How do you shrink your inner thighs?

pilates!!!

Lauraetco said:
I've seen results with everything except my inner thighs and lower butt. They just won't shrink!!! A few weeks ago, I added a few pilate moves for the thighs to my routine because I heard that really makes a difference. Does it? How long does it take?
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Honestly, I haven't found anything that works BETTER than pilates! If I do pilates and cut out simple carbs for a week or two, I look FABULOUS! I don't think you should do leg weights if you are trying to shrink your lower half. Do pilates, yoga, and 10-15 minutes on the stair-climber a few times a week. This will make you have a long, lean, ballerina-type body (aka perfect!). Let us know about your progress!

Oh, and aim for 1200 calories, too many more and you probably won't lose fast enough, and less than that will make your body go into "starvation mode" and will hinder your energy and metabolism.
 
No dont starve yourself! You need food! 1200 is far too low! (unless you are a very tiny person)
you need to build quality muscle to boost your metabolism. if you starve the fat off you will just starrve the muscle off and then it will come back as fat.
I would not reccommend pilates or yoga. If you can walk than you do not need rehab and flexability is not quite related to your goals
 
Hi Laura,

Try doing 2 - 3 leg workouts per week WITHOUT WEIGHTS OR MACHINES. Everything else you are doing looks alright. You are probably thinking "No weights, no machines. What does this guy expect me to do?" There are A TON of exercises for your lower body that do not require weights or machines, do some net searching, go through some old magazines, etc. What you are doing isn't getting the areas you are unhappy with, so you gotta change something.

While you can't spot reduce, YOU CAN SPOT TONE. We help our clients do it all the time.

Joey Atlas
 
It frustrates me when men dismiss my comments about exercises that I along with MANY other women have personally tried and found to be the ONLY thing that works. At 5'1" 1200 calories IS adequate. I am graduating this year with a degree in exercise and sport science, so these are not random numbers I am pulling out of my head. Ninja may not find this calorie reduction or pilates/yoga beneficial to him. He obviously believes that flexibility is the only gain you make from these exercises. Ninja's comments are hurting women on this board by discouraging them from doing exercises that in fact firm and sculpt. Professional ballerinas do these exercises to help them train. Yes, you gain flexibility, but you lift your butt, flatten your stomach, eliminate love handles, and SHRINK YOUR THIGHS as well. I know, because I've done the whole lifting weights/running which made my thighs BIGGER. I'm sure you will eat more than 1200 calories some days, which is fine. But aim for not more than this on a regular basis along with the pilates. Try it every day for 2 WEEKS (no need to do it more than an hour a day, you don't even need to run so as not to skew the results) and if you don't see any improvement, you can come on here and prove me wrong.

People, PLEASE only give advice on things that YOU have tried. MEN: your bodies are different from ours, even though I do know some men who look AMAZING doing advanced pilates/yoga training. Just because you dont' know about something doesn't mean it isn't good.
 
I am a yoga instructor as well. But I have to say that anyone new to yoga or pilates should work directly with an instructor. As a personal trainer and nutritionist too (I've been in school FOREVER), I can say this...pilates and yoga are great for toning a women's body, BUT there needs to be additional factors such as great nutrition, great cardio and great rest for proper fat loss to be achieved.

Pilates and yoga are really nothing more than fancy pushups or crunches. And I have seen too many women injured from pilates. I am allowed to say this because I teach crunches and I teach yoga :D lol

The one caveat I have with the above post is the comment about lifting weights made the thighs bigger... this can happen if you are predisposed to a certain type of muscle fiber, or if you were engaged in a caloric surplus, or if you were on a hypertrophy strength training program.

For the majority or women, strength training does not equal bulking up. I just want to make that clear for other women reading these boards. Strength training (wether it is with weights, pilates, or yoga) is good for you. Just do it properly and create a program for your goals. But realize fat loss is mostly diet.
 
Hi Lauraetco,

After skimming your post, here are my thoughts:

You can use some more cardio.
You should do legs 2 or 3 times per week, only once using weights and machines. The rest should be body weight moves and floor work (do this properly and it is also cardio).
You can probably incorporate a few exercises to target those areas, such as a one leg hip extension lying on the floor. Remember, you can't spot reduce but you can spot tone.

Joey Atlas - M.S. Exercise Physiology
 
Thanks Trainer Lynn. It helps to have someone with a background to explain what I can't!

I would like to clarify something I said about bulking up my thighs. I'm not sure if they got a whole lot bigger, but they are smaller now that I don't use the machines. I assumed this was because I am not using such heavy weight (only body resistance). I do know that muscle burns off fat, so if you find pilates boring or it hurts you, instead of lifting on the machines I would do traditional squats, kicks, lunges!

Good luck maf and LET US KNOW WHAT WORKED FOR YOU!!! :)
 
This might sound crazy or weird to some of you but i have my own way of spot reduction. I pick the area that i think is too large say for example my claves and thighs...then i eat in caloric deficit for weight loss....then i work all my muslces except the ones that need to shrink...by working out the muscles that I want to keep while in a diet mode, I don't lose them. But the muscles I dont work out while in diet mode shrink....let me know what you guys think....
 
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