heavy lifting bulking up thighs

cherriegh
cherriegh Posts: 196 Member
edited November 17 in Fitness and Exercise
Hi

I'm female 5'2 doing SL 5X5 and lifting heavy on a calorie deficit, noticed I'm not losing inches and my thighs are firmer AND bigger...I've measured them. What can I do to slim them down? I do minimal cardio mostly walk incline for 40mins or hiit

Been at this over 2 months now. I thought heavy lifting tones and firm up legs and lose inches....

Suggestions pls

Replies

  • SonyaCele
    SonyaCele Posts: 2,841 Member
    muscular thighs are awesome and sexy. embrace them.
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
    SonyaCele wrote: »
    muscular thighs are awesome and sexy. embrace them.

    This.

    How much have they increased and over what timeline? It could just be water retention to repair your muscles.
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  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    I have me some really thick thighs...

    Some from genetics and some from being a track runner back in my day... I do a lot of squats and lunges and more squats and lunges..

    Love your thighs.. they are the only ones you have.. Embrace them and I can tell you that if people notice them, they know you work out...

  • kickassbarbie
    kickassbarbie Posts: 286 Member
    Are they bigger or just changed shape? Measuring in the same place?

    Seems unlikely they would have grown massively in two months unless your eating masses more too. Are you eatimg at a large surplus?

    (Saying that I admit since lifting my legs are a different shape, depends what shape you like I guess?)

  • mantium999
    mantium999 Posts: 1,490 Member
    SonyaCele wrote: »
    muscular thighs are awesome and sexy. embrace them.

    Yup. I don't comprehend the problem myself.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    my guess is water retention from doing 5x5 and you are not really gaining ...

    are you new to lifting? If yes, you could have newbie gains..

    but like others said, embrace your thighs...
  • vogonuts77
    vogonuts77 Posts: 3 Member
    How many reps are you doing? How many sets are you doing? Typically heavy lifting will get you stronger but not add a bunch of size to your muscle. Rule of thumb for most people is 1-7 reps for strength, 8-12 reps for size(muscle hypertrophy=muscle growth) and 12+ reps for toning. Everyone is different so you'll have to experiment with your rep ranges and the volume of training you do.
  • TR0berts
    TR0berts Posts: 7,739 Member
    edited May 2015
    vogonuts77 wrote: »
    How many reps are you doing? How many sets are you doing? Typically heavy lifting will get you stronger but not add a bunch of size to your muscle. Rule of thumb for most people is 1-7 reps for strength, 8-12 reps for size(muscle hypertrophy=muscle growth) and 12+ reps for toning. Everyone is different so you'll have to experiment with your rep ranges and the volume of training you do.


    :huh:
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    vogonuts77 wrote: »
    How many reps are you doing? How many sets are you doing? Typically heavy lifting will get you stronger but not add a bunch of size to your muscle. Rule of thumb for most people is 1-7 reps for strength, 8-12 reps for size(muscle hypertrophy=muscle growth) and 12+ reps for toning. Everyone is different so you'll have to experiment with your rep ranges and the volume of training you do.

    did you miss the part where OP said SL 5x5?????????
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
    vogonuts77 wrote: »
    How many reps are you doing? How many sets are you doing? Typically heavy lifting will get you stronger but not add a bunch of size to your muscle. Rule of thumb for most people is 1-7 reps for strength, 8-12 reps for size(muscle hypertrophy=muscle growth) and 12+ reps for toning. Everyone is different so you'll have to experiment with your rep ranges and the volume of training you do.

    secondly 12+ is muscle endurance- not "toning"

    the visual perception of "tone" is completely dependent on body fat percentage.
  • cherriegh
    cherriegh Posts: 196 Member
    I'm new to lifting and yes my thighs have firmed up and not as jiggly but gained 2 inch on them....I'm hoping it is water weight swelling and it will subside
    how long does it take for the water to subside? I've seen posts from women lifting heavy with small muscular thighs and thot I shud try it as well...

    does cardio help on non lifting days?

    patience I hope now....
  • bostonwolf
    bostonwolf Posts: 3,038 Member
    JoRocka wrote: »
    vogonuts77 wrote: »
    How many reps are you doing? How many sets are you doing? Typically heavy lifting will get you stronger but not add a bunch of size to your muscle. Rule of thumb for most people is 1-7 reps for strength, 8-12 reps for size(muscle hypertrophy=muscle growth) and 12+ reps for toning. Everyone is different so you'll have to experiment with your rep ranges and the volume of training you do.

    secondly 12+ is muscle endurance- not "toning"

    the visual perception of "tone" is completely dependent on body fat percentage.

    When I see the word "tone" used to describe a weightlifting goal I tend to fade out a bit. Like the way they had the teacher talk to the students on the old Charlie Brown specials.

  • terar21
    terar21 Posts: 523 Member
    It's highly unlikely you gained two inches of muscle in your thighs. You're probably just retaining water. It's very common and can happen at any point. Two months wouldn't really do that.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    cherriegh wrote: »
    I'm new to lifting and yes my thighs have firmed up and not as jiggly but gained 2 inch on them....I'm hoping it is water weight swelling and it will subside
    how long does it take for the water to subside? I've seen posts from women lifting heavy with small muscular thighs and thot I shud try it as well...

    does cardio help on non lifting days?

    patience I hope now....

    ok my guess is newbie gains + water retention = two inch gain
  • vogonuts77
    vogonuts77 Posts: 3 Member
    Yep, my bad, lumped the SL 5X5 together and didn't pick up on it. Well, everyone has their opinions on what ranges are what and what works, just have to figure out what works best for you. I've done a 5x5 before and got really good strength gains, didn't pack on too much size.

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  • DirrtyH
    DirrtyH Posts: 664 Member
    When I go from completely sedentary to doing any kind of exercise really, it's a matter of mere days before my quads start to look very prominent. Why this is, I don't know. My instinct is to go "Oh noes! I don't want to keep working my legs or they're going to get enormous!!" But my logical side knows that as I continue with what I'm doing, I'm going to drop fat everywhere and in the end my legs are actually going to look slimmer.

    My suggestion would be not to worry about it.
  • AnneCN
    AnneCN Posts: 5 Member
    I easily put on muscle mass on my legs, so I don't lift as heavy anymore I do higher reps and more HIIT sessions.
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
    What has happened with your weight in those 2 months?
  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
    BusyRaeNOTBusty wrote: »
    What has happened with your weight in those 2 months?
    This is my question too. How much have you lost in that time?

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  • cherriegh
    cherriegh Posts: 196 Member
    my weight has fluctuated dropped a few in beginning coz I started eating low carb calorie, after week 2 weight went up by 2 pounds. To date I've lost 13 lbs but was told it's water from low carbing
  • cherriegh
    cherriegh Posts: 196 Member
    now weight has stalled. I eat low carb coz I tend to go insane on bread and sweet stuff if I dnt control it. now I aim for grains on workout days and will see how that goes
  • tigerblue
    tigerblue Posts: 1,526 Member
    I am totally okay with my thighs getting larger if the result is less ab fat!!! Muscles are beautiful.

    Thanks for all who posted. Informative!
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    edited March 2016
    I highly doubt they increased by 2", for me that would take years in a surplus to achieve. Most likely some increase due to water retention and measuring a different spot or measuring tape not as tight (not pushing the fat in to get a smaller reading)
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    AnneCN wrote: »
    I easily put on muscle mass on my legs, so I don't lift as heavy anymore I do higher reps and more HIIT sessions.

    most likely it isn't muscle mass, but rather water retention in the muscles to repair and protect. It will make them larger at first until you get used to the workouts then the muscles will shed most of the water, making legs slimmer.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    I must be doing something wrong...it's taken me like 3 years to put that kind of meat on my thighs.
  • blues4miles
    blues4miles Posts: 1,481 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    I must be doing something wrong...it's taken me like 3 years to put that kind of meat on my thighs.

    You would think the way some women post on here that it is super easy for women to bulk up :p

    I consider any weird measurement as possible error on the part of me, the measurer...did I actually measure in the same place both times? Who knows.
  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
    Zombie thread
This discussion has been closed.

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