[shell83]

ok so heres my question...My legs are very muscular..but my thighs are still rubbin together...theres muscle in there too...but im sick of the jeans wearing out inbetween the thighs. How do i make them smaller...using the thigh machine at the gym only made them bigger...duh, cause i built a ton of muscle in there...so now what? Any suggestions?

[Ilene]

You don't mention what you are eating or how clean your food intake is...

I truly believe that food makes the biggest difference, you've heard of the saying"

"Abs are made in the kitchen."

Well. so are legs, arms and every part of the body... I think that if your food intake is not super perfect that you won't get rid of the fat very easily...Specially in those difficult spots../

I too have alot of fat on my thighs, specially upper thigh ... I also think it's because it's the last place for the fat to go it will also be the most difficult... Everyone has a weak spot for some it's tummy... for us it's thighs...

I too used to do those inner/outer thigh machines until someone advised me not too because it makes your legs look bigger because of the fat on top of the muscle on the inner thigh... arg!!! Some days the harder you try the harder it is!!

Keep at it eventually it will go away!

Hope this helps... I'm sure the other ladies will have some great suggestions too....

[MrsJim]

Ilene's right - 80% of losing fat is DIET, lowering your food intake. Exercise (not just weights but cardio as well!) will help you burn the fat and more importantly maintain the lost weight - but NUTRITION is what does it. Unfortunately, I see way too many people at the gym who have been regulars there for years...and have not lost any discernable weight - most likely because they haven't been diligent on getting their food intake and quality under control.

I'm in that same boat. The exercise part is easy for me. I LOVE being at the gym early every single morning - it's a VITAL part of my day. It's the food I still struggle with - hundreds of little decisions each day - every time I make a decision to have oatmeal for breakfast instead of toast, or to pass up dipping into a co-worker's candy basket while passing by - I think of those as POSITIVE decisions made for the sake of my overall health.

As our Meg has said - it's the Holy Trinity of all of us here at the Ladies who Lift forum:

Clean nutrition
Cardio
Weight training

And there ya have it.

[SeekInnerThinChick]

You definitely need to strip off the fat with diet, no question. But I've found that some exercises make my thighs bigger, and some just make them tighter and smaller. For example: for cardio, I prefer the treadmill or the elliptical. They burn a lot of calories per minute, and they seem to make the muscles look longer, therefore smaller. I like to put the treadmill on an incline, up to 4.5 or so, because that works the bottom of the butt. I do some intervals, but not like a sprinter, because sprinters get big thighs. I want to think more like a marathoner, they have skinny legs and lots of endurance. So I work the lower body "long and slow"-- meaning 45 to 60 minutes at 3.5 mph walking interval, and 5.5 jogging interval. My goal is to eventually run 3K to 5K several times a week. That worked in the past to really strip the fat.

I use the rowing machine as well, but more sparingly, as I don't need or want big lats and the rowing motion literally pumps my legs up. I use the rowing machine mostly to give my legs a break if they are sore. And by "sore" I don't mean generalized muscle soreness, I mean pain in the joints, tendons, and ligaments. My thighs are especially prone to soreness of the iliotibial band, which runs from the hip to the ankle down the outside of the leg. There's a good article on this problem in Runner's World, May, 2004, p. 45. Hint: stretching and massage helps. The ball joint of the hip also takes a tremendous pounding, especially if you walk or run on hard surfaces. I wish I could tell you how to prevent pain there, but I haven't found a good answer to that one.

Swimming or other water exercise also seems to help, because you can "get at" small areas of muscle around the hips, thighs, and lower back that are sometimes difficult to work otherwise. The inner thighs, for example, and the smaller muscles buried deep around the base of the spine. Water work also helps to keep the area stretched and loose. And I think it somehow makes the hip and thigh area look more rounded and less boxy-- I have very square hips.

I stay away from the bicycle machine, because it works mainly the quads and hams, plus the butt, and the scrunched up position seems to make it easier for those areas to get bulkier, just as bicep curls make your arms bigger. I never do squats and lunges, that really makes me bigger.

I've also put quite a bit of work into building up my upper body, so I don't look so pear-shaped. The trick with that is to get the shoulders to look broader, by developing the upper back, deltoids, and triceps. At the same time, I'm trying to avoid making my neck any thicker and shorter-looking than it already is. I also have to be careful because that area gets very, very tight and tense, and it's easily injured.

The next priority for me is to get my waistline down, meaning diet and a lot more ab work. So at the end of this process, hopefully I'll be as curvy and hourglass-shaped as I want to be. I'm never going to have skinny legs like a model, that's not my genetics, and if you are the same way you just have to accept it and work with it. But there is a lot you can do to sculpt yourself, and the body adapts very fast. And it all pays off: when I first started this process in 2002, my right thigh measured 28" in the middle, halfway between the hip and the knee. Yesterday the same area measured 21.5". Good Luck.

[shell83]

Thanks for all the great suggestions....we'll see where it goes from here. BTW....im HORRIBLE with diets because I HATE THEM....working out...I love..i feel like something is accomplished RIGHT after I walk out of the gym...with diets you have to WAIT to see the results. drives me nuts. But if thighs werent enough...theres also that chunk of under arm flab ....I dont know of ANY exercises to HELP get rid of that. I've got all of my arms pretty toned EXCEPT for that ONE area...does that just kinda drop off WHEN I keep up with the diet?

[Ilene]

Yes, most of the time it will go away with good diet... You really shouldn't look at it as a "diet" but rather as a "lifestyle" change.... Cause "diets" don't work because they are a very short term cover-up ... "Lifestyle" is for LIFE and good HEALTH....

[Mel]

If you eat right and exercise, most everything "drops off" except excess skin and muscle. There are particular exercises which will remove fat from a localized portion of your body. To do that, you need to drop your overall body fat so that you can see, the muscle underneath it. I agree on staying away from the adductor and abductor machines if you store a lot of your fat on your thighs. You will just appear bigger because of growing the underlying muscle. I totally disagree with Seek about lunges and squats. These are compound, full body exercises which working just about everything below your neck. Lunges and their endless variations are usually the best exercise for sculpting your thighs and butt. They also strengthen your abdominal muscles and lower back.

But remember, there is no one answer that works the same for everyone. How your body reacts depends a lot on what type of fiber your muscles are primarily composed, your metabolism, age, etc. For me, it doesn't matter what kind of cardio I do, as long as I do it. Due to years of running (and not all distance runners are ultra-lean, only the pros), I can't run on hard surfaces any more. No amount of massage and stretching will repair the damage. The elliptical and bike work just fine for me. They don't make my quads huge- mine measure 19.5" at the mid-point and I do VERY heavy squats and leg presses and endless lunges. But some women build muscle very quickly due to either the percentage of fast twitch vs. slow twitch muscle fiber or their hormones. There is no single answer: in the end, you are an experiment of one. Any particular health issues you have also affect how your body responds.

Underarm flab- again, a function of age, muscle tone, body fat, weight lost, how long you were overweight or underconditioned. Great exercises for the muscles underneath include any tricep exercises, and any lat exercises which used the entire inner arm as well as lats, such as cable pull downs, pullups, lying overhead extensions with a single dumbell over a bench using straight arms.

As MrsJim and others have said, the food you eat is just as important (or more) as the exercise. Don't think of it as a diet- a diet is something that starts and ends, and then usually there is rebound and re-dieting. Look for a lifetyle change. Look at the kinds of food you eat and make changes towards higher quality proteins, more complex forms of carbs and loads of veggies.

Mel

[SeekInnerThinChick]

Mel's right about different bodies responding differently to any given exercise program, and you can see that very clearly if you look at our pictures, because our body types are very different. Mel has a well-proportioned skeletal system with good shoulders, a long waist, relatively compact hips and great longer legs. She's worked hard to get very symmetrical, and you can see she's a natural as a runner and athlete. (And a prettier smile, too!)

I'm not like that at all. Even on my best day running track in my 20's, at 118 pounds, I had 20" thighs. I've got a big skull, short neck, narrow shoulders, a narrow, short rib cage, wide hips with the pelvic bones sticking out, short thick legs, flat feet, short arms relative to the legs-- like little flippers. When I was really heavy I looked like a penguin! I'm what happens when an under 5' woman marries an over 6' man. So I'm a weird mix of proportions that don't go together. I'm a petite on top and a regular missy on the bottom.

And I'm not naturally athletic at all, I have to work pretty hard just to get a decent level of performance. I've also got PCOS, and like some other women on this site, the PCOS has an elevated testosterone component, which I think is the underlying reason why I can get bulky. Weird, but hey, those were the cards I was dealt.

That's why I picked the exercises I do-- because I want to change my proportions, not just emphasize what's already there. So, for example, I do a lot of lower body cardio to go AGAINST my body type rather than WITH it, and I work the weights on top to go AGAINST type, again. Believe me, I'd do Mel's program if I thought it would give me a body like hers, but I know from experience that's not me. And that's the point. You need to experiment with different things and consult with people to find out what works for your unique body, and then work out a program that's customized. It like tailoring your clothes-- in the end you'll get a body that just "fits" better. Good Luck.

[Mel]

First, I need to correct a sentence in my previous post: There are NO particular exercises to remove fat from a localized portion of your body! Geez, I left out the most important word!

Secondly, Seek's post just goes to show that perceptions really differ.

Mel has a well-proportioned skeletal system with good shoulders, a long waist, relatively compact hips and great longer legs. She's worked hard to get very symmetrical, and you can see she's a natural as a runner and athlete.

Mel actually has HUGE shoulders and a rib cage suited to a barrel chested guy, is short waisted, and has NO waist and is not a natural runner. But I appreciate all the complements. I've always felt my skeletal system was freakish, too, Seek. We're just the opposite, I'm big on top and smaller on the bottom. All my weight is/was carried on my middle which isn't long enough to distribute it real well.

Mel

[SeekInnerThinChick]

Now you're just being modest! Shoulders that an Armani model would die for! Long and straight, just what designers look for to show off their clothes! Fabulous legs! And what a six-pack! I need to study your ab routine, as I look like Alfred Hitchcock in profile, right down to the baggy-skin turkey wattles under the chin...

You should really put your pictures in the gallery, they are just spectacular, Mel.

[Mel]

Seek, I swear you are looking at someone else. Where did you see my pics?

Are you thinking of my old avatar????? That wasn't me, but a Dutch bodybuilder named Juliette Bergman many years ago. She has held every title in the world including Ms. Olympia in the mid 90's. The picture of her was taken when she was about 34, I think, and at her most beautiful stage. I saw her about a month ago at the Arnold in Columbus and she's HUGE, no longer competing and still showing the effects of years of steroids.

Mel

[SeekInnerThinChick]

Mel, I saw your pictures on the LWL MSN gallery. The ones with your family and Cleo the dog. Isn't that you? I've never seen the other lady you mention.

I really think your physique now looks great-- balanced and proportioned. Everything blends and flows. I personally like the look of multi-sport athletes, like gymnasts, modern dancers, triathlon or track people, something like the new "Nike goddess" ads. There's a strong sense of "design," action, and movement-- form following function. Like Jackie Chan-- I've got such a crush on that guy....

(Gosh, I hope we aren't hijacking this thread-- oops, sorry!)

[MrsJim]

Originally Posted by SeekInnerThinChick

Now you're just being modest! Shoulders that an Armani model would die for! Long and straight, just what designers look for to show off their clothes! Fabulous legs! And what a six-pack!

Well, I've only had them 2 months and I already need new contacts...I'm LOOKING at that photo of our Mel in the MSN gallery (with family and Cleo) and I'm just not seeing that six-pack you're mentioning...I guess I should've ordered the 'X-Ray Specs"!!!

(sorry...couldn't resist...it's hard to see a six-pack behind a pooch and apparel...)