Fatty Inner Thighs
 

Can anyone please answer this question? I normally cycle 50 - 60 miles per day on Saturday's and Sundays. My calves and my Outer Thighs have gone almost to all muscle. You can pinch at the most, 1/2 inch of skin. My inner thighs are still fat. I thought that cycling would strengthen all muscles in my legs. What exercise can I do to build them up?

Thanks

Try doing adduction exercises at the gym. One thing I do Is leg presses, with your toes pointed outward, like a ballerina in the ten-to-two position. That works the inner thighs.

Inner thighs are tough! I had put on some weight about 12 lbs, over the past couple of years, due to a thyroid condition and for the first time in my life, my upper inner thighs actually touched each other! Just at the top. About halfway into the season, I noticed that they weren't touching anymore.

wabbit is correct on the exercises to add strength/muscle to the inner thighs in fact all leg exercises done with a relatively wide stance and toes pointed outward as described will shift focus to the inner leg areas which are not focused on in cycling due to foot/leg position remaining constant in position to focus more on outer thighs.Keep in mind as far as fat loss though this is not going to spot reduce fat from your thighs.It sounds like inner thighs is just an area where you tend to accumulate fatty deposits so any aerobic/anaerobic activity that burns fat will reduce the fat there as well as over the rest of your body.So up or continue the aerobic(cycling,etc.)/anaerobic(weights,sprinting)activity and do some specific weight exercises to add muscle to the inner thighs that will become visible once your overall bodyfat levels are low enough.Keep in mind it is neccesary to consistently burn more calories through activity than consumed through food to lose fat so it is important to focus on diet as well as exercise to create a small to moderate calorie deficit that will result in gradual fat loss over a period of time.

Here's something I found in Bicycling magazine a few years ago. I saved it because I had the same problem at the time.


Tone Your Inner Thighs

Do 2-3 sets of 10 repetitions of this leg raise 3 times a week for stronger inner thigh muscles. This exercise strengthens part of the quadriceps too. When the exercise becomes too easy, add ankle weights.

1. Lie on your side with your head propped up on one hand and the other hand on the floor in front of you balancing your weight.

2. Bend the knee of the top leg, placing the foot of that leg in front of your other knee. The bottom leg should be fully extended and resting on the floor.

3. Slowly raise the bottom leg as high as comfortably possible.

4. Hold a second, then slowly lower.

5. Finish a set, then repeat with the opposite leg.


Good luck :thumbup:

The exercises the previous posters mentioned will indeed strengthen the inner thighs. What they will not do is eliminate fat deposits from the inner thighs. Spot fat reduction (through exercise) is a physiological impossibility. The best way to reduce fat deposits is through aerobic exercise combined with calorie restriction. Your body has its own agenda in deciding what order these fat deposits begin to recede. It's pretty much inevitable that some areas will take longer than others, so you will have to be patient and consistent.

Walking lunges.

I do lunges and my inner thighs are as hard as plastic!

I know. Poppaspoke has it right. You can't spot reduce. But lunges are one of the better exercises for adding stength to your inner thigh (and hams, glutes as well)

One thing I do..haven't a clue if it works... is to use different muscles while pedaling. I usually do this while climbing... fatigue the muscle, and then switch to another method of pedaling... sometimes I will use one leg to do ALL the work... sometimes I'll do the scrape the mud off the bottom of your shoe thing.. sometimes use just my calf muscles... etc. etc. etc.
That said, while I have legs like a body builder I have a belly like fat bastard.
"Get in my belly!!!!"
"Eat the baby.... "
Doug
:beer:

I have noticed while looking at club photos on different sights that there are lot's of riders who have this same problem. I have resolved to do belly tightning exersizes starting today!:D

I just finished a leg workout and have to agree with Maelstrom as I did a few sets of lunges(don't have room for much walking though)and they really are effective for firming the inner thighs as well as the tie ins between hams and quads . It gives the leg muscles a really good stretch and is really a difficult exercise due to the intense burn which explains why most avoid it.

And the feeling of you muscle being torn in two. Very strange feeling but once you embrace it, it is a great exercise. If you ever get the room to try walking lunges they produce a slightly different affect then standing lunges. Both are awesome and require very little weight if any.

Its amazing I use to avoid them like everyone else and my inner thighs were weak but now I do them and they are becoming much easier while my inner thighs are strengthening I don't think its a coincidence.I guess I could open my garage door and head out into the driveway lol.

Or do a funny walk up the street :D...Now that would be some distance.

I think that if you were doing aerobic excercise
on a more consistent basis it might help. I have to agree
with all of the above posts about lunges, presses etc.
however without aerobic at least 4 or 5 times a week
you're not gonna burn off the fat.
Sorry if I've misread (or worse assumed that you
are not doing any other aerobic) but it looks like you
just need to do more frequent excersize than 2 days
a week (and thats not to say that your milage is bad)

Marty

I agree with lotek that the aerobics should be done on a more consistent basis as the easiest way to lose fat is not gain it in the first place .If you are pressed for time many people report good results from just half an hour per day of aerobics done first thing in the morning on an empty stomock.Others report good results from as little as 10 minates per day of anaerobic intervals done with high intensity.Either can be done on a bike or other outside activity or inside on a trainer/treadmill etc. for convenience or if weather is a concern.The anaerobics has the benefit of requiring less time and while it burns less %fat burns more calories overall so can actually burn as much fat and in addition raises the metabolism more resulting in more fat burned after the workout.On the other hand it requires a fairly high intensity to be effective so it is somewhat more an advanced technique requiring a base fitness level which it sounds like you have.Either way do whichever you prefer but it sounds like you may need to get diet under control as well and here in particular you should limit refined carbs/sugars which tend to become addictive causing cravings that make it difficult to keep calories under control.Try to combine protein and fat with any carbs in small frequent meals to avoid cravings and storing calories as fat in the first place. You may want to avoid calories particularly carbs immediately before/during the exercise and even immediately afterward to maximize fat burning.

Doctors once did a fat study of Rod Laver, the Austraian tennis star. He was right handed, so they assumed his right arm would have a lower fat % than his left arm. However, the test showed an equal fat % in each arm, although his right arm had considerably more muscle mass and looked bigger.
Can it be deduced from this that vigorously exercising a particular part of the body doesn't necessarily remove fat from just that particular area? Is this true?

I believe it has been proven that spot reduction is impossible. You CAN increase muscle in an area and decrease overall body fat thereby faking spot reduction. But in reality it isn't true spot reduction. Thsi would help with the inner thigh issue as most people have a weak inner thigh. Building up the muscle would give the illusion, which isn't a bad thing since it 'looks' better.

So yes I believe that with that study trmcgeehan, that end result can be deduced :D...

Cycling does not work the adductor muscles enough to firm them up. You will need to do exercises that will target that area. Leg press(toes angled slightly ouward), adductions and wide stance squats with or w/o weights( you need not go all the way down).

Basicaly any movment that requires you to pull your knees towards the midline.

I have the same belly problem- due to being short-waisted, that's where I always accumulate the fat, especially the lower ab. So wearing a two piece suit, forget it! I will never have those ripped abs, even if I did, you wouldn't see them anyways. It's the way I'm built. I remember when I was a teen, reading those fashion magazines which would give advice on things like
what to wear to accentuate or hide this or that feature: if you're shortwaisted, don't wear pleats or highwaisted pants! Good to know!


ANother inner thigh exercise is: lie on your back and put your legs straight up, like you're an "L". Try this with ankle weights. Then open your legs to a "V" and then close, bringing the legs together again. IT sounds obscene but it does work. Also: with your legs together, bend the the knees to about 45 degrees like you're sitting in the chair, still keeping your feet together. Then straighten the legs up, keeping your feet together. Do it slowly and repeat- I do about 3 sets of 15 reps. Another variation: with your legs together, bend them to the 'chair' position, then open and close the knees, slowly, keeping your feet together, touching at the sides (not the soles, that's impossible). In all these exercises, if you do them slowly and with the right position, you'll really feel it.