Exercises for Those "Saddle Bags" on Your Thighs
If you're a woman, you've most certainly heard of the
phrase "saddle bags" which is a euphamism (if you can call
it a euphamism) for those stubborn pockets of fat that tend
to accumulate on women around the outsides of there thighs,
creating, well, a look of saddle bags.
Yep, it's taken from those convenient bags that hang off
the sides of motorcycles to hold items, on either side of
the motorcycle, and it's the perfect way to describe these
pockets of stubborn fat that so many women have, because in
a nutshell, that's what they look like.
These pockets of extra fat are what give women a womanly
shape and curve to their body, but they can also be large
and distracting, and give a woman a pear shape, or simply
make a woman's body look disproportionate when they grow
out of control, usually in relation to when we gain weight
or take a really long time off of going to the gym or
working out. Many times, saddle bags are hereditary.
I for one, inherited them from my mother and my
grandmother, who are skinny, but they've always had that
extra pocket of fat on the thighs, so it's always been a
problem area for me, especially when I put a few pounds on,
because that's exactly where those extra pounds all like to
go - to the thighs.
I know there are some of you out there who are reading this
and going "yes!", I have the same problem, and yes it does
run in my family on the women's side! But take heart,
there are some exercises you can do to help minimize the
look of saddle bags on the sides of your thighs, and of
course a low fat and quality protein diet always helps as
well, so the fat cells shrink and in turn shrink this area.
Exercises cannot completely eliminate saddle bags on their
own. Yes, they can help to pull them in and tone them,
resulting in a smaller, more compact appearance, but you
also must watch your diet. Isn't this always the
unfortunate truth of shrinking any part of our anatomy
though?
OK, now let's talk about some simple aerobic machine
exercises we can do to help minimize the appearance of
large thighs, AKA saddle bags. A very simple one is to use
the elliptical machine and slightly turn the feet out as if
you are walking like a duck.
Turning the feet out helps to isolate the area on the sides
of the thighs, and the aroebic activity combined with the
isolation of the muscles in this area can help to pull and
sculpt the saddle bag problem area. The elliptical machine
is one of my favorites for helping sculpt and tone my
buttocks and thighs, without bulking them up, and they are
great for helping sculpt this problem area as well.
Also, going backwards on the elliptical can help sculpt out
this area as well, if you can, with pointed out feet, but
if it's too uncomfortable, just go backwards for a few
minutes without inverting the feet. Every little bit of
diversification in positioning will help this area.
Running on the treadmill or even walking doesn't compare to
the elliptical if you want to concentrate on the thighs,
because the elliptical's motion is much more conducive to
working this area since it is a half circle motion, and
this targets that tiny area much better and more
effectively.
Now, onto some more simple isometric-style exercises that
you can do anywhere. You don't need any equipment for
these, just a little endurance and muscle to power your way
through them like a champ, all the while thinking of how
toned your thighs are going to look by doing them
consistently, and how you'll fit into those jeans without
getting stuck at the thighs when pulling them on.
This one is a great one, and one of my favorites currently
because it sounds easy, but when you start doing it, you
will see that it is truly a great isolation exercise.
Begin laying on the floor (either a carpeted floor, or get
a yoga mat or a mat with cusioning to protect your back and
vertebrae). Put both of your legs straight up into the
air, so that your body looks like it is at a perfect ninety
degree angle. Now, put the bottoms of your feet together.
This will create a slightly pigeon-toed look and may not
feel very natural at first, but bear with me. Making sure
you keep the bottoms of your feet together the whole time,
slowly pull the legs down, almost as if your legs are one
mechanism, moving up and down, in a diamond shape.
Bring them straight down to the juncture of your thighs,
all the while keeping the bottoms of your feet together.
You should feel some sort of isolation of the sides of your
thighs, and if you don't you may be performing the exercise
incorrectly, so re-assess your positioning and technique.
After you bring your legs down, then begin to start moving
them up, with your feet still velcroed together, and bring
them to a straight up position again, maintaining the
bottom of the feet touching.
Do as many as you can. When you get good at this exercise,
you can begin to do a slight variation of it, and move the
legs out from the body, going at more of a one hundred ten
degree angle than a ninety degree one. You will still feel
the isolation, your just working a slightly different area
of these stubborn saddle bags.
Next are the more obvious choices that help wittle away
that stubborn thigh fat, and those are the infamous and
dreaded lunges. Yep, lunges are one of the best exercises
you can do for those stubborn fat pockets that accumulate
around your thigh areas.
Some of my favorites that I do a lot when I notice my
thighs are starting to be the sticking point for my jeans
not fitting, is the side lunge. If you repeat the lunges
around eight times for three sets, this is a good way to
not only burn fat and sculpt out muscle, but also to keep
the calorie burning up and create what's called muscle
confusion.
Side lunges look like forward lunges or squats, only one
leg is straight out to the side, planted on the floor,
while the other knee is bent, toes facing out to the other
wall, away from you, and you are lunging so that the
isolated area is the side of the thigh rather than the
quadriceps or buttocks.
They are hard to do for many women, but I promise you, if
you continue with them and stick to it, you'll be doing
three sets of eight lunges in no time at all, if not more,
and you'll be on your way to a much smaller upper thigh
area!
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Danna Schneider is the cofounder of
http://www.dietingmagazine.com , where you can find
information on weightloss products, fitness equipment and
diet reviews, and dieting tips for losing weight. She also
founded http://www.fitnessnewsmagazine.com , a site
dedicated to the latest offerings and breakthroughs in
weight loss and fitness, with the latest reviews of new
fitness equipment and accessories and workout reviews.
