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muscular legs
- Thread starter deena1
- Start date
What exercises have you been doing to get too large for your liking? Rule out the possibility that your diet isn't the cause of this, i.e. water/fat gain as well.
Daisy has a link in her sticky on this subject. I'd read it, great ingfo in there.
http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?t=227366
I went thru this back in March April ... but I dropped lifting heavy weight and most leg work all together. Only Cardio & calf work, any, if at all, was high reps low weight, NO squats.
Now I've added size up top to try and give me a more 'balanced' look, without sacrificing too much hard-earned muscle
I can't help but say this, what is the tape measurement of your leg compared to before? Maybe you just Reshaped them a little while ridding of fat & adding some size ??? ... I wouldn't judge their size just because a pair of pants do not fit the way it use to, esp. when your goal was to add size there in the 1st place, ya know?
Daisy has a link in her sticky on this subject. I'd read it, great ingfo in there.
http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?t=227366
I went thru this back in March April ... but I dropped lifting heavy weight and most leg work all together. Only Cardio & calf work, any, if at all, was high reps low weight, NO squats.
Now I've added size up top to try and give me a more 'balanced' look, without sacrificing too much hard-earned muscle
I can't help but say this, what is the tape measurement of your leg compared to before? Maybe you just Reshaped them a little while ridding of fat & adding some size ??? ... I wouldn't judge their size just because a pair of pants do not fit the way it use to, esp. when your goal was to add size there in the 1st place, ya know?
Spot Reduction Myth
Contrary to what the info commercials suggest, there is no such thing as spot reduction. Fat is lost throughout the body in a pattern dependent upon genetics, sex (hormones), and age. Overall body fat must be reduced to lose fat in any particular area. Although fat is lost or gained throughout the body, it seems the last area to become lean or the first area to get fat is the midsection (in men and some women) and hips and thighs (in women and few men). Sit-ups, crunches, leg-hip raises, leg raises, hip adduction, hip abduction, etc. will only exercise the muscles under the fat.
Some other interesting reads here.
Spot Reduction Myth
Contrary to what the info commercials suggest, there is no such thing as spot reduction. Fat is lost throughout the body in a pattern dependent upon genetics, sex (hormones), and age. Overall body fat must be reduced to lose fat in any particular area. Although fat is lost or gained throughout the body, it seems the last area to become lean or the first area to get fat is the midsection (in men and some women) and hips and thighs (in women and few men). Sit-ups, crunches, leg-hip raises, leg raises, hip adduction, hip abduction, etc. will only exercise the muscles under the fat.
Some other interesting reads here.
Spot Reduction Myth
strawberry2
Member
treilin said:You can send your muscle my way
AMEN to that! My legs are the hardest to gain muscle....
I gain muscle easily in my lower body ... so I stopped weight training it TOTALLY and went to just doing plyometrics. Did wonders.
takniteasy
Banned
I also have muscular legs (Thank you, Mom!). I will do traveling (walking) lunges with an extended stride. In addition, I will change my leg routine to lite to moderate weight, higher reps and no squats. This seems to help define the muscle more so than to build w/o sacrificing the mass.
Oh, and long cardio sessions on eliptical trainers (45 mins. plus)
If your clothes fit you differently, maybe try a different style?
Oh, and long cardio sessions on eliptical trainers (45 mins. plus)
If your clothes fit you differently, maybe try a different style?
nikkita
New member
if you have a low BF% then you can increase frequency of training, say if you have trained legs one day a week you can do them twice per week... this way you'll be focusing on shape not merely on size.
Howevever if your bf% is not that low you'll have to focus on reducing fat and preserving as much muscle tissue as possible.
Howevever if your bf% is not that low you'll have to focus on reducing fat and preserving as much muscle tissue as possible.
I do not think dropping the weight and doing mass amounts of reps is the answer here.
Bunny (and I) dropped weighted leg work to help reduce leg size .... but I know Bunny was doing a lot of sprinting (great for legs) and I was doing a lot of plyometrics and some HIIT on stairs. THIS is what helped reduce leg size and still maintain muscularity and definition.
Dropping weights and doing endless reps is typically NOT the best choice. If you reduce the amount of stress on the muscle - what do you think will happen? Do you think you will be able to maintain your current level of solid muscle and defintion (or even improve it)? If that were the case - I will do endless bicep curls with a soup can and get defined muscle. I don't think so.
Bunny (and I) dropped weighted leg work to help reduce leg size .... but I know Bunny was doing a lot of sprinting (great for legs) and I was doing a lot of plyometrics and some HIIT on stairs. THIS is what helped reduce leg size and still maintain muscularity and definition.
Dropping weights and doing endless reps is typically NOT the best choice. If you reduce the amount of stress on the muscle - what do you think will happen? Do you think you will be able to maintain your current level of solid muscle and defintion (or even improve it)? If that were the case - I will do endless bicep curls with a soup can and get defined muscle. I don't think so.
Also - are you SURE it is muscle? What is your leg skinfold?
bw1
Banned
Daisy_Girl said:
DG is exactly right here. I have had lots of women ask me for help. I hear the same things, I don't want to much muscle
I don't want to be to big Translation: I AM LAZY AND I WANT THE EASY WAY OUTIf your legs are lean, I'll bet there not to big or if they are big with muscle your a genetically gifted freak and you should have my baby because he will be Mr. Olympia
. If there not lean, I'm going to go with diet as the problem. TRAIN TO BUILD MUSCLE. EAT TO LOOSE FAT. Post up your diet here and let DG and the other girls tweak it for you. You'll be suprised on what you can accomplish
thanks for all the great thoughts! I think they started gaining size since I have been doing Anavar. My strength levels went thru the roof and I could do really heavy leg presses, extensions...
My BF is around 11-12% and diet is very clean. So, maybe it is water gain, but they look muscular and big and I dont like it. Time to stop the Anavar.
My BF is around 11-12% and diet is very clean. So, maybe it is water gain, but they look muscular and big and I dont like it. Time to stop the Anavar.
deena1 said:
Var alone does NOT cause huge muscle gain. It is the EXERCISE CHOICES combined with Var.
Change exercises, and you will change your results.
I am genetically gifted in the leg development area, and I have taken Var and reduced leg size while maintaining (and improving) muscle definition in my lower body. It is exercise choices that dictate the results here (obviously, combined with diet).
Oh, and I *still* want to know the thigh skinfold to see what we are dealing with.
takniteasy
Banned
I see the need to clarify: Lite to moderate weights and increasing reps to 12-15. Not endless reps, as that is catabolic and a waste of time. I also should have added (along with DG and the others), check your skinfolds on your thighs. You could be carrying more BF there than you know.takniteasy said:
