Will squats make my legs bulky?

[moxie1]

I've been reading the threads about high-volume squats and I am interested in incorporating them into my routine, especially after what I read about lung capacity.

Anyway, my concern is that they will make my legs bulky looking. I tend more toward the pear body shape (small upper body, bigger bum/thighs) and I do not want to become a larger pear.

Becki

[Greg Newton]

Moxie,

With your genetics, deep knee bends will be easy. However, you are trying to reshape your body and it sounds like your natural structure would incline you towards big legs. When I was a personal trainer I worked with a young lady with the same problem. She had created a total wreck of her body lines with indiscriminant weight training and had a pear shape and hunched shoulders.

Deep knee bends would probably be O.K. if you did not squat below parallel. However, a better exercise would be lunge squats or split squats. These are great exercises for balancing out the lower quadriceps and leg bicep. They also don't overdevelop the muscles of the hips. You can use VRT tension to cut your reps down. However, they don't have the conditioning effect deep knee bends have. Long striding walking would also help.

You can also work on your posture to pull your shoulder blades back and add width to your deltoid muscles. The Miracle Seven exercises would be great for this, as well as the Isometrics in IPR. Also, I strongly recommend the Atlas shoulder shrug where you roll your shoulders back and tense the back muscles isometrically.

Deep knee bends are a great exercise in any form, BUT they aren't for everyone. For a period of time I was doing Hindu pushups and Hindu squats exclusively and due to my past training history and genetics, started looking more like the Great Gama than John Peterson. I still do Tiger Bend Squats and when the mood hits me, the Atlas ballet squats, but now I balance them out with other exercises.

Greg Newton

[JoeJustice]

Becki, don't worry about gaining mass in your thighs. There's something about bodyweight squats and the natural equilibrium of the body. The legs were designed to squat and in many third world countries you'll see that squatting a natural part of everyday life and you don't see those folks with thunder thighs.

Only time I see women with really big thighs (other than overweight women) are weight lifters and extreme bicyclist - lots of uphill riding or spinning with heavy tension will really widen out the thighs.

Try alternating day-to-day with Tiger Bend Squats, step-ups and Atlas Squats. You'll have fantastic looking thighs in no time!

-Joe