Cathe or educated crowd, what to do?

[Annabelle2]

Cathe, I have been doing a micro-periodization routine using your workouts and have had pretty good results everywhere except that my upper legs are getting larger instead of smaller. I am wondering if I should only do high rep workouts with my legs most of the time. What have been your experiences? Can anyone give me some advice here?

I have been following this kind of plan: In a week I do an intense upper body, an intense lower body and a total body. I alternate weight training days with 1 interval day, 1 step day, 1 floor cardio usually KPC, CK or run (any cardio without a step). Each week I switch, one week is heavy, one is circuits, one is high reps, one is push pull, one is supersets, one is the CTX series, one is pyramids and my active recovery week is calesthenics, yoga, jump rope, biking, pilates and swimming in the summer.

Any ideas?

 

[KathyH]

Hi Kathy! You really have it all covered; love your rotation. However, I would suggest doing Legs & Glutes for a while. How much weight do you use for squats & plies? I'm wondering if you stuck w/Legs & Glutes for a month if you would see a difference. HTH, Kathy

 

[Eeyore366]

I would lighten up on weights with lower body work, I had this same thing happen to me. My thighs got huge from upping my weights all the time. I now top out at 35lbs for any lower body workout and still get a good burn going when I really concentrate on the movement. I've lost a good bit since I've done this. It seems if I go over 35 lbs, my thighs just balloon out.
Good luck!
Debbie in OH

 

[Annabelle2]

Kathy - glad you like it! I use 50 lbs for squats and plies on my heavy weeks because it is the max I can put over my head and on all other workouts I use between 35 and 40 depending if it is high or low reps. So would you do Legs and Glutes for all legwork for the month with lower weight or keep it the same?

 

[Annabelle2]

Debbie - when you use the lower weight do you do more reps, like turn the DVD off and go until you exhaust? Or would you suggest a pre-exhaust first? Of course I haven't tried getting a burn with lower weights than what I have been using for a while so I might not need it. Do you use 35lbs for all dips, lunges, squats and plies? Do you ever vary it? Since using the lower weight have you increased your cardio intensity? So sorry for ALL the questions, I guess I should just dive in and try both these suggestions!

I want to thank you both so much for responding!