Avid reader first time poster. poster child for “overweight ex-athlete”…a year off of competitive cycling has left me with a sweet tooth, and no abs. tried to run it off and am now dealing with a fun case of plantar fascitis that won’t seem to go away. work on my feet so no time to heal, and after a hard day’s work the 30 min walk home from the gym is a bummer. doctor’s appt. for that on thurs. updates all around.
i’m naturally a big boy and weightlifting plus eating for a year straight has left my big boy legs a little to big for comfort. to frame it in: even when i was riding 12-15 hours a week on my bike dudes still said i had big legs. now sticking to the basics of “deadlift and squat” these things are swollen. they rub. waaaaah! i want to thin these bad boys out. coupla points:
5’7" about 210
currently low carb with cheat days…gonna scratch that after reading here.
circuit training ripped straight from these here pages. i keep it moving. with full body movements.
i’m seeing results but i would like to especially thin up my legs. sounds silly but a lot of weight is in my legs, and at this point i want to get down to a more proportioned weight/frame. i have a feeling that i won’t be able to run for a couple of months, and no longer own a bike.
i walk and stand for a living so more walking? add a high rep day on the leg press, and leg extensions. these are not currently in my repertoire and i’m wondering if adding high rep day for just legs would be a way to trim up the legs.
Big legs are never a bad thing- my girl likes mine. I highly doubt that they have gotten so big that they rub together from muscle gain alone. How far along are you with your fat-loss plan and how lean are you currently?
Get to a low bodyfat (ie, see your abs) and see if you still have the problem. The issue could also have to do with your alignment (knees caving in). Do they rub at the crotch or near the knee?
i’m a few weeks in. i’m going to stop the cheat days. i can see shades of abs at the top, but i know that i have a ways to go to be back where i want, or better at least where i was a year ago.
[quote]DanErickson wrote:
Hi reps will make your legs blow up more.[/quote]
that was my understanding, but i thought i’d try.
just got back from the doctor. turns out i’m 218. i’ve gained 40 lbs…this is ridiculous. okay…what to do. what to do. i’m attaching an image so you guys know what i look like.
For losing size, the best thing I’ve found, is medium intensity running.
Go to the track and jog/easy run for as long as you can.
Rest 5 minutes. And go again.
This should stimulate your type 1s and leave your type 2s alone.
I would stop doing low and medium rep sets of anything for lower body. Keep everything over 25reps and don’t go to a huge intensity. Theoretically any set over 2mins should be type 1 only and so will increase the mitochondria in your muscles, allowing you to burn more energy with your legs, however in one of Polliquin’s recent articles he actually recommended high rep sets to increase leg size.
I can only imagine however that he was talking about doing this with a very high intensity in order to invoke the size principle (biggest fibres only come in when they have to, when you give it everything) so I would keep it to a moderate intensity, and monitor your legs closely. If they seem to be getting bigger after a few weeks, then stop the high rep sets.
Think of it this way. You’re lucky. Most of us don’t like squats or deadlifts, but we do them. You have a free pass to only work your upper body.
Someone will chime in here and say “You HAVE to do your lower body” to which I would reply, if a muscle group is oversized, the last thing you do is train it more in a hypertrophy range. It will only get bigger if you do.
One pic is worth a thousand posts. You’re right. Your legs are out of proportion to your upper body. Whodathunkit?!? What brand of pants do you buy?
I agree with Sxio’s recommendations. Try steady state cardio (((shudder))) and focus on upper body lifts to maintain mass and strength there. Overall fat loss will help slim down your legs but don’t forget that a slimmer midsection may make the legs “appear” even larger. At least you won’t chirp when you walk. You’ll definitely need to dial in your diet too. What is your current diet like?
[quote]Kruiser wrote:
One pic is worth a thousand posts. You’re right. Your legs are out of proportion to your upper body. Whodathunkit?!? What brand of pants do you buy?
I agree with Sxio’s recommendations. Try steady state cardio (((shudder))) and focus on upper body lifts to maintain mass and strength there. Overall fat loss will help slim down your legs but don’t forget that a slimmer midsection may make the legs “appear” even larger. At least you won’t chirp when you walk. You’ll definitely need to dial in your diet too. What is your current diet like? [/quote]
I don’t think he is worried about his legs appearing to large so much as he is worrying about his legs being uncomfortably big.
I think I would try cutting body fat. You look like you have a half decent amount of muscle under there, I bet you would look awesome with some more definition.
Thanks. I knew an image would get more response. Right now my diet is pretty much, protein shakes, tuna, salad, eggs, veggies, berries and the occasional apple. i rotate through that most days. Weekends i eat whatever i want, but i’m cutting that out starting…now: okay another thing is that i talked to a personal trainer at my gym. After all the problems I’ve been having with getting my shit straight I’m making the plunge. He’s going to write my diet, and that will be that.
I’m going to stick with my workouts. And unfortunately i can’t run right now, because i have plantar fascitis but i’m doing some hiit after my circuit routine. walking on my off gym days, but that has been thrown to the wolves since my foot problem. i have a podiatrist appt. on monday. i don’t want to run a marathon (i’ve trained for one before), but i’d like to get back into cycling someday. I was pretty lean then, too.
I’ll turn this into my log of sorts and post my diet. The personal trainer is no slouch, and is at a very high level. I see him at the gym and dude is shredded, and natural.
[quote]Kruiser wrote:
One pic is worth a thousand posts. You’re right. Your legs are out of proportion to your upper body. Whodathunkit?!? What brand of pants do you buy?
I agree with Sxio’s recommendations. Try steady state cardio (((shudder))) and focus on upper body lifts to maintain mass and strength there. Overall fat loss will help slim down your legs but don’t forget that a slimmer midsection may make the legs “appear” even larger. At least you won’t chirp when you walk. You’ll definitely need to dial in your diet too. What is your current diet like? [/quote]
Stretch pants, because I’m punk as hell. Don’t you see my tatoos, bro? jk. I wear Levi’s with stretch in them. (no homo)
[quote]Hagar wrote:
Rub lard in between your thighs. I make my own with beef fat trimmings from my steaks. It saves money and lasts longer than butter. [/quote]
Great to hear you have a good personal trainer, I hope he helps to keep you motivated. Concerning the diet you may want to consider picking up Dr. Berardi’s book called “Gourmet Nutrition”. It will be a hell of a lot cheaper than paying a personal trainer for a meal plan and Berardi can probably clean the guys clock when it comes to teaching people how to eat properly.
