[TMR]

Hi all,

i've convinced myself that i need to loose muscle mass from my thighs. Currently i ride my bike about 4 days a week to and from work (around 9 miles round trip) and climb/train 3 to 5. I use hurricane xs from myprotein as a recovery shake after climbing. After doing a lot of musing and a little research i've decided the best way to shift the thunder thighs would be a mixture of;

1) Riding in an easy gear only (no thigh pump)
2) 45 to 60 mins running before breakfast
3) Minimizing intake of protein shakes
4) Calorie restriction

Obviously i don't want to be losing any upper body mass  so my main question is thus; will the above 4 ideas help me achieve spindly wad legs without compromising upper body strengh?

thanks for your time,,,, 

[erm, sam]

Just get stronger.

[Paul B]

Hurricane XS contains creatine (if my memory serves me correctly) which will be loaded into all of your muscles, regardless. Thus if you're seeing positive effects for your climbing, you'll see them in everything you're working and that'll be your legs as well!

1) Riding in an easy gear only (no thigh pump)
2) 45 to 60 mins running before breakfast
3) Minimizing intake of protein shakes
4) Calorie restriction

1) No clue
2) hasn't this been proven to be pretty terrible for the immune system?
3) I'd pick your times and maybe lay off shakes containing creatine
4) All well and good but its pretty darn impossible to make the body 'lose' weight from a particular region.

[psychomansam]

Hi all,

i've convinced myself that i need to loose muscle mass from my thighs. Currently i ride my bike about 4 days a week to and from work (around 9 miles round trip) and climb/train 3 to 5. I use hurricane xs from myprotein as a recovery shake after climbing. After doing a lot of musing and a little research i've decided the best way to shift the thunder thighs would be a mixture of;

1) Riding in an easy gear only (no thigh pump)
2) 45 to 60 mins running before breakfast
3) Minimizing intake of protein shakes
4) Calorie restriction

Obviously i don't want to be losing any upper body mass  so my main question is thus; will the above 4 ideas help me achieve spindly wad legs without compromising upper body strengh?

thanks for your time,,,,

1. Riding in an eas(ier) gear. Yes , this should help re-focus slightly from increasing mass to toning. Don't expect much change though.
2. How will working the muscles harder make them smaller? This makes about as much sense as losing weight by eating all the pies. If this is because you want to achieve fat loss, then there's no point in doing this exercise in particular as it won't make you lose fat on your legs faster than anywhere else. A CV exercise with greater upper body focus might make more sense. You lose fat uniformly across your body (fat cell distribution is different for each person, but you can't change what you've got without surgery). Running before breakfast is a good way to fuck your body over. Don't miss breakfast out either.
3. Check the science then change to skimmed milk with honey in. Better for recovery. Excess protein will metabolise into lovely fat, and you don't even want to build muscle bulk. You want to do the opposite. Can't think of much worse than protein shakes to help you lose muscle! Change to sweetened skimmed milk. SCIENCE says it's better for recovery. And Jesus agrees. He told me.
4. Well it's pretty difficult to make leg muscles atrophy so this is a tempting option right? Just have a think about what you're suggesting. You want to starve your body so much that it metabolises muscle, and you're hoping that by targetting exercise elsewhere, the leg muscles will becomes your body's food of choise. Good luck maintaining a healthy mind and body while starving yourself of necessary nutrients and carrying on with the amount of exercise you do. Did i mention it won't work because A. You're cycling on top of all the other stuff you lose your legs for (bouldering for instance) and B. You're purposefully taking on excess protein.

Obviously, there is the stevie haston way. 1000 calories and 1000 pull ups a day. That shit WILL make your leg muscles go to shit. Like to see you attempting to boulder afterwards though...

Get stronger, lose excess fat, enjoy your healthy and varied lifestyle and don't do anyting stupid.

 

[Falling Down]

Climb some offwidths and take advantage of them thammers?

(Seriously though, are the size of your thighs really a limiting factor??)

[Falling Down]

Me and GME once took Hunter and Jet to the Foundry and he was pretty sh*t mind...

[Muenchener]

I have fairly bulky legs too, probably from some combination of genetics and mis-spending my youth with too much hillwalking. Riding my bike to work a couple of times a week (25 km round trip) surely doesn't help either, nor does the fact that many of the rock routes I want to do in involve walking for several hours up steep hills carrying a heavy rucksack to get to them.

But I like climbs lke that; I don't like cycling particularly, but you have to take care of some base level of aerobic fitness somehow, plus it's fresh air and sunlight in a weekday that would otherwise consist of sitting in the tube then sitting indoors in the office. If it means I'll never onsight 8c+, well, I was fairly resigned to that fate anyway.

[SA Chris]

Get a hand bike or learn to walk on your hands.

As FD said, thigh size is unlikely to be a limiting factor.

[chris j]

Ref your point 3 about the protein shakes, reading Racing Weight recently (interesting book, well recommended), the author suggested that protein shakes do naff all to build muscle for most people as anyone with a reasonable diet will already have all the protein they need, but instead they help more with weight loss as they act as an appetite suppressant. So maybe keep up with the protein shakes but switch to one without creatine? (& perhaps switch to drinking it after cycling to work so you eat less during the day rather than in the evening after climbing?).

Incidentally, if you actually want smaller leg muscles then stop the running and cycling... 

[chris05]

Me and GME once took Hunter and Jet to the Foundry and he was pretty sh*t mind...

You cant just drop that in!  More details... how was Jet? 

[Nibile]

we lose weight according to genetic models. it's impossible to address a muscle or fat loss to a specific part of our body. that's why we see small men with big bellies and pretty girls with ugly asses despite all their efforts in the gyms.
I had enormous thighs too, when I started climbing, earned from 15 years of cycling, basketball (because I am so tall) and the following squats. the muscle loss from my legs happened in a lot of time after stopping cycling, running, squatting and playing basket.

[SA Chris]

......case?

[gremlin]

Nibile is correct in what he says.

When I cycled a lot (road and MTB racing) I was 12 1/2 stone with thick thighs, a big arse and weedy upper body. Now three years after quitting cycling and climbing for nearly 2 years, I'm still 12 1/2 stone but with thinner legs, a smaller arse and bigger upper body. You can shift mass about but it takes time.

I still cycle occasionally and run as I beleive a bit of cadio fitness is important! :-)

Personally, if I were you, I'd abandon this plan of yours and just climb lot's, eat a healthy varied diet and do a bit of cardio work. Simples! 

[slackline]

Could probably of load some to the Merchant of Venice, I've heard he's after about a pound. 

[Yossarian]

I doubt you'd lose any leg mass unless you gave up cycling and got yourself an electric invalid buggy thing...

The most efficient way I found to lose muscle volume quickly was to smash some bones to pieces and then have it all wrapped up in plaster. 

Suggest you strategically break both femurs - you will have the stick insect limbs you so desire in as little as 2 months...

[Dexter]

can you set up a series of rings and campus to work?
on a more serious not my advice would simply be stop trying to use your legs..... ever

[Oldmanmatt]

Even the most active, hard training athlete needs no more than 1.3-1.5 grammes of protein / kg body mass per day. Any more is not helping and is just overloading the body with calories, watch the protine shakes; they're a bit of a con....

[lagerstarfish]

watch the protine shakes; they're a bit of a con....

Aha! Now that's where you're wrong. You see, the excess protein turns to fat - leading to an increase in body weight - eventually this leads to the shakes providing only 1g of protein per kg of body mass per day. You can't argue with SCIENCE

[Fultonius]

I lost a shed load of leg muscle when I was laid-up with my knee surgery. Put it all back on in physio though...

Unless you're about <10% bodyfat, you'll probably see better gains just losing some fat. I think that it will be difficult to lose any significant mass quickly while still biking.

[Iesu]

Just get stronger.

  and think how ripped your upper body will be when you can swing your monster legs around on steep rock....

[Baron]

Heard a Jasper myth once - he'd train in the cellar and then spend the rest of the day in bed to stop his legs from getting bigger. Don't remember who told it me, but you could try that.

[mr__j5]

I lost a shed load of leg muscle when I was laid-up with my knee surgery. Put it all back on in physio though...

Unless you're about <10% bodyfat, you'll probably see better gains just losing some fat. I think that it will be difficult to lose any significant mass quickly while still biking.

 

Cycling is one of the best ways to burn calories. Nothing much else comes near the 700 odd calories an hour that you can do riding. But, of course, you first need to get cario fit enough to ride for a long enough period of time. Also, once you start riding for a few hours at a time, it stops being something that you should use pure strength to do and so shouldn't contribute to building larger leg muscles.

Yes, I suppose my legs are proportionally larger than alot of the rest of me but they aren't that big, but I am 6' 3", 76kg and ride 100 mile/week (not committing)