Tone those legs! Advice?

So I'm an exercise newbie in what could be seen as probably the most extreme sense of the word. I have a gym membership, but when I go I mostly just fumble around at the machines like a kid playing in his dad's toolshed. I lack direction, I have no plan, and it's a big dissuasion to actually going because I always feel like an idiot surrounded by all the seasoned fitness buffs, grunting and groaning and rippling with muscles. o.0

I know what I WANT to get out of my workouts, of course! I just don't know how to get there. My biggest problem area is my thighs. I want a routine (or just some pointers, even) to help me sculpt them and especially get rid of that flabby loose-ness on the inner thigh. I'm aware that you lose weight typically at the same rate everywhere so it's impossible to 'lose' in trouble spots alone, but it's not impossible to shape them up!

So, any advice on legs, cc? What do you do/have you done in the past? What's effective? Also, general advice on gym use would be a bonus, too, if you've got any.

New Rules of Lifting for Women.

I second NROL.  Great program.

Does your gym offer complimentary sessions with a PT?  That might be useful if you don't know how to use proper form when lifting weights.  Do you have a buddy who's an experienced lifter?  Get some pointers or tag along for a few workouts.

I love Shape Magazine/Also Shape Online.  They feature routines and show  how the movements should be done correctly.   I also agree with 1aprilfool.  If you can have a Trainer take you through the machines/free weights and give you the basics you will really benefit.  Good Luck and Congrats on a step forward to better health!

NROL is awesome.

 

Short answer: squats and deadlifts will whip those legs right into shape and NO you won't add bulk because you CAN'T due to your ovaries and vagina. 99% of the women who cry they are adding bulk are adding fat over their muscles, not loading up on muscle

Just throwing that out there

Oh, and Shape magazine makes Baby Jesus cry. I've seen more fitness misinformation from Shape than freakin' Cosmo, and that's saying something - the incompetents at Shape are a disgrace to the whole Fitness field.

 They're the morons who managed to call a 20lbs deadlift "heavy". 

Yeah, right - for your 110 year old grandma, maybe.

I've had some personal training sessions and they pretty much give you advise on what order to work in, how much and how to use the machines. So, that's good but, ususally you have to pay & it's expensive.   I would break your routine into two portions : cardio and strength training.  Start off on the treadmill or eliptical walking then once you are warmed up move up to jogging and then when make sure to walk again at the end to cool down. The goal is to get your heart rate up and keep it up for 20-30 min.  But, when you are first getting started, don't strain yourself, it may be easier to start with 10-15 min. sessions and build up.   Doing cardio workouts will help decrease the size of your thighs (and everything else). It also helps to build muscle, so the machines are good for that (there's often a little diagram on the machine showing what area of the body it is for) and squats like spirochete said. But, it's very important that you know how to use the machines correctly and how to do squats correctly. You don't have to have a personal training session for that, you can just ask someone who works at the gym "I'm not sure I know how to use this machine corretly, can you show me? & Can you give me some advise about proper form when doing squats? "  They don't mind helping you at all  if you only have a couple of questions.   

By the way, Spirochete, what are you talking about? Women can add bulk, hello!  I got big arms in high school from bench pressing.  And you know you've seen women with massive theighs that are muscular, not flabby. Because they work out so much (Or are female postal carriers).  & P.S. you dont' have to mention our lady parts so crudely to make a point.  Thanks, have a nice day, goodbye.    

 Your frame of reference is off, apparently. So let's do a visual.

Muscle Bulk. Also muscle bulk. And there's muscle, under all that bulk.

Not muscle bulk. Also not muscle bulk. And not muscle bulk either

Okay, I grant you Iris Kyle as an example of muscle bulk, but she has more steroids than any three pharmacies runing through her at any given moment.

 So don't do steroids and don't eat like it's your job, and you won't bulk up.

 Oh, and stay off the machines.  Machines mean more pain and less gain, they hamper your progress and if you get too used to machine training you need to actually retrain your body to work as a unit again if and when you move to the free weights.

 Aslo, warmups before lifting are best accomplished through mobility drills and bodyweight ROM exercises, not traditional cardio.

 Cardio is optional for weight loss, and is normally best performed post-lifting unless you have sports-specific training needs that supersede normal physiological considerations.

Original Post by empyreal:

 P.S. you dont' have to mention our lady parts so crudely to make a point.  Thanks, have a nice day, goodbye.    

Is there sand in your vagina :(

LOL. I think its crazy when women talk about how much they are afraid of "bulking" up...

Do you think its that easy for a female body builder to look the way she does?  I can just see  the interview now:

Interviewer: What program did you follow to get these amazing results?

Female Arnold Schwartzenegger: Oh, one day i picked up a dumbell and my bicep got so big it ripped the sleeve of my shirt into shreds. its that easy!

 

Seriously ladies, lifting weights is not going to turn you into the incredible hulk!

and for the record i think there was nothing crude about spiro's point. It just seems ridiculous that the female population has somehow been trained to think that weight lifting will turn us into some big muscular monster....

viyahn,

I have my prob areas as my love handles and my upper thighs, and then of course the tree trunks I call calves, lol. While most guys love a pear-shape goddess, we women will always hate something about it ;).

So here's what I do and it works wonders for me (granted I switch up my routine every 50-90 days):

Monday: Abs 10 mins, Spin Class 60 mins

Tuesday: Legs (dead lifts until muscle failure, about 5 different kinds of squats, lunges, front and rear leg lifts, and I can't help but do the inner and outer thigh machine even though I know it does minimal damage, lol), basically go until I have the frankenstein walk lol.

Wed: Chest, tricepts, Shoulders

Thursday: Abs 10 mins, Spin Class 60 mins

Fri: Back & Bicepts & abs

Sat: Run it Day (8-10 miles at a slow pace with timed sprints)

Sunday: off day & sauna & sleep.

I have lost 2 inches off my thighs and one off my calves since starting this program about 45 days ago. No weight loss really but my muscle definition is starting to kick @$$

I also agree with Ms. Meg... there is just no way to bulk really. Unless you take roids. Heck, I take creatine on a daily (for the past 4 wks on this cycle anyhow) and I take protein powder, and waxy maze carbs, and etc, etc, etc. I am not bulk in any means... in fact I like to think I am "condensing" into a tough little powerhouse of muscle :D. I think they call that a "hard body" ;). Anyhow, good luck girly, and yeah lift heavy and focus on legs... it will come off when your diet and workout align. :)

 

Original Post by empyreal:

P.S. you dont' have to mention our lady parts so crudely to make a point.  Thanks, have a nice day, goodbye.    

 Uhm... what's crude about a woman (or even man, for that matter) saying that women have ovaries and vagina? Am i missing something here? Are we five-year-olds or adults? Personally, i even have an uterus and i don't make a secret of it. And I'm aware that having all of them and not having a penis (is anyone running in terror and disgust?) means that some workouts and exercises may give me different results than my male friends.

I really had a laugh because of this one.

I've seen both squats and deadlifts mentioned, both of which I whole heartedly agree with, but you could also throw in a mix of lunges as well - and some jump rope as a form of cardio that will also hit the legs

my stepper - which i use at home - has helped me tone my legs. also i do squats, launges, walk, play tennis

Original Post by msmeg1984:

Do you think its that easy for a female body builder to look the way she does?

 Do you think that it's easy for a male body builder to look the way he does?

Original Post by trhawley:

Original Post by msmeg1984:

Do you think its that easy for a female body builder to look the way she does?

 Do you think that it's easy for a male body builder to look the way he does?

 No, it's really, really hard for anyone to look like a body-builder, which is why it's so silly for people so say "I don't want to lift weights, because I don't want to get 'buff", it makes about as much sense as saying 'I don't want to ride my bike because I don't want to win the tour de france".

Well I did go jogging yesterday and accidentally broke the sound barrier so I do want to apologize to everyone for the sonic boom that shook the midwest :(

LMAO @ spiro....love your sense of humour!

Be nice people!!!  As Melkor pointed out, there is difference between what a man can do and what a woman can do in terms of bulk.  But that doesn't mean that a woman cannot build muscle, especially in the lower body.  Women who play a lot of soccer or spend a lot of time with other activities that work the lower body, do build muscle.  Perhaps more than they want since a lot of women don't want much visible muscle at all.  So lets stop with the "Women can't build muscle" routine.  We can, not like men, but as I am sure all of you know from personal experience, we can build some.

Yes, we certainly can.  Take a gander at Dara Torres, Mia Hamm, and the female beach volleyball team who took gold in Beijing -- Misty May and (OMG - I forget the other girls name!)....beautiful, muscular, but very, very feminine bodies on all of them.

point taken,  i like to make people laugh, i do it on purpose. i'm not a five year old, just classy beeeaaach!   i was just saying it's possible for women to add mass by working out, not that it happens quickly or that anyone should be worried about it. i maintain that cardio and squats are best.