Wanted shapely legs, got bulky ones! What to do?!

[Trinny]

Hey, I'm a 23 year old girl and I have been going to the gym for about 2 years now, about 4 times a week. I do an even mixture of cardio and weights. I have always been kinda skinny, so just wanted to give myself some shape.

 

Well after about a year of intense weight training my upper body looks great while my lower body is just bigger! My thighs are noticeably larger than they were before and it really annoys me, they look out of porportion to the rest of my body. They are rock hard, but make me look fat because I'm quite short.

 

I don't know how to reverse this process... Obviously I've overdone the weight training on my legs, but I don't want to stop completely, because resistance training is extremely important. How do I get them back to the smaller size and shape they were before???

[Haunani]

have you tried pilates or the Firm tapes? They are excellent tapes for the legs. The firm uses resistance weights but not too heavy so you don't bulk. Pilates is a killer for me, but I love them, they stretch you out so you look and feel leaner and longer. Well I'm still working on that one - at only 5'0 I didn't grow much

[Craig]

Use lighter weights and more reps for resistance training. Try 3 sets of 15 to 20 reps.

 

Are you sure that your legs look fat or do YOU just think they look fat? Ask a couple of the staff at the gym where you train. Sometimes people have a distorted self image, take me for example, when I was training hard I had less than 5% body fat but I still FELT fat. That is distortion!