There are two major types of fat, the visceral fat that accumulates around the abdomen and produces the classic potbelly and also the subcutaneous fat that tends to accumulate around women's hips and thighs. What's promising for women, according to the Mayo Clinic, is the fact that subcutaneous fat causes fewer long-term adverse health effects than visceral fat. While understanding that your thunder thighs don't cause diabetes is reassuring, that knowledge does not help you fit into your skinny jeans.
Excess fat
The distribution of fat in your body is determined by your age, gender and genetic predisposition. This means that where your body stores the mocha latte and muffin you simply ate is not under your control, nor are you able to choose whether your workout burns fat out of your thighs or your breasts. You can't really "spot reduce" fat stores by working in a specific muscle group. Instead, there's two ways to slim your hips and thighs. First, should you lose overall body fat, eventually you'll lose fat from your problem areas. Second, by doing weight training, you can make your hips and thighs firmer and much more compact, even without actually losing weight.
Methods of Fat Loss
The only way to lose excess fat is to expend more calories than you take in. You can do this by reducing your calorie intake, increasing your metabolic rate or expending more calories by exercising. The Mayo Clinic recommends no less than 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of high-intensity cardio and 2 strength-training sessions per week for basic fitness, but adds that lots of people will need up to 300 minutes per week of cardio for weight loss. Because muscles are more metabolically active than fat, weight training not only firms your hips and thighs but additionally increases your metabolic rate, assisting you lose fat.
Cardio for Losing fat
Aerobic exercises, which should be performed not less than 10 consecutive minutes at any given time for cardiovascular health, are suggested for sustained calorie burning. The number of calories you burn doing cardio depends on your weight and the intensity that you perform the activity. For instance, a 200-pound person will burn 255 calories an hour or so walking at a leisurely pace and 1,074 calories each hour running at a pace of 8 mph. In practical terms, one large muffin may be the equivalent of two hours of slow walking or Half an hour of fast running.
Principles of Weight training
Resistance exercises, which strengthen your hip and thigh muscles, can make those problem areas firmer and much more compact, as well as increasing your overall muscle tissue and metabolic rate. To gain strength you have to challenge your muscles by using enough resistance so that you can do no more than 15 repetitions of the given exercise. Because you break up muscle fibers when you work out after which rebuild them with stronger muscles while you recover, allow 48 hours between strength workouts.
Compound Exercises
Compound exercises work a number of different hip and thigh muscles simultaneously. Add resistance bands or hold dumbbells while carrying out a combination of lunges, reverse lunges and side lunges for any convenient hip and thigh workout that you can do at home. Advanced weightlifters do barbell squats and deadlifts included in a compound leg and hip workout, however these should only be done after you have been weight lifting for several months in the existence of a trainer or spotter. The lower limb press, multihip and Roman chair back extension machines at gyms allow you to do safe compound hip and thigh exercises.
Isolation Exercises
You are able to isolate thigh and hip muscles with exercises using cables, resistance bands, ankle weights or selectorized machines. With ankle weights or resistance bands, you are able to lie on your side and lift the low leg up to tone your inner thigh or even the upper leg to work the outer thigh. Start on your stomach and lift one leg at any given time to exercise gluteals and hamstrings. Sit on a chair with both knees bent and feet flat on the ground, using ankle weights or resistance bands for resistance, and lift and straighten one leg at any given time to develop your quadriceps. In the club, abductor and adductor machines work, respectively, the interior and outer thighs. Leg extension machines work the quadriceps running across the front of your thighs and leg curl machines work the hamstrings across the back of your thighs.
