Best exercise for losing weight on hips and thighs?

[muminthecity]

I have recently lost just over 3 stone with a combination of Slimming World and visiting the gym. The weight loss is really showing on my stomach, waist and arms, but my hips and thighs are still huge! Can anyone recommend a particular exercise that is good for these areas? Something that I can do either at the gym or at home? (The gym I go to is very modern and fully equipped with every machine known to man!) Thank you in advance

[trixymalixy]

Squats, lunges etc with kettlebells have made a dramatic difference to the shape of my bum thighs and hips. I haven't lost many pounds, but I have lost inches.

[HeySoulSister]

My PT gives us lunges and squats as warm ups! Then more as the session Progresses

I've got that curvy muscle look on them now... If you do them properly there is little risk.

[mercury7]

Squats and lunges are a great way to screw up your knees & hips
Cote, I agree they can cause problems if the technique isn't good, I see an awful lot of very dodgy looking squatting and lunging in the gym

However with good/safe technique and starting out with light weights it should be ok...I do favour lunges though over barbell squats

[Pan]

Spinning classes at the gym. Really good for both toning and building muscle on thighs and helps the overall weight loss on hips. And non-impact. AND you sweat a lot and have clearer skin.

[AnythingNotEverything]

Glad others feel the same about squats and lunges, but YY - technique is key!

They got me in my wedding dress anyway!

[muminthecity]

Thanks so much for all of the suggestions, I will definitely try them. Can't do spinning classes unfortunately as I can't make the times they are on. I do use the exercise bikes a lot though. I also do a water workout class once a week which is pretty hard going, so hopefully that is helping! It is the only class I can go to because the timing of the others doesn't work for me in terms of work/childcare etc.

[nickymanchester]

Squats and lunges are a great way to screw up your knees & hips

I really would disagree with this a lot and I know quite a few older women - waaaay over 35 - who would also disagree.

As has been said above, squats and lunges are great. By all means just start off with some exercises without weights, but to really lose fat you need to be working with weights. Just start off with some dumbbells:-

www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/GluteusMaximus/DBFrontSquat.html

www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/GluteusMaximus/DBWalkingLunge.html

There's some more about squats here:-

www.stumptuous.com/dork-diva-squat


You may also want to think about doing some deadlifts and hip thrusts. Some info here:-

www.niashanks.com/2013/04/best-exercises-deadlifts-quads-hams-glutes/

[nickymanchester]

www.stumptuous.com/learning-the-squat-3-how-to-squat

Dummies guide on how to do a squat

[muminthecity]

nickymanchester - Thank you so much for all the links, I'm going to have a proper look at them all tonight when DD is in bed.

[Scotsfairy]

While we're on a thigh-theme, can anyone suggest a solution to my thigh-related ishooos? (sorry to hijack)

I've been religiously stair climbing and going to numerous PowerPlate and HIT/cardio classes for months now in an attempt to de-wibble my hips and thighs and achieve the elusive 'thigh gap' prior to going on holiday at the end of next month.....unfortunately due to my natural tendency to bulk/build muscle all I've achieved in doing the above is a pair of big, bulky muscular thighs Toned - yes. Long/lean/slender - most definitely not.

My preference is not to look like a shot-putter in my bikini so can anyone suggest a way to slim down my rugby-player-thighs?!

All suggestions welcome.....

Thank you

[Pan]

Scots - swimming. This will 'elongate' your muscles and tone all over. If you have the time and the inclination. Most local authority pools will offer basic lesson(s) IF you need tuition. It's really effective and again non-impact.

[CoteDAzur]

As a former swimmer who was semi-professional at one point, I have to say that swimming has many benefits but a lean body is not one of them.

There are studies of runners and swimmers spending the same calories in workouts but runners losing weight & getting leaner while swimmers don't or do at a significantly slower rate. Afaik the reason why is still a mystery, although there are theories: body doesn't heat up while swimming, appetite is suppressed after running but is boosted after swimming, etc.

[Pan]

Well darn it I am going to disagree there Cote. The calorie burn is one thing (and research indicates it's comparable, depending on lots of variable factors - speed, current fitness etc) but Scots was asking about being long/leaner/slender. Swimming, by it;s very nature involves a stretching out of big and smaller support muscles, rather than the heavy impacting action of muscles fighting gravity all the time, which means consistent resistant muscular effort - nothing like the benefits of swimming.

[CoteDAzur]

Nothing wrong with disagreement but there isn't much debate here. Yes, calories are burnt but a swimmer's body doesn't get lean like a runner's. It gets shaped like the body of a swimmer. More like a dolphin than a cheetah

(I really wish this were not true, by the way)

[Pan]

Yes, Ian Thorpe and the rest of the swimmers would look more at home in Marine World, wouldn't they? The science, and use of eyes, indicates other wise? Maybe those post-pool snacks just caught up on you?

[mercury7]

Cote, I know we've discussed this subject before, but, well, are you telling me this woman isnt lean?

www.google.co.uk/search?q=Dara+Torres&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=I9H2UaPPF42r0AWQo4GYBQ&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1762&bih=934


lots of competitive swimmers are very lean, I see lean people in the pool, I see quite podgy looking people who do alot of running
I'm looking leaner since I started swimming alot.

all anecdotal I know:o

[mercury7]

sure there are competitive swimmers who have more fat than other athletes but that's more likely to be because there's very little performance cost to having some extra adipose tissue if you are a swimmer, so swimmers can afford to be fatter.

The fact that you dont heat up when exercising in water just means that your heart rate can be lower at any given level or exertion as compared to say running.

When you run part of the extra demand on your heart is due to the need to get rid of the extra heat generated by muscular effort

[CoteDAzur]

I guess I wasn't clear. I am not overweight now and and I was certainly not overweight as a swimmer. But the body type that I and my fellow swimmers developed was not that of a runner. Think Rebecca Adlington, then compare that to any Olympic runner.

And trust me when I say that Dara Torres did not make that six-pack core with swimming Swimmers do a lot of other types of training.

[mercury7]

we'd need a controlled experiment with sets of identical twins where one twin takes up running and one takes up swimming:o

I know Dara Torres does alot of other training...but so too would other athletes at the same level?

whatever..I love swimming even if it's not as 'good' as running, I think I was a dolphin in a previous life:o

[CoteDAzur]

This study is interesting.

So is this:

As a form of regular aerobic exercise, swimming has lots of benefits. It uses large muscle groups, can be maintained continuously for long periods of time, and is easy on lower-body joints because it doesn't involve bearing body weight. (...) The problem is that your body gets a fundamentally different physiological challenge from being horizontal in water compared with being upright on dry land, thanks to the hydrostatic pressure and high thermal conductivity of water, according to Hirofumi Tanaka, director of the University of Texas's Cardiovascular Aging Research Laboratory.

The temperature of the water can also make a big difference. University of Florida researchers found that swimmers consumed 44 per cent more calories after exercising in water at 20C than in water at 33C, which may explain why many studies have failed to find weight-loss benefits from swimming regimens.

[CoteDAzur]

I love swimming, too

[mercury7]

thanks Cote,on the first one it does occur to me that there is no mention of food intake with the swimming group?

And still no-one seems to be able to put forward a mechanism whereby the 'fundamentally different physiological challenge of being horizontal in water compared with being upright on dry land' could lead to runners being leaner than swimmers?

I just find swimming so much more do-able!
An hour of continuous running is bordering on torture for me, but an hour of continuous swimming makes me want to do another hour.

Horses for courses :o

[CoteDAzur]

Aha! I found it

Swimmers have more body fat than runners despite same levels of calorie intake & output. Studies and theories

Fascinating stuff!

[mercury7]

thanks for the link Cote:o
I've been reading around the subject a bit and I have to say that for me there's nothing new in that article.
It's interesting but inconclusive!
(my money is on the selection process theory at the end)

[mercury7]

i cant claim to have relied on just swimming to stay in shape, currently i also spend an equal amount of time on the treadmill, in the weights room and do a fair bit of walking, if i spent all that time swimming i suppose my body compostion would be different?

No doubt my shoulders would also be in a bad way from endless hours of front crawl and no weight training!