Top five exercises for thunder thighs

Sunday, December 09, 2012 by: Sarka-Jonae Miller
Tags: thunder thighs, exercises, muscle toning

(NaturalNews) The average person gains a pound each year during the holidays, which adds to weight gained during previous holiday seasons. In some unlucky people, this extra weight goes straight to their thighs. Just as you have no say where your body stores fat, you also have no control over where you lose fat. That is why crunches do not affect belly fat and back extensions do not get rid of back fat. To combat thunder thighs, you need to eat fewer calories and do aerobic exercises. However, there are some aerobic exercises that firm the inner thighs along with burning calories.

1. Breaststroke

The breaststroke is a swimming technique that strengthens the chest, triceps, shoulders, hamstrings, and inner thighs. It burns 360 calories per hour, on average. Other strokes may burn more calories, but they tire you out more quickly. Stick to the breaststroke to work your thighs or incorporate intervals of the breaststroke with swimming freestyle laps for a greater caloric burn.

2. Inline skating

Inline skating, or rollerblading, burns more calories than most aerobic activities and firms all areas of the thighs. The average 160-pound person uses an incredible 913 calories in one hour of inline skating.

3. Sideways stair climbing

The stair climber machine at a gym is one of the most challenging and exhausting, which means it burns a lot of calories. However, regular stair climbing does not do much for the inner thighs.

Instead of climbing stairs straight, go sideways. Turn to the right and cross your right leg in front of your left as you climb. Do both sides. Hold onto the rails and do not go too fast for safety reasons. You can also put a treadmill at an incline and walk sideways for a similar effect.

4. Skiing

If your thighs are not burning when you ski, you are doing something wrong. The quadriceps take a lot of the stress during skiing, but the inner thighs work hard to keep you stable. The inner thighs also contract when you slow down and turn.

5. Tennis

Playing tennis is fantastic cardio, but all the side-to-side shuffling targets your inner thighs in a way most sports do not. Most sports involve running forward or backward with only a sidestep here and there. Tennis does have some forward and backward movement, but most of the action is sideways. Even when you do rush forward, it is often at a diagonal that still works the inner thighs.

Singles tennis is also a great way to burn calories. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers singles tennis a vigorous intensity activity. Every minute of vigorous exercise counts for two minutes of moderate exercise. The CDC recommends at least 75 minutes per week of vigorous exercise or 150 minutes of moderate exercise. Playing doubles tennis counts as a moderate workout.

If you incorporate these activities into your exercise routine, you should shed fat and see your legs tone up. It may take a while for your body to let go of the fat in your thighs though. Everything depends upon your genetic predisposition for fat storage. But even if you do not lose thigh fat right away, you will see slimmer thighs due to firmer muscles, plus a slimmer physique all around as you lose fat from your buttocks, belly or back.

Sources for this article include:

http://healthyliving.azcentral.com/shape-inner-thigh-3066.html
http://exercise.about.com/od/healthinjuries/a/skiing.htm
http://www.fitday.com
http://www.dailymail.co.uk
http://www.prevention.com
http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/guidelines/adults.html

About the author:
Sarka-Jonae Miller is a former personal trainer and massage therapist. She has a journalism degree from Syracuse University. Sarka-Jonae currently writes romantic comedy novels and romantic erotica under the same SJ Miller.
Get more health and wellness tips from SJ's natural health Twitter feed or from SJ's Facebook page.
SJ's books can be found on Amazon.