|
Finally The Secret to Slim Thighs
What's the secret to getting slim thighs? First, let me tell what it is not. You will never get the legs you want just by using those traditional leg machines at your gym or by doing day after day of boring cardio.
The reality is that you always see people at the gym doing this stuff and never seeing the results they want.
The real secret to getting your thighs slim involves three components: 1. Proper nutrition, 2. Strength training and 3. Cardio (but not the typical kind of cardio everyone does).
1. PROPER NUTRITION: I am going to be honest with you. You will never ever get
slimmer thighs if you don't put the right foods in your body. It doesn't matter how
great your workout routine is or what you may have heard or read. If you eat the
wrong foods your body will maintain or store more body fat around your midsection,
your arms, your butt and your thighs.
Fat is what blurs the visibility of the underlying muscles. When you have
excess body fat you cannot see any muscular definition.
So, if you want to get your thighs slimmer you have to eat enough of the right
kinds of nutritious, fat burning foods that will help keep your legs sexy and lean.
A great rule of thumb I tell my clients is to make sure you eat at least 5 small
meals each day. But, all 5 are not really "meals". 3 are meals and 2 are snacks.
(Breakfast, Snack, Lunch , Snack and then Dinner )
Getting into the habit of eating more frequently is how you start to boost your
metabolism to burn fat so you can begin to get slim thighs much faster than if you
eat fewer meals.
2. STRENGTH TRAINING: Usually when I tell women they need strength training to
make their thighs slimmer they look at me like they've just seen a ghost.
"But, I don't want to get bulky muscles" is a typical response I get. I don't know
where this myth came from but I want to clarify something here.
Getting "bulky" muscles just from strength training is 100% pure myth.
Here's why. Building the kind of muscle mass that you see on a bodybuilder is
absolutely unrealistic for the majority of people, especially women.
Women naturally have lower levels of testosterone which makes it more difficult
to build muscle mass versus men.
Here is something else to consider. If
you want slim thighs with nice "tone" you
have to possess a certain level of muscularity
anyway.
You can burn all the body fat you want but if you don't have any real muscle on
your legs your slim thighs will look more like toothpicks.
That doesn't mean you will "bulk up".
You simply fit the level of muscularity to match your goal. Adding some lean muscle
to your thighs will give you that curvaceous appeal you are looking for.
And that comes from intense strength training and not from doing the leg
machines at the gym with light-weights and lots of repetitions.
You will never get slimmer thighs with nice definition that way. You have to lift
heavier and smarter with just the right amount of rest in between to allow your
body to recuperate, which is when your thighs slim down.
Try these thigh slimming exercises to get you started:
- squats and forward lunge walks
- sideways lunge walks
- box or bench jumps
3. CARDIOVASCULAR TRAINING: I never said no cardio. I said not the traditional
cardio everyone else does. I am going to suggest a different twist on your typical
cardio routine that will burn more calories and fat while stimulating your thighs to
add some lean muscle tone.
Getting your thighs slim requires the
combination of sufficient muscularity and low body fat.
Your muscles lie underneath a layer of fat cells. Fat cells store body fat. The
more fat you carry the bigger your fat cells become and the less visible your
muscles are.
So, to see those slim thighs underneath you also need to burn the fat from your
fat cells.
Here's a tip to get you started:
Perform 90% Heart Rate Peaks- Instead of doing the typical marathon cardio workout
in your "fat burning zone" you are going to perform a much higher intensity
workout but for a shorter time period.
This will allow you to burn more calories
and fat long after your workout is over. Here is what you do:
Use the formula 220 - your age to get a number. Now, multiply that number by
.85 and write down the product. Next, multiply the number by .75 and write
down that product. The 2 products are your low and high-end heart rate
ranges.
Example for a 35-year old: 220 -
35 = 185
185 X .85 = 157
185 X .75 = 138
Heart rate range would be 138
(low end) to 157 (high end).
You will perform your cardio workout on
any piece of equipment of your choice. Warm up for 5 minutes by gradually
building your heart rate up to your lowend range (138 in the above example).
Then you will increase the intensity until your heart rate peaks at your high-end
range (157 beats per minute in the above example).
Once you reach your high-end range you immediately drop the intensity and
recover back down to your low-end range. Once you reach your low-end range peak
back up again.
Repeat this process of peaking and
recovering for 30 minutes. Then record the total number of times you peaked to
your high-end range.
The next time you perform this you will
try to beat the total number of peaks.
Cool down for 5 minutes by gradually
decreasing the intensity until your heart rate is at your low end range or lower.
Stretch for 5-10 minutes.
And there you have it. The real secret to
getting slim thighs is by adding some lean fat burning, thigh slimming muscle
and dropping your body fat levels low enough to see those trim legs.
|