Good leg exercises?

[PaulaSue]

Okay I have lost a bunch of weight (70 but gained 5 back) after being heavy all my life. I am pretty much happy with my weight but HATE my body naked.

I am a pear shape and lets say after (3) 8 1/2 babies and nursing, some things will never be perky or flat. With clothes on I can hide all my flaws, KWIM but beach time is another.

What is the key things to help with the extra skin on the thighs, especially under the tosh? I walk a ton and use my ellipical almost every day and after over 2 years with the weight off it still drives me nuts. Especially with us going to the beach this summer.

I am already dreading vacation and I LOVE the beach. I haven't gone in years since before I lost the weight and then it never bothered me to be in a suit in front of others.

I already decided that 1/1/10 I am going to go back to journaling and keeping track of calories again and going to through out all the candy/cookies (girls are not going to love me) but I really think I need to focus on different leg exercises to tone.

Any ideas? TIA

 

[mrbghd]

PaulaSue,

The number 1 thing I reccomend is cardio such as walking on a treadmill or ellyptical. Also a stair climber is excellent for cardio and it also firms and tones the legs and glutes. As far as leg specific excercises try wall squats. Stand against a wall, feet shoulder width apart. Then squat down until your quads (upper leg)are parallel to the floor. This is a good excercise for the legs and glutes. Lastly I would say try lunges. Step forward with 1 leg and let the back leg come as close to touching the floor as you can. Hope these help.

 

[cewait]

Let me say congratulations on your weight loss and then keeping it off. Looks like you do two of the three things needed to lose weight and more importantly keep it off. Next you are probably well aware that you cannot spot reduce and that working the legs only will not really do what you are looking for; otherwise you would have reduced the offending area, right?

The area missed by most folks who are looking to lose weight and firm up a body is strength training. You really need to focus training first on core strength. Lots of reps and not so much weight at first. You want to work EVERYTHING. We are looking for shoulder presses, pushups, bench presses, curls and tricep dips. As mentioned above, squats, but work quickly away from the wall, lunges, walking lunges, step ups, straight leg dead lifts. Oh and crunches. These can be performed at home with items around the house or at the gym.

This looks like a lot but it is easily broken into 2-3 workouts a week. As a trainer I would recommend finding a gym and trainer to start you out. If you have never lifted you really need help learning form and techniques. It doesn’t have to be a big investment but should be at least once a week for a couple months, if you can afford. I am not a machine person; rather I work folks with dumbbells. Machines teach bad form and etch it into your mind.

Get a good sound conditioning program started then push it around every 4-6 weeks. Change the order, vary the exercises or something. What happens is that the body plateaus or gets use to the load you are giving it and stops developing. Mix it up. Work on unstable platforms as you gain strength. Having a wobbly foundation while lifting fires the little stabilizer muscles creating better core strength and pushes metabolism up.

Now for the cardio mix it up. Try jogging not just walking. Grab a treadmill and set the elevation at 6-10% for a nice hour walk. Is you cardio intense enough? If you are not sweaty and huffy-puffy (you can say short phrases but not a comfortable conversation) during your walk it is not intense enough. Find a row machine and row 15k. Stairsteppers are great, but I would rather see folks on an elevated treadmill. It is just a little safer.


Hope this helps... You are headed in the right direction.

 

[LovableGluttons]

OP, I feel your pain. I had gastric bypass May 2002 and my legs are a disaster. I had skin removed from my torso in 2005, but have not had the skin removal on my legs yet as it takes a minimum of 16 weeks off work to get good results and encourage the tighter skin to "stick" to the underlying structures upon healing.

Increasing the muscle mass on my thighs helped a bit, as it as my thighs something under all that jiggle to help fill it out. Unfortunately, as my thighs grew in size from high weight low rep squats, lifts, and extensions, my clothes didn't fit.

My plastic surgeon told me that once you break the collagen fibers in the skin from stretching (obesity), they cannot snap back.

Congrats on your hard work and terrific success with your weight loss.

 

[PaulaSue]

Thank you SO MUCH for all the ideas.

I'm going to have to write them all down will start tomm. I want to find a tape measure and measure my progress. I know when I started my WL journey it was really neat to see the difference I had made but again my legs never changed as much as the rest of my body.

 

[cewait]

Thank you SO MUCH for all the ideas.

I'm going to have to write them all down will start tomm. I want to find a tape measure and measure my progress. I know when I started my WL journey it was really neat to see the difference I had made but again my legs never changed as much as the rest of my body.

I should add that these could be your very last spot to go. I know when I lost my weight my chub rub was the last to go before getting a cut look.

 

[PaulaSue]

Well I'm starting today. I found an altered notebook I made (i'm a cricut-er) to start the new year off pretty since I plan to carry it everywhere. I'm on my ellipical now (usually when I do my computer time) and plan on doing the extra exercises after lunch time.

Thans for helping me brainstorm and the EXTRA motivation, I just joined the Biggest Losers 9.