HIIT increase leg size?

darine

darine

Cathlete
Is that possible or it's my illusion?

I added them and I am doing less leg workouts and my legs increased in size... I think. Is it because I am doing less leg workout or is it because I am doing more HITT and my legs definitely feel stronger when I do explosive Plye squats or just any jumping workouts. For example, I did KickMax and I was able to go through the 15 min challenge a lot easier than I use to. Also, just today, I decided to add different leg workouts than STS, just to try to decrease my legs size and I did 1/2 of L&G and I was a lot stonger in the explosive lunges and squats... so.. could HITT make my legs bigger???

just wondering if anyone else experienced that. I thought no weight leg workouts are better to lean my legs, that's why I only do legs once a week (STS program, I am only in Meso1) and I added a lot of HITT.
thx for any help
 
Cathe posted a response to another post about this but I can't remember which one (hopefully someone can direct you to it) But I remember that Cathe said that plyos (which is what HIIT is) can make legs bigger because they are power based work which makes muscle grow. She suggested doing plyos/HIIT only once every 1-2 weeks and doing regular weight workouts for the legs. I don't do those workouts enough to notice any growth. Also, each person responds different so if you find your legs are growing I would cut back on them if your unhappy and just do it mabe once every couple of weeks. I always thought that those types of workouts leaned out legs; at least that is what I have read in oxygen mag and muscle fitness hers. So i'm a bit confused myself. Hopefully someone else will respond too:) Hope this helps some.
 
yes, i remember reading that post, it was about plyo legs. so I was wondering if it's because of the actualy plyo legs in STS (weight and Plyo) or any Plyo workout

it is confusing
 
Plyo work is like sprinting, it works the fast twitch muscle fibres. Think of the legs of a 100 metre sprinter and compare them to the legs of a marathon runner. Plyo, sprinting, exercise that works the fast twitch muscle fibres makes muscles bigger.

Good to do to have that explosive power, but as Cathe recommends, limit to once per week. Add in lifting for endurance and steady state cardio and you will target the slow twitch fibres also and round out your routine and prevent legs from growing more than you would like, since you are someone who builds lower body muscle easily.

Clare
 
It was a thread in the STS forum with a title about leaner legs, I think... anyway, Cathe said to limit it to once a week or every ten days, actually. Every time I do a jump now I think of that post! :eek: :)
 
I wonder if that also includes interval workouts like the Imaxes? I do put on muscle with jumping but I tend to put on muscle with everything.:D
 
I remember that post, it was helpful to me. I took her response to mean any type of prolonged plyo leg workouts but I could have misread entirely.
 
bitmover said:
It was a thread in the STS forum with a title about leaner legs, I think... anyway, Cathe said to limit it to once a week or every ten days, actually. Every time I do a jump now I think of that post! :eek: :)
Click to expand...

Bitmover, I don't suppose you could post a link to that thread in a way that's convenient for you? I am very interested in Cathe's comments on that subject.

Thanks if you can, and thanks for reading if you can't!

A-Jock
 
bitmover said:
A-Jock, when I saw you had posted to this thread I was very curious as to what your input would be, since I know you love that kind of workout. So, input, please. :D (I read a lot of your posts). Anyway, I had time to find the thread.....

http://www.thecathenation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=273659

What do ya' think?
Click to expand...

Thanks, Bitsy! Yes, I absolutely LOVE plyo work, especially leg plyo work, but I must say that because I build muscle mass easily (another reason it's GREAT to be me, aside from my outstanding good looks) (ar ar), my legs do indeed thicken up when I do plyo workout after workout after workout. ESPECIALLY (this is the weird part) if I do plyo but DON'T do any heavy leg barbell work. This a.m. I did one of my INSANITY mish-moshes that did not incorporate a lot of true plyo leg work, AND I did my standard bread-and-butter barbell squat set, and my legs feel about 2" smaller circumference-wise than they did all last week. Live and learn.

My overriding "problem" with working out is that when I discover a protocol that I love, I tend to overdo it. "Anything worth doing is worth doing to death", etc. etc. Not to the point of risking overuse injury, but yes to the point where I start looking like a fire hydrant or R2D2.

Thanks again for locating that thread!

A-Jock
 
You're welcome! Interesting about the combo for you! I have been on a kick of lighter or no weights for my lower body -- my quads seem so out of proportion big compared to the rest of my legs. I'm trying to do a lot of floor work for the hamstrings. I like the plyo type stuff for cardio, but I'm trying to lay off it for a while and just see what happens (well, once a week or every ten days as prescribed by Dr. Cathe ;)).
 
I am happy you brought floor work!!!

about that... I decided to focus on B&G floor work. I remember when my legs were at their smallest I was doing floor work resembling B&G

I decided to do B&G at its full once a week and add only the floor segment after cardio 2 times a week for a total of 3 times floor work

i will do that for a month

I have been jumping, lifting and squaring non stop and my legs are the biggest they have ever been

I am back to focus on floor work

Off course, I will do some upper body in circuit or full body work and I will stop STS. I am tired of focusing on my upper body when my lower is the problem...

by the end of April if I am still the same, I give up! no actually, i never will... LOL

it will be nicer weather and will start my runs
 
I was really surprised to read Cathe's comment about plyos increasing leg mass. But it certainly makes sense when you look at Olympic sprinters and contrast their beefy legs with the marathon runners. For me, it took about 8 months of STS to finally really see my legs shrinking. I did the 6 month rotation, used squat rack and not plyo legs during meso 3. No real noticable change in my legs, but I didn't measure either. Then on my second round thru STS 6 month (about halfway thru meso 2) my legs suddenly compacted down dramatically! Solid muscle, almost no fat, lots of definition (for me. Since before I looked like the Pillsbury dough boy.) I dropped from using XL bike shorts to medium in like 3 weeks time. It was absolutely amazing. Further improvement occured in definitnion when I finished out meso 3. So, yes it takes FOREVER to slim your legs down and you have to be very consistent with your workouts. But it can be done! So now I don't feel so bad that I only do the HIITs about every 2 weeks or so.
Beth
 
i am so confuse

I know I have to be consistent to see changes, but how about changes in exercise to shock muscles??
 
I originally posted that question because I had always thought that plyo was the way to go when I realized my legs were getting bigger. I was surprised at the response, but as another poster put it, when I started looking at my workout history my legs did not get as big when I mixed the plyo with the weights. When I started the series those two weeks, I had not done as much cardio, running and plyo as I usually did. Now that I have mixed up the lower body more I am gaining strength and my legs are not getting larger. THANK GOODNESS. Just goes to show how different all of our bodies respond to the workouts. :)
Cathe's workouts and advice on these forums have helped me a lot and I used to work at a gym with alot of trainers etc! I am in all around better shape now that then. (even though much older!:()
 
Okay I am confused! I tend to grow muscle easily especially in my legs so I had done the same approach with doing bodyweight leg work or plyo leg work trying to lean them out. But now it seems I am taking the wrong approach. My problem comes from that on my cardio days I have been doing a lot of HIIT which I think is plyo moves in order to torch fat, so how do I do HIIT for fat burning without bulking my legs?

AJock, did you post the Insanity mishmosh with minimal plyo anywhere? If not could you?
 
Linda:

I think the answer to this quandary lies with the word: frequency.

I believe the original poster complained her legs were getting bulkier with the HiiT workouts because she was doing them multiple times per week. The answer is not to cut out HiiT/plyo moves, but not to do them more than twice weekly I would suspect.

Sprinters build large leg and glute muscles because they are doing plyo work daily as part of their in-season training, combined with their sprint training. The explosive power they build also gives them larger muscles. You can't have one without the other. It's the trade off.

Marathon runners and long distance runners also do some plyo work, especially large skips to work the hip flexors. The amount of long distance running, which is repetitive, endurance cardio, that they do means that the plyo work involved in their weekly training never has the chance to build large legs, merely strong legs that can go the distance.

What decides whether a particular person succeeds at sprinting or distance running? It isn't just the training that they do. It is a question of genetics and the proportions of fast twitch versus slow twitch muscle fibres that they have as individuals. The body type we have is what dictates whether or not we might be successful at sprinting or distance running.

Therefore, your own genetics will determine exactly how quickly the muscles in your legs might grow in response to repeated use of HiiT. You will have to experiment, as with all areas of fitness, to determine whether you can get away with 2 or more plyo workouts per week or whether the muscle growth this produces is not acceptable to you.

As with all things, there is always a trade off. Cathe produces DVDs whose workouts produce the best results for her body type, but this does in no way mean that our bodies will respond in the same way. I remember when the Intensity series came out and I was doing the core sections a lot, as produced on the DVDs. I very soon realized that while it made me stronger, it also thickened my waist so much, I did not like the result.

So, there's a trade off. You can't get very strong, powerful legs without muscle growth. How much HiiT is right for you? You could also make sure that you have several long, steady state cardios per week to counteract excessive bulking. Running will help here. If you are one of those people who have been doubling up on the HiiT workouts, then just stop and do only the one session twice per week. There is a reason Cathe made the HiiT workouts the length that they are: 20-30 mins of HiiT is all the body needs to build super fitness quickly. No-one needs 40-60 mins of it. Sure, you can do it, but your cardiovascular system doesn't need it.

Clare
 
Wow, Clare, thanks for the very in depth answer it was very informative.

I guess my problem is that right now I am heavier than I have been in years so until I get the weight off I just won't know if my legs are bigger from the plyo and HiiT or still just fat.:p:p:p

And no I don't do the HiiTs back to back, 30 minutes is more than enough in my book.:D Kinda of why I like then I feel like I get a lot done in a really short amount of time.
 
Linda:

in which case, I would, in your shoes, do the HiiT twice per week, just as Cathe created it. The fat burning potential of these workouts, especially after the workout, is huge and sounds like it would be wise to include this right now in your fitness plan.

Later on, you'll be better able to determine exactly what size your legs are, how much is muscle, how much is fat and how much of each you can tolerate, which will decide what lifting and cardio plan to tackle next.

Clare
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top