This might be strange, but how do you make your muscles smal

think48
think48 Posts: 366 Member
edited September 22 in Health and Weight Loss
My family has been blessed with super sized calf muscles. Ugh. Even at my fittest, at about 19% body fat and 125 pounds (on a 5'5 frame) my calf muscles were bigger than my husbands. It's not a weight thing for them. I'm a girl and I want them to be "smaller" and "girlier". I tried running and that just made them rock hard, not any smaller. So seriously, what kind of diet change/exercise change/whatever will help make them smaller?

Is that even possible?

Replies

  • ethompso0105
    ethompso0105 Posts: 418 Member
    Oooh...I can't wait to hear replys to this! I have swimmer's calves...the're shapley and rock hard, but HUGE!
  • kristinlough
    kristinlough Posts: 828 Member
    yoga? stretching? learning to love your huge calves? I got nuthin :embarassed:
  • GorillaNJ
    GorillaNJ Posts: 4,024 Member
    I would say embrace them... big toned calves are not a bad thing!
  • Bauer77
    Bauer77 Posts: 32 Member
    Typically this seems like an issue with having great calf muscles... Sometimes it just comes down to "ya got what ya got". However there are ways to give the illusion that your calf musles are not as big by working on your thighs. If you get them larger should give the illusion that your calfs are not so big. Just something to ponder. I wish my problems were only my calf muscles. Mine are rock hard to but unfortunately the rest of me isnt! Yet!! Good luck and let me know how it turns out. If anyone else has any input on her dilemma I would like to hear as well.
  • gentlebreeze2
    gentlebreeze2 Posts: 450 Member
    I hear you... I have the same problem. As a former dancer, I thought they would go down when I had a more normal life... but no such luck. I think we are stuck with em.
  • TennVolsGal
    TennVolsGal Posts: 218 Member
    I have the same problem.....that and my ankles don't look very girlie. You find a solution let me know!
  • Christin09
    Christin09 Posts: 143 Member
    I am with you!!! I want smaller calves!!!
  • utamore
    utamore Posts: 53
    Yeah I am genetically predisposed to huge legs as well, which will continue to bother me until I bulk up my upper body to match. In theory, stretching helps make muscles bulge less (more flat, less round), and low resistance high repetition exercise helps "tone" rather than "bulk" muscles, but sadly, the reality is that for people like us neither of those things are really going to make your muscles noticeably smaller. The only guaranteed way to make your muscles smaller is to cause them to atrophy through non-use and malnutrition, e.g., start using a wheelchair and starve yourself. My best healthy recommendation is to continue to get your body fat down low and consider developing your upper body so you look fit all over.
  • PokenStick
    PokenStick Posts: 204
    Genetics, don't think there is anything you can directly do.
  • tracycollins
    tracycollins Posts: 4
    Hmmm, I am no expert and I do not suffer from your problem of huge calfs-However, if you want to make them smaller here is what I suggest- Check your protien levels cut it back a bit and stop working your lower body for awhile( so hard anyway) Unless you are bodybuilding? Also try Pilates or Yoga to lengthen your muscles. Not much of an idea but it makes sense to me.
  • TheMaidOfAstolat
    TheMaidOfAstolat Posts: 3,222 Member
    You can lengnthen this a bit by doing yoga and ballet style moves....but girl...I say embrace them. I love my muscles. My legs were bigger than my exes and I see them as a sign of hard work (and genetics in my case as well).
  • seemichellerun
    seemichellerun Posts: 219
    Also try Pilates or Yoga to lengthen your muscles. Not much of an idea but it makes sense to me.


    You can't make muscles "longer" unless you yourself grow a couple inches.
  • DancingDreamer
    DancingDreamer Posts: 520
    as a fellow big calfed girl i really dont think there is anything you can do about it. and while it makes it harder to find knee high boots that fit me i've also been told that "gymnast's calfs" are hot.....so....i say just embrace them and learn to love them. like other people have said, there are some things that are just genetic and you cant change so you might as well accept them and be happy with who you are.
  • countjackula
    countjackula Posts: 99
    You can make your muscles smaller if they atrophy... haha, but that's about it. Don't want big muscles? Stop using them so they waste away. (NOT serious advice obviously.) :laugh:
  • LettyM62
    LettyM62 Posts: 130 Member
    Mine are small, they were almost non-exsistent until I started running, but they're not as big as I would like them. Try yoga or pilates, they say that they make your muscles lean and strong.
  • tracycollins
    tracycollins Posts: 4
    I may have mis-spoken- Exercise programs like Pilates and yoga that involve both strengthening and stretching are great to elongate and lengthen muscles thus give you a taller posture, which means longer and leaner legs.
  • iplayoutside19
    iplayoutside19 Posts: 2,304 Member
    Muscle shape is a genetic thing. Doing stretches, and other stuff my change it a little. But mostly, They are what they are.

    Just focus on making the rest of you as good as you can be.
  • clioandboy
    clioandboy Posts: 963 Member
    send em right over here to me! you can have mine in return, then you'll really have something to complain about! enjoy them see them for the strength that they have!
  • dbanks80
    dbanks80 Posts: 3,685 Member
    I would loooooovvvvveeeee to have big calf muscles. I am a woman and I think big calf muscles are totally sexy on women.
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