Large Calves

I basically have man legs. I'd like to thank 11 years of soccer for these lovely legs. I was just wondering if anyone knows any particular exercises that I could perform to shrink my large calves. They look really ridiculous and I hate wearing skirts. Any info would help thanks.


Amanda
 
Hi Amanda, do you have any idea of your fat %? I know that you want your muscles (gastrocnemious) to become smaller, but that's actually unlikely to happen. So, you would have to work on it by trying to drop your fat % whereby you will notice some results. Additionally, it would be a good idea to avoid doing the excercises that uses those muscules intensively.

Later.
 
Sounds like a side-effect of toe-running (i.e., when you run quickly in soccer you usually do it this way, which causes you to really pump your calves).

Technically I guess you could burn the muscle by doing some really long, slow, endurance cardio (try cycling for an hour-and-a-half each day :), which isn't going to work your calves as hard). Of course, working out to burn muscle isn't always the best idea -- but if you want to get rid of muscle, you either break it down for fuel, or you let it atrophy -- and we don't want the latter.

My two cents - not an expert opinion by any means.
 
This probably isnt' what you want to hear, but I think calf size is pretty much genetic. My mother naturally is very strong and has large muscles (not like me!). She was very athletic through high school, but gained a ton of weight after she became pregnant with her second child and kept it on for over 10 years (we're talking 235 pounds). She always had large calves from high school, to being obese, and now being very healthy and fit. She has very tiny ankles and a 27 inch waist so she is not fat! My ex boyfriend was always jealous of her calves because no matter how hard he worked (which was VERY hard) he could not gain muscle in his calves.

I say love your calves and show them off! I agree with mreik - they are sexy! They would only look bad if you were really scrawny everywhere else! :)
 
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