pear shaped and needing to lean out! S&H or pyramids?

C

chiro_ange

Active Member
hello cathe and educated crowd,

this is sort of long-sorry. i'm getting discouraged with my pear shaped body. i am starting to wonder if i am a genetic mutant who's thighs will never whittle down to match the rest of my body. i have little definition in my quads and my outer thighs are my trouble spot. i have straight legs (no real hourglass shape at the knees- i guess my knees are thick?) but very defined calves. my issue is that i feel like S&H will bulk me up worse and just make my legs look like huge, thick tree trunks. sorry for the bad visual! as for the pyramids? i am really not sure about what they will do yo me either.

i guess i want to hear from those of you who consider themselves to have a pear shaped body. which workout of the two (or maybe there is another one) really worked for you and could you share a rotation? i think i am a meso/endo body type but could be wrong. my goals are to lean out and increase definition and lean muscle mass.

pls help me from becoming overly discouraged and driving my husband mad!
thanks in advance.
 
You might want to conssider instead leaner Legs from the CTX series. It is a tough, endurance workout for the lower body, using a 35 pound barbell max. With the lighter barbell, you complete high rep exercises for each muslce in the lower body, and this will not lead to bulking up.

Maybe you could explore some of the threads on the open Forum because recently a lot of women have been trying out amthod of training the lower body frequently, every day or every second day, low weight, high reps, to lean out the butt and thinghs. I think it is called "free style training" but I am not sure. Maybe someone can correct me if I am wrong?

And it is perfectly feasible to train the lower body differently from how you train the upper body. So you may wish to explore the pyramids still. The PUB could do great things for you upper body and if you keepo the weights light, the high reps on PLb would work nicely too.

But my vote would go to Leaner Legs as ideal for helping slim down a pear shape.

Clare
 
Leaner Legs and Legs and Glutes are my recommendations. Both are tough and do great things for your legs. I'd try a little more cardio (running and sprints if you are conditioned enough for it), a very healthy diet and LOTS of water.

I know it's tough to eat right, but that's what will give you the results you really want. Good luck.
 
Another vote for Leaner Legs and Legs & Glutes. Also, the DVD Premix of Kick Punch and Crunch Combos/Legs & Glutes floorwork is AWESOME!!
 
I'm with everyone on LL. I'm also pear-shaped and have tried both PLB and LL for my lower body. PLB bulked up my thighs and butt a bit once my barbell reached 45 lbs. I liked the higher butt, but wasn't so thrilled about the bulk. LL leaned me out. I use 30 lbs. max for LL and go down as low as a pair of 8-lb. DBs for some of its exercises. Because of the high reps and the intensity of the workout, lighter weights are plenty. Also consider kickboxing. Cathe's kickboxing workouts are great. KPC is her best so far, and it has wonderful premixes. I lost an inch around my hips with kickboxing. Years and years of step aerobics didn't do that. Hope this helps.

Pinky
 
I finally started reducing my lower body when I dropped the high weights and instead went light weight but high repetitions for my lower body. Since I am a pear shape, the upper body needs more strength training but I too did high rep, low wts on my upper body and received better definition. I also incorporate yoga and pilates, dropped step and hilo (except kickboxing) and lighter resistance spinning. I finally did see results/reductions in my thighs. They also do not look so bulky.

That is just my experience but I am a pear and a group fitness instructor so I sometimes don't get to pick my workout style.

Sheila C.
 
Sheila - What type of high rep training did you do? I have recently started doing the Slim Series and thought that might work for my pear shape. I also have incorporated more pilates. I just started this so I'm not too sure if it is working yet, but I would love to hear more specifically what you do. Did you lessen the cardio that you do or just change it? Thanks in advance!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top