Have you ever noticed that a lot of people look similar with respect to their body shape and that yours is a bit similar to your relative, your best friend or your colleague. This is because every man and woman is born with a specific body type and body shape. This body shape is influenced by genetics and even exercise and diet cannot change it.
The most important area that body shape influences is exercise. You may find that a lot of time despite of following a regular exercise routine you see that there are no results. That is probably because you are performing the wrong exercise for your body shape. Different body shapes have different amount and different pattern of distribution of fat cells. This means that different shapes need different exercise to reduce fat amount from the body. Here are a few to help you:
Apple shaped Body
People with the apple body shape have larger middle part (chest and stomach) with smaller arms and legs. If you have thick waist, full breasts/chest, and wide torso and upper back, then you definitely have an apple-shaped body. The shape is predominantly found in males although women are more prone to develop an apple shape in mid-life.
Exercises
People with apple shaped body should focus on aerobic training in order to slim down and lose body fat. Running/jogging, stair climbing, stepper and other high-intensity cardio exercises are optimal to lose weight all over while still building some muscle tone on the legs. Some more exercises that you can include for your lower body are pilates, squats, and twisting. You also need to build your upper back muscles using cable exercises and rowing machine to support the large chest.
Pear shaped Body
People with pear shaped bodies have a smaller upper body and larger hips and thighs. In this body type, lower portion like hips, buttocks, and thighs stores more fat than the upper body.
Exercises
Because the fat cells are more significant in the lower half, it is important to find the right exercises for toning these problem areas. You should typically spend 75 percent of your time exercising the lower body and the remaining 25 percent on your upper body. For the lower body, some of the exercises that you can include are cycling, leg lifts, squats and lunges. For building up your chest and back, include exercises such as chin ups, push ups and shoulder press.
Hour-glass shaped
People with hour-glass body shape (also known as 8 frame) tend to put on weight or mass in both their upper and lower bodies while staying more slender through the waist. Body-fat distribution tends to occur around both upper and lower body areas. Their shoulders and hips are about equal in width, and they have a small waist and normally flat tummy. This body shape is often considered as the most desirable shape for women.
Exercises
To maintain the balance, you need to follow an exercise routine that concentrates on all areas equally. You should be focusing on both cardio and resistance exercises like stationary biking, jogging, jumping rope, swimming, bicep curls, shoulder press, and squats.
H frame body
The "H Frame" person has an athletic build, but has a large waist and shoulders. This body shape is squared off and blocky.
Exercises
You should be focused on trimming the upper body and bringing out the symmetry. The exercises that you should focus on include treadmill on the incline, the stepper, squats, leg press, stiff dead lifts, leg extension and lunges.
Ruler shaped
People with ruler shaped body are usually equally thin from bottom to top with not much muscle mass or muscle strength. These people are lucky because they have a high metabolism, and don't gain weight very easily. But they also have difficulty adding muscles and shape.
Exercises
You should focus more on strength training and less on cardio. Resistance exercises for the whole body (hips, legs, shoulders and chest) are important to get an overall balance. Some of the exercises that you can include are squats, bench press, shoulder press and lat pull downs.
V Frame
As the name suggests, this body shape (also known as cone or triangle) is usually bigger up top and smaller on the bottom. People with V frame body have shoulders measuring at least 2-3 inches more than the hips. It is the most desirable body shape by men, comprising of broad shoulders, thin waist and strong legs.
Exercises
You should focus on bringing the lower body up to speed with the upper body. Some exercises that you can include for your lower body include squats, leg presses, leg extensions, stiff deadlifts and lunges. Include cardio (preferably stepper) to thin the waist and burn fat.
So now that you are aware of your body shape, it is time to sculpt it and make the most of your body shape!
1. Pear Shaped: You are a pear-shaped person if you have a significant difference in the measurement of your hips and chest, but not your chest and waist.
2. Apple Shaped: If your waist measurements is significantly larger compared to your hip and chest measurements, then you are apple-shaped.
3. Ruler: If there is little difference between the measurements of your chest, waist and hips, then you are ruler-shaped.
4. V-Frame: If you have chest and waist measurements that are fairly close, but have hips that are about six inches or so smaller than your chest, then you have a V-Frame body shape.
5. Hourglass: Your body is hourglass shaped, if you have chest and hip measurements that are very close to one another, but have a small waist. To be classified as a true hourglass, your waist needs to be at least 6 inches between your waist and chest and your waist and hips.
6. H-Frame: Similar to ruler shaped but with larger waist and shoulders.
actually strength training will only tone ur muscles up.. use the lighter weights for the same... and xcept for strength training , you can also try hand rotations .. in forward and backward movements ... 50 each for each hand .. you 'll notice a considerable difference in just a week..
what is the intensity of the exercises....are you doing the same type of exercises since you started going to the zym...how about cardio....all this will give you an answer/clue to better weight loss.
bent over barbel row (grip) 3 sets of 12 reps
seater pullies rows 3sets of 12 reps then for biceps i do hummer curls, seated dumbel rows and barbel bicep curls standing
tuesday , thursday is cardio and stomach exercises( 30 mins each)
wednesday for legs i do walking lounges 3 sets of 10 steps, barbel squats and press,lyimg leg curl,leg extensions and hyper extensions. for shoulders shoulder press, lateral raises and upright rows.friday chest flat bench press, incline dumbell bench press, flat bench dumbel flyers, close grip bench press
triceps i do overhead rope tricep extensions, dumbell tricep extensions (lying) and tricep dips on the bench. dats what i do in 5 days a week
If you want to reduce only your thighs then exercises will work but only thing is your exercises frequency will decide whether you will gain weight on thighs or will loose fat along with loosing flabby thighs. May i know how many repetition and sets you used to do for your thighs?