Thunder thighs

Some yoga poses are great for thigh toning, as is running or walking uphill. Plyometrics, lifting legs...there are lots of options! If you need more specifics let me know I'd be glad to help!

HI Kaymd

The term thumder thighs makes me chuckle, but Im in the same boat - so feel your pain!
How long have you been on here for outta interest?

My thighs are by now means perfect - but they have certianly improved..

Exercise wise, I do a mixture of walking, the cross trainer, bike and the wave machine (skating motion).. I also use the adbuctor sel (guess names are different for diff gyms..) weights for inner and outter thighs, the leg press (like squats, but sitting on a chair which slides) and.. that's it actually!

I think exercise in general will help imprvove them, as you say, we cant target certain areas... I have noticed, thanks to weights, my legs now look and feel tighter - which I must say is a good feeling.. even if they do still look chunky!

Keep up the good work!

Weight training won't burn fat, it will only tone the muscles. So it actually will make your thighs look bigger if you don't burn the excess thigh fat. Same goes for everything else. :]

you will only bulk up if you do a small number of reps with a HUGE amount of weight. if you're doing 20-25 reps with a small amount of weight (but still enough to feel a burn) you won't get bulky. i don't know if you want to focus on inner thighs specifically (that's where all my excess weight goes!) or just your thighs in general but i've found some great inner thigh exercises are:

plies - with a 10 pound weight if you can. just stand with your legs far apart and your toes pointed out then either pulse or squat all the way about 30 times
lunges - BUT you need to have your front foot elevated about 6 inches off the ground, like on the treadmill or something, that will target the top part of your legs more than a regular lunge done on the ground will
fire hydrants - this is where you get down on all fours and lift one leg up and out to the side, with your knee bent, you can imagine what this looks like hence the name :P
leg raises, either standing straight up or laying down on your back. side leg raises are good too

for me, just doing regular squats and lunges and things like that toned out my quads but did nothing for my inner thighs. so the above exercises have been finally targeting that area, hope you can find the right exercises that work for you! good luck

bumping to add some of these. Thunder thighs was my nickname in high school!

My thunder thighs and tummy are the last thing to go, but not that I've lost from every where else they are starting to improve too. Stick with and you'll see the results you want in the end. I think doing the 30 day shred dvd has helped too, it has lots of squat etc in it!

A few years back when I lost 53 pounds Igot ahoold of some Joyce Vedral strength training videos and worked my upper body, lower body and abs. I onlly used 3,5, and 8ound dumbbells and I lost several inches off of each thigh. I was always pear shaped and I lost the pear shape by doing them. My muscles reallly toned up and my inner thighs didn't rub anymore. I am 5'6" and was only down to 53-160 ounds when I lost the pear shape. I had never exercised before and used to wear a size 12 at that weight. I was ecstatic because ANY size 8 pants fit! I used to try on every single pair of 12's just to find one decent pair of jeans, so YES strength training with light weights does work without making your thighs/butt bigger! I am just starting up exercising with those videos again regularly now and looking forward to losing the pear again!

Bump! Here is some ideas from a news story that was here in MN to help target some of the saddlebag area...http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2011/02/22/exercises-to-say-goodbye-to-saddlebags/

I have the same problem and am looking forward to trying some of the suggestions here.