Leg/Thigh Exercises

Though I am no newbie to fitness, I cant seem to get a grasp of this.

I know for a fact you cant spot train and purposefully reduce certain parts of your body that are larger than others (i.e. Im pear shaped and tend to store so much more of my weight in hips, legs and thighs).

So my question is, what kind of leg exercises can I do without bulking up the muscle, that end up making me legs look even shorter! (im 5'4 with a longer torso). Squats, I feel bulk up quads. Any other suggests for longer, leaner looks?

Ive heard Pilates helps and I'm taking Barre classes which also claim to help...

Sorry, but the whole spot-reducing thing has been disproven time and again. Your body burns fat cells, assuming your diet supports that, how it sees fit. It does not do it symmetrically nor does it burn where you decide to exercise most.

RE Bulking: Unless you are eating very excessive calories and your testosterone is higher than what is typical for an average woman you will not gain muscle mass (aka "Bulk") from weight lifting. As your body burns fat, again assuming your diet supports it, you may see the appearance of muscle definition but that is not the same as bulking.

Beware of the claims of Pilates and making your muscles longer. An elongated muscle is called a pulled or perhaps even torn muscle, you cannot elongate muscle.

What are your overall exercise goals? Strength or endurance?

I would say endurance and getting a toned, tight look. My calorie intake is about 1350 and i try to eat pretty clean for the most part. I have a pretty sedentary office job so i have to go out of my way not just to work out, but just to stay active every few hours. I've considered shutting the door to my office and doing lunges or something...

Yeah I have an office job too and that kinda sucks for the ole' activity level. I try and take a walk when I can. If that's the right calorie level for you to safely lose weight then you should be fine to lose bodyfat and get "toned". If you can afford it, look to see if there are any "Boot Camp" gyms nearby. Boot Camp programs follow programming similar to CrossFit but are mostly bodyweight movements with some weight training that includes KB's, DB's, and occasionally Barbell movements, and a pretty intense rate and definitely focuses on endurance with some minor strength benefit. No joke, it's really challenging but if endurance with some strength benefit is your goal then it's a great choice. If not, read-up on strength training circuits and / or strength complex circuits and then add-in some intense cardio for additional conditioning.

Squats... Deadlifts.... Google "Will squats make a woman bulky?", read for a couple hours, then go start doing squats...

There are seemingly HUNDREDS (at least dozens) of women on this site who squat, who are the opposite of "bulky"... I have yet to see one woman say that squats didn't give them the "leaner" look they were going for...

Squats, Deadlift, Lunges

Squats... Deadlifts.... Google "Will squats make a woman bulky?", read for a couple hours, then go start doing squats...

There are seemingly HUNDREDS (at least dozens) of women on this site who squat, who are the opposite of "bulky"... I have yet to see one woman say that squats didn't give them the "leaner" look they were going for...

Normally I would agree with both of you but since she mentioned that she's primarily interested in endurance, this might not meet her goals. Doing something like StrongLifts or Starting Strength are great for building strength and body re-composition (with the appropriate) diet, but I'm not sure if that's what she's looking for here.

Squats, Deadlift, Lunges

Squats... Deadlifts.... Google "Will squats make a woman bulky?", read for a couple hours, then go start doing squats...

There are seemingly HUNDREDS (at least dozens) of women on this site who squat, who are the opposite of "bulky"... I have yet to see one woman say that squats didn't give them the "leaner" look they were going for...

Normally I would agree with both of you but since she mentioned that she's primarily interested in endurance, this might not meet her goals. Doing something like StrongLifts or Starting Strength are great for building strength and body re-composition (with the appropriate) diet, but I'm not sure if that's what she's looking for here.

True, but the original point was about leaning up... OP mentioned that she thought Squats would make her quads too bulky, which isn't the case... Endurance and all that is a completely different animal than her first question...

Agreed. It was in her second post that she indicated her goal was endurance. That's the only reason I said that. My general recommendation is typically to eat right and get under a heavy-*kitten* bar.

I agree. My complaint about my body is the same as the original poster. I have started doing squats along with other exercises such as walking/jogging, etc. and I can see a major improvement in the tone of my legs. I truly think it's from the squats. For me, the squats have not made me bulk up, but rather firm up. I do about 100 squats a day now (for the most part spaced out. I usually do 5 sets of 10, 2x per day.)

Deep squats and deadlifts... does a booty good...

if you are looking for straight up overall endurance to the extreme... CrossFit.

Squats, Deadlift, Lunges

Squats... Deadlifts.... Google "Will squats make a woman bulky?", read for a couple hours, then go start doing squats...

There are seemingly HUNDREDS (at least dozens) of women on this site who squat, who are the opposite of "bulky"... I have yet to see one woman say that squats didn't give them the "leaner" look they were going for...

Normally I would agree with both of you but since she mentioned that she's primarily interested in endurance, this might not meet her goals. Doing something like StrongLifts or Starting Strength are great for building strength and body re-composition (with the appropriate) diet, but I'm not sure if that's what she's looking for here.

Lower the weight and raise the reps. High rep squatting it is! :-)

I would say endurance and getting a toned, tight look. My calorie intake is about 1350 and i try to eat pretty clean for the most part. I have a pretty sedentary office job so i have to go out of my way not just to work out, but just to stay active every few hours. I've considered shutting the door to my office and doing lunges or something...

Lift heavy weights. It is impossible for you to add "bulk" unless you are supplementing testosterone.

Seems like you have tried everything else, give Stronglifts 5x5 or New Rules for Weightlifting a try. You will not be disappointed.

Thanks all. Seems like squatting is a way of life!
I actually am taking a bootcamp class 3 x a week, and holy hell there's tons of squatting there. Wall sits, kettle bell squats, jump squats, frog jumps, (not to mention the evil burpees).

The reason why i thought maybe i would be bulking is that I took 2 weeks off of bootcamp and started taking Barre classes, which are based on ballet dancer techniques..very very small movements, all isolated/isometric for thigh, glute, quad and ham...and after doing those exercises, I feel my body is responding better (i.e. looking leaner) than just squatting.

Either way - these are GOOD problems to have. Two months ago, I would have been glued to my couch growing horizontally.

That's good to hear and you sound just like my GF. The type of squatting they're talking about is much different than in Boot Camp; the loading parameters are much different. Boot Camp is definitely more Endurance Strength focused whereas lifting with a greater load and low reps (like 3 to 5) is more in the zone of Absolute Strength, at the end the results to strength will be different. What that looks like in terms of body composition I couldn't say.