Bulky Thighs and Calves

R

Rach24

0
Hi, I´m 5"5 and weigh about 118lbs and about a month ago returned to the gym after a three month lazy period! My problem is that my thighs and calves have suddenly really bulked up and I have no idea why or what to do about it.

I normally do about 1 hour - 1.25 hours of cardio 3 days a week, nothing too strenuous but definitely works up a sweat:

30 min treadmill, 15 min stationary bike, 10 min rowing, 10 min elliptical.

More or less what I have always done without ever having this problem before.

I´ve done a lot of reading and found loads of conflicting advice about what to do, especially as it´s definitely mainly muscle and as far as I can see not much fat.

Can anyone help as it´s really getting me down.

Thanks
 
apparently you are eating enough and working hard enough that you're gaining lean muscle mass (although I encourage you to measure your thighs and calves to see if they truly are getting larger, or just 'look' bigger as they get more defined due to fat loss).

are you lifting weights also? if not...why not? fitness and fat loss isn't just endless cardio.
 
If this is indeed lean muscle mass, why see it as such a bad thing?

One of my friends has calves of steel, she runs lots of marathons and hers are huge, but I think it's something to be proud of.

Do you have pictures, they may not be as "bulky" as you think, especially if you are thinking it's a bad thing.
 
Ican see your point and can empathise, my calves were one of the first things to expand when I stated spinning and running!

Stretching can help I think- I don't have a definitive answer as I never did not stretch! But I think it tends to help overall as when you use a muscle, it shortens. When you stretch it legnthens out, I'd imagine (again not sure) that this helps as when you exercise, your muscles are used and overused they get micro tears. They then need to heal in time for you to use them again but this time they get stronger and firmer. If you have stretched them out, I'd imagine they would heal in the stretched out format rather then the shortened format, thus longer rahter then shorter and maybe less bulky? I don't know, its all a guess but thats what I'd think.

Yoga (Hatha and Restorative yoga especially) I think are great for additional stretching as you tend to hold stretched out positions for upwards of 5 minutes rather then Ashtanga which holds poses for less then 5 seconds if your lucky. Yoga is also great as you tend to stretch in additional ways that traditional stretching does not touch.

Hope this helps.

I also have to say (and I don't want to put a dampener on everything but...) I do think there is quite a bit of genetics in it aswell, theres only so much you can control and if your parents have naturally a sturdy figure then your likely to obtain a similar shape too.
 
Thanks for the advice.

Malkore - i´ve started doing some leg presses to see if they help - low weight lots of reps, I think that´s the correct way to do it in order not to bulk up!

Summer123 - I think you may be right with the genetics idea as both my mum and dad are very slim but with quite muscular legs. Whats really annoying though is that this has never happened to me before. I might see if I can find some local Yoga classes to give that a try too.
 
Did you play soccer? I know a couple of women who played soccer during their younger years and have fairly muscular legs. Really, as long as you are keeping the fat off, i wouldnt worry about it. I can respect a woman with shapely legs, especially because pencil legs dont really look good on any woman. Curves and shape is never a bad thing.
 
Thanks for the comments! It´s nice to know that healthy legs are appreciated too! I´ve never played soccer but since I was 15 or so I´ve always enjoyed running. Maybe the effects of 10 years of running are now finally beginning to show!
 
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