Thigh

[rowyn]

I am angry at my thighs.

Now, the women of my family carry weight all over, and I have fat everywhere: under my chin, in my cheeks, on my arms, my stomach, my chest -- everywhere. But the fat on my thighs particularly annoys me, because it's that dimpled ripply fat. The fat on my arms may wobble from side to side when I sway them, but at least the skin over it is smooth.

I am especially angry at my thighs because the vast majority of the exercises I do on a daily basis are leg exercises -- usually emphasizing the thigh. If any part of my body should be in shape, it's my thighs. They've got no excuse for looking like the flabbiest, shabbiest part of me.

Yesterday, I decided to take my wrath at my thighs out on them. I tried doing hip shimmies to failure, and not just the simple shimmies but the really hard ones, knees bent low and the motion smooth, instead of snapping at the hip. I couldn't quite force myself to keep doing it until I was physically incapable of continuing, but I did manage to produce quite interesting sensations in my thighs. After that, I switched to hip circles, which was the exercise that I used to kill my thighs with when I started exercising last year. When I first started those, five or six minutes of it would leave my thighs miserable for the entire following day.

This morning, as I was puttering around getting ready for work, I realized that my thighs didn't hurt. My calves were a little sore -- what's up with that? I didn't do any toe raises!

My thighs to my calves: "Flyweights."

I gotta get me some weights.

Comments

[howardtayler.livejournal.com]

It's time to debunk Myth #1 of weight-loss programs... There is no such thing as "spot-toning." Visibly, most people who lose weight will first lose weight first from around the face, and then the waist, and then the buttocks and thighs.

This means it doesn't matter WHAT you work, the fat comes off according to your body's hard-coded energy-storage prioritization scheme.

This in turn means that in order to lose the (I'm making these numbers up and not pointing fingers) 20 pounds of fat that are making unsightly ripples on the thighs, you have to lose the 20 pounds of fat on the belly and buttocks first.

The only thing spot-toning will accomplish is the toning of the muscles underlying the fat. This is a great way to look healthier fast -- strong triceps don't wobble so much, and strong abs tend to hold the gut a little more taut.

It sounds to me like you might need the same thing I need -- long bouts of boring, repetitive cardio workouts, followed by much longer bouts of "don't eat unless you're really, REALLY hungry, and then go easy."

*sigh*

Debunking is good for you!

[zorkfox.livejournal.com]

Thank you for saying what I was going to say, only with greater eloquence. It really is more about eating right and getting regular exercise, than it is about toning a specific portion of your body. Good advice, howardtayler.

[skyflame.livejournal.com]

Something that I noticed that really toned up my thighs (and the legs overall) was running. Granted, most of my excess fat is in the ab region, and that's never going to go away without medical help at this point.