I recently read an article saying that if you are spoon or pear shaped (i.e. small upper body, large hips, butt and thighs) that you should never use resistance when doing lower body exercises because it will add bulk. They even said to avoid some exercises like squats. I am a classic pear shape and I've seemed to notice that I bulk up when I use resistance but I don't know if it's because of the exercises or for some other reason (like I'm not doing the exercises properly, not streching enough, etc.) I would like to know some other people's opinions on this matter before I banish all lower body resistance training. It would help a lot. Thanks!!

Hmmm, what you read sure runs counter to my experience. I'm most definitely a pear shape too - I was always two sizes bigger on the bottom than the top (size 18 top, size 22 bottom). I did heavy weight training as I lost the weight and ended up losing 22 inches off my hips. Sometimes I wear a smaller size on the bottom than the top now.

My favorite butt trimming exercises are squats, lunges, hack squats, and step-ups.

The only way that using resistance on lower body exercises will bulk you up is if you build muscle without losing the fat that's on top of the the muscle. Otherwise, adding muscle will just make you look tighter and smaller since a pound of muscle takes up about 1/3 the space of a pound of fat. If you're doing a balanced program of clean nutrition, cardio, and weight training for all muscle groups, I think you'll be really happy with the results!

thanks!! I think I my problem is that when i was doing the resistance training I was eating too much, and therefore not losing the fat. I didn't really trust the advice because I've heard from many sources that lunges and squats are the best things for your lower body. Thanks again and congradulations on all your sucess. You look great!~!

Agree that that's not true. I do weighted squats and plies, and you can check out my pics below to see how they have made me really slim down my bottom half. I also do a lot of cardio but can def say the weights have not bulked me up.