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.

Original Post by empyreal:

point taken,  i like to make people laugh, i do it on purpose. i'm not a five year old, just classy beeeaaach!

if your interested in toning our thighs and butt My P.trainer has me do  squats and lunges they really are best(there are other excersises of course ) ...generally start without wieghts and then as the squats & lunges get easier you can add weight ..... I started out doing 15 lunges per leg x 3(total of 90) and 15 squats x 3( total of 45) ....really if you are able try to see a personal trainer (even if its only once) ...then you can explain to them what you would like to improve upon and were you feel your trouble areas are ,they will generly write out a routine that fits your level of fitness ( for a fee) and will really center on the areas of your body that you want to improve on (tone), also this is what I feel is important is that I P.T. will make sure you are doing each excersise properly so you don't hurt your self and you get the most out of your workout( which is pretty darned important). anyway hope this helps  

Original Post by paularuck:

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.

You're comparing professional/full time athletes to the rest of us who do three hours of weights a week? Oh come on. Also those women have muscle, but they are not bulky by any means and they spend more time exercising than any three of us will combined

Of course women can build muscle. Without it we'd be dead? I don't think building muscle and getting bulky are the same things here

Original Post by spirochete:

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 :(

Can I just say, you have a sadistic sense of humor?

(I love it!) 

Spiro:

I wasn't implying that these women were bulky -- far from it.  Just giving an easily visible frame of reference for women who can certainly built muscle WITHOUT being bulky.  And I realize that they train (as professional athletes) much longer and harder and differently than we do -- just as the fitness and figure athlete models do.  It was simply pointing t something to aspire to, not an indication of the "average" woman.  The other point was -- if women like Dara Torres can train as hard as they do and NOT get bulky, what makes the average woman think she'll bulk up from a good weight lifting routine?  That was all --

Have you tried to get a session with a trainer? Some gyms offer a free session or two with a new membership. If not, then pay for a session or two, just until you feel comfortable

Obviously no woman is going to end up looking like a male weight lifter, but some women might think Dara Torres's legs too bulky.  They might want to be thinner than that.  When we tell women that can't get too bulky, maybe we need to find out what the person we are talking to considers too bulky instead of attacking them.

Original Post by clharr:

Obviously no woman is going to end up looking like a male weight lifter, but some women might think Dara Torres's legs too bulky.  They might want to be thinner than that.  When we tell women that can't get too bulky, maybe we need to find out what the person we are talking to considers too bulky instead of attacking them.

 If you took my comments to be an attack, then I sincerely apologize, because that was certainly not my intention!  I have an opinion, and I expressed it, but perhaps I did not express it in the best way I could have.  I don't attack people who don't agree with me -- that's not my style.  I may debate the issue, but I always try to show respect for other people's views, and if we can't agree, then I am fine with agreeing to disagree.  My intention was simply to point out examples of women who have very feminine muscular physiques -- beauty is, of course, always in the eye of the beholder; obviously, I believe that a strong woman is a beautiful woman.  My intention was most definitely not to offend or attack.