What do you do?

runfree

Cathlete
For those of you who can't do wts for legs to often without bulking them up, what do you do to tone them up and get nice results without making them bigger? I still have cellulite right beneath my butt and outer thighs. Any advice would be appreciated.
 
Targeting that area can be tricky but achievable! I love the following!
Kneeling on a mat in decline (on forearms, shoulders and hips square to mat for entire exercise) place a dumbbell behind the knee. Flex the foot hard and pull the heel close to the tushie to keep the weight in place...raise the flexed foot up as high as you can control without shifting the body. From there bring the knee diagonally across the opposite calf towards the floor to work the hip. Flat foot back up towards the celing then bring knee in towards the belly button....repeat....up, over, up, in....up, over, up, in!
Start with a 5lb db and work your way up as you gain strength and control! Three sets of fifteen per leg should get things toasty!
YEAH...cellulite is so unfair!
Too long to post here but I covered why we get it more than men on my blog just a few days ago as I get this question alot!!! Since there is strength/comfort in numbers know you are not alone!
 
Freestyle type training (work lower body 5-6 days) with high rep/low weight workouts. I used fitness freak's get ready for summer rotation and tonique 1.
Cathe's lower body blast rotation & tonique1. I prefer tonique 1 because the workout is broken down into lunges and squats. I alternated lunges and squats everyday.
 
Targeting that area can be tricky but achievable! I love the following!
Kneeling on a mat in decline (on forearms, shoulders and hips square to mat for entire exercise) place a dumbbell behind the knee. Flex the foot hard and pull the heel close to the tushie to keep the weight in place...raise the flexed foot up as high as you can control without shifting the body. From there bring the knee diagonally across the opposite calf towards the floor to work the hip. Flat foot back up towards the celing then bring knee in towards the belly button....repeat....up, over, up, in....up, over, up, in!
Start with a 5lb db and work your way up as you gain strength and control! Three sets of fifteen per leg should get things toasty!
YEAH...cellulite is so unfair!
Too long to post here but I covered why we get it more than men on my blog just a few days ago as I get this question alot!!! Since there is strength/comfort in numbers know you are not alone!

Thanks for this, really different! I don't have the dreaded C, but I'm always looking for something different to do with dumbells.

To the original poster, cycling works for me, particularly interval riding indoors. Outside, mountainbiking never fails me.
 
Hi Runfree:

I do a lot of body weight exercises and combine them with moves I learned at physiotherapy which use little to no weight at all.

I do a lot of walking lunges with trunk rotation, where the rotation affects your balance so you have to work harder at stabilization as you are lunging, and then I only need a max of a 10 pound weight held in both hands.

I do clock lunges/runner lunges where the leg that remains in place (well, the foot of that leg stays in place) stays as straight as possible.

Side lunges with a single 8 pound weight onto the bosu or some balance disk, 30 on each leg.

I do squats in time to my music, about 300 of them: 10 slow paced, all the way down, big range of motion, followed by 20 low pulse squats as Cathe often does on her DVDs, then repeat as much as you can, for 200 or 300 total squats. It will burn, but there's no weight, and you don't need it! The music gets you through.

Take a look at the work with stability ball and band that Cathe does on the floor work portion of GS legs: this is the kind of stuff I do a lot. This will burn the muscle, but again, it's largely a question of body weight and stabilization that burns the muscle and makes this hard. I do 3 sets of one legged stability ball roll ins, 3 sets per leg. This will tire you out for sure and will hit that cellulite area you mentioned.

A lot of stability/balance work involves body weight and single leg squats and these are tough stuff. Tie a resistance tube top the door or furniture at hip height. Hold handle/band in right hand. Stand on left leg. Squat down with left leg and reach forwards with right hand, letting the slackening resistance on the band pull you forwards a little. Then push through the squatting leg to stand upright again, and as you do this, pull that band/tubing tight to your right hip, raising that right knee up as you do. That's one rep. Do 3 sets of 10 reps for each leg and enjoy! Done correctly, with the appropriate amount of resistance, this one is a killer! Excellent for runners.

Then, take a look at pilates. Good pilates involves isometric moves for the legs using just body weight and it is excellent for runners. Try this: side lying leg lifts with toes pointed down the whole time, do 20 with right leg. Immediately progress to drawing a box with your right foot in the air, a big box, do it five times in one direction, then five times in the other. Then, stay with the same leg and draw large circles in the air, 5 in each direction. Then, keep that right leg up in the air, let your head down to the ground, and lift your other, left leg and foot up to meet the right one, 20 times, while the right foot and leg STAY HIGH! This will help work the core, hips, outer thigh and inner thigh and gluteus medius and is excellent for runners, helps promote a healthy IT band. It will burn for sure. Repeat on other leg. I usually aim to do the entire sequence three times per leg, changing up the leg each time.

Need more?

Clare
 
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Wow! Thanks for all the suggestions, I will focus more on that type of exercises for that area. I do lunges, squats in my exercise class but when I added wts for legs like clx my legs got bigger. Thanks!
 

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