Written by Nickie Fleming in Exercise
Viewed by 117 readers since 05-09-2009

For lots of women, the lower body is a problem zone. Because of their nature, hormones send excess fat directly to the lower body (belly, hips and thighs). In centuries long past, women needed this storage of fats to survive harsh circumstances, like severe winters, droughts and famines. But nowadays food is hardly scarce in the western world and body fat is easily gained by the plentitude of fast food restaurants.

The thighs especially are a fat collection area. But we don’t have to despair. When we lose our obsession about them and start exercising, we can work miracles.

To better understand how, we must know that the thighs have four important muscle groups. The quadriceps (quads) are located at the front of the thighs and they are used to straighten the legs. The hamstrings, at the back of the thigh, are used to bend the legs. The abductors (the outer thigh muscles) will pull the legs sideways away from the body, while the adductors the inner thigh muscles) will pull the legs sideways back to the body.

Unless we play sports like basketball or tennis on a daily basis, we get little exercise for the thighs. The afore mentioned sports involve lots of side-to-side movement and that tones the muscles. Otherwise the thighs become flabby. We can already do something by cutting back on the fat, and a lot more with the right type of exercise.

Let’s start with some simple ones:

• Walking on a treadmill with an incline of 15 degrees. This is hugely different from walking on flat surfaces, and makes it much better for weight loss. It especially targets the legs and butt. If you do this exercise for about 25 minutes, success is guaranteed.
• Run up and down the stairs. The more floors you cover, the better. You can even do this at your office. When you need to go to another department on another floor, don’t use the elevator but take the stairs instead.
• A Hindu squat. The key to this exercise is that you treat it like a cardio one, and not like a weightlifting exercise. You just have to squat up and down in a fast tempo and don’t try to stop. Keep this up for about 5 minutes, and you’ll feel the muscles in your thighs strengthen up. This exercise burns off the fat in a very fast tempo. Why? Because of the ‘after burn’ effect it creates, meaning that you will burn fat at a higher rate up to 18 hours after you did your workout.
• Rowing exercises. Also these are great to work out not only your lower body but the entire body. It trains your arm muscles, as well as your stomach, belly, thighs and legs. You’ll need to go to a fitness center, though, or buy a rowing home trainer.

There are many more exercises that can be done, but this I leave up to people who have had training in these. Please consult a fitness trainer to ask for specific exercises.