't know if this holds true for you , but it seems like the majority of people who have a thicker upper body have easier time building muscle. If this is the case, you might want to try a lighter weights, more rep type of rotation.

I would also think that doing Cathe's endurance based workouts would give you the best results.. You could do PH, or ME 2x/week and then cardio kickboxing 2x a week (or CTX Kickbox) plus an allover workout like boot camp,or Circuit max, or Cardio and Weights. All of the upper body weight work is light which may work in your favor.

I am jealous.. I am the classic pear, and would love to have a thicker upper body.. Sigh, isn't the grass always greener?

Have fun!
Lynn
 
Lynn

As a young girl and woman I was so thin I was always put in the category of Ectomorph. But I just had a personal trainer (who's not training me btw just works at my club and we chat as friends) that I look to her as if I'm a mesomorph for sure. She said I have all the classic features, including of course the broader shoulders thicker upper body and couldn't bulk up the lower unless I really worked on it hard.

Since this is all "news" to me I'm casting about for some help and surely appreciate your input.

Hope to hear from Cathe too

Edith
 
>
>>
>I am jealous.. I am the classic pear, and would love to have a
>thicker upper body.. Sigh, isn't the grass always greener?
>
>
Lynn,

You are right us apples wanna be pears and pears wanna be apples. I hate having all my weight go to my stomach and back.
I tend to bulid fairly easy on the UB so I have been trying to get in more endurance type workouts and do ligther weigts and more reps.
We will see how this works.

bye
 
Hi Edith-

I've been lurking for a few weeks and just registered to give you my experience, for whatever it's worth.

I don't have the same build as you- cuz I was big ALl over :p , hehe. Basically, everything was a problem spot for me, hehe. Ok, seriously- arms were thick, big chest. My body will tend to build short, bulky muscles, too- doesn't help! Arms would grow biceps- short and wide, not attract- yet, triceps were sooo hard to get going.

Last August I started swimming- and until 2 months ago, that was my only source of cardio. Actually, wasn't doing weights at that time either, so it was my only source of exercise! In addition to losing the fat- the muscles on my arms lengthened and toned nicely. I also did a lot of breast stroke, which really helped define and grow a bit of triceps there. My (soon to be ex) husband has even commented on my arms- as strange as this comment sounds, he said-- "I have never seen your arms look so long before". Arms were a problem for me even when I was thin, see. During my weight loss, I've also noticed a substantial loss of mass from the upper chest area- and muscles in that area. Although I'm still a 36 D/DD I believe I look much slimmer because of this. This may be due somewhat to the effects of age, but I at least credit the breast stroke for the cute little muscles there.. Maybe AquaJock has more to say about what swimming can do for your arms and chest?

Luck!
 
Thanks for your reply a lot.

Problem is I'm not a good swimmer at all. I like water aerobics and they have it at my club a lot but I'm no Mark Sptiz I can tell you that :(

Maybe Annette will know some aqua aerobics drills that would help as I do have pool access at the club.

Edith
 
I think that with the swimming- a mile a day- it was the equivalent of low resistance (the water), very high repitition. I wonder if the full motion-- follow through or "recovery", as they call it, contribute to the longer muscles than the dumb bell route?

If Annette can kindly give you some drills, though, I think they'd have to be done for a long time, especially for us with the stubborn arms.

Perhaps you can read online about technique and form- that's what I did- even go to the library or video store and rent an instructional swimming tape, if lessons are out of the question? Then you could have a nice combination of drills and laps. I do see some people doing this too- although they tend to do drills for the legs.
 
Lessons are not out of the question. I belong to a club.

I wonder if maybe the new superset weights workout coming out might be part of the answer to this as well :9

Love
Edith :+
 
I just had to revive this thread, as I has posted a few days ago with some of the same q's as Stepedith..
What to do...what to do...? Leaning out the upper body when there is a tendency for (dare I say it!) Bulky arms, when the rest of me is thin...
of course, the "low weight ,hi rep" thing would seem logical, reducing bodyfat,logical, there has got to be something for those of us that are at their goal weight, goal bodyfat (realistically, speaking ,of course)

bumping this thread, in hopes there is some unexplored rotation idea from Cathe or anyone else!
By the way, the only time I saw a real difference in the size of my arms was when I was doing Powerstrike and cardio kix every day, using weighted gloves. It decreased the size, but I still didnt have that ever elusive hardness in the tricep and rear delt area. Darn my genetics?
 
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