For one thing, fat cells in the lower part of the body seem to vacuum up harmful fatty acids that are released into the blood when fat-laden foods are digested. Fat cells in the upper body also store up free fatty acids, but are quick to pour them back into the blood in response to stress-induced surges of adrenaline. And abdominal fat cells produce larger amounts of cytokines, chemicals that trigger harmful inflammation, while lower-body fat cells produce productive chemicals, including leptin and adiponectin.
More research is needed to sort out the action of gluteofemoral and visceral fat. At present, the evidence implicating visceral fat is stronger than the data exonerating gluteofemoral fat. In addition, there is just no way you can selectively target either type of fat.
The best advice is to keep your overall body fat in check by taking in fewer calories in your diet and burning up more calories with exercise. In particular, calorie-dense foods fat, sugar will tip the balance toward a big belly, while resistance exercise strength training can build up muscles in your thighs and arms.
In America and around the world, women tend to be pear-shaped, while men tend to be apple-shaped. It may be one reason that women live longer than men, both in America and around the world.
And as scientists continue to investigate body shape and health, they are likely to pile up evidence that confirms what men already know: big bums trump big tums. As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please note the date of last review or update on all articles. No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
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How to get your child to put away toys. Is a common pain reliever safe during pregnancy? So when I started Starting Strength, I was overjoyed to be finally putting weight on my lower body. I had always thought women liked strong legs and butt on men. To me, a stronger lower body was previously unattainable and always symbolized male primal energy, something which I lacked as a skinny artsy-fartsy type.
Then change the program. Huh, wild, yeah, really leaning into the strength training instead of the hypertrophy training. Aesthetics are hugely and I mean, HUGELY subjective, that should go without saying, and the fact that your article relies so much on it and emphasizes it to such an extent is worrisome.
Again, a preference. What use would we get out of big arms? We spend most of our days typing, holding small gadgets, generally not doing anything that requires much strength from our arms.
Big, strong legs, however, will be of benefit to almost anyone. And the part about pant size just cracked me up. Is that really a problem? I mean if is, tailors are still a thing. Same with the part about capping out. You can increase the reps instead which is actually a good thing for mass , decrease resting intervals, switch to something else entirely e.
Again, sounds like an excuse. However, many guys want to build more of a universally aesthetic physique. Is neglecting the lower body a good thing? Not usually, no. Functionally, will people really benefit from a proportionally stronger lower body? I can deadlift about , squat around , bench around , overhead press around , do a chin-up with an extra pounds or so.
I recently moved into a house on the fifth and sixth floors of a building with no elevator. Among other things, I carried 1, pounds of gym equipment up to the sixth floor. I had to pick each load based on what my biceps and grip could handle. Carrying pounds of weight plates up sixth floors is no problem for my legs given how light it is compared to my squat and deadlift.
But my fingers and biceps would get tired. My traps, too. The appliances we bought fridge, laundry, dishwasher came with free installation, which meant the delivery guys carried them up the stairs.
Their legs had no issues, but before making it up even the first flight of stairs, their arm and lower back strength failed. They went back to the truck and got harnesses so that they could bear the load on their legs without their upper bodies failing. Can I bring these to a tailor?
Will that fix all of the issues? Not really. And having to bring every new pair of pants to a tailor is a bit of a hassle anyway. Those are two of the funnest lifts. So why is it more exciting to build a bigger upper body?
You put a lot of emphasis on the grip, and how your fingers were getting tired in those situations. And sure, I agree with that. Grip strength is important and often overlooked. They have. I had to go up multiple sizes when shopping, and that usually means the waist part will be too loose. However, I am happy to have such a problem. Grip strength is a part of upper body strength. I definitely include it as part of upper body strength.
Developing certain types of grip strength will indeed improve our aesthetics by giving us burlier forearms. But I was primarily making an argument for this aspect of upper body strength often bottlenecking our overall strength—an argument for lifters often having a surplus of lower body strength and a lack of upper body strength. Deadlifts are a full-body exercise. Deadlifts improving our grip is an example of them also being a good upper-body exercise. Same idea with deadlifts improving our trap and spinal erector strength.
I used to wear a size-small shirt that was loose around my arms and tight around my torso. I also love having a bigger shirt size. The problem with big thighs in tight pants is that it can become hard to lift my legs up high enough to, say, go up stairs two at a time.
Obviously there are workarounds. No problem there. But still, pants are a pain when you have an athletic build. That issue only gets more pronounced the more you bulk up your legs. Can someone like Alan Thrall even wear pants? His legs might be too epic. He might have progressed past the ability to wear pants.
You can build pretty big legs with just squats, RDLs, and a couple accessory movements. Building a big upper body is way harder—bench press, overhead press, chin-ups, and rows are required just to get the bare minimum movement patterns down. Personally, I feel more tired after a set of weighted chin-ups than a set of heavy squats. And then we get into the challenge of people often having stubborn chests or arms, and needing to pile on a ton of volume in order to get consistent growth.
I think guys are willing to do difficult exercises so long as they see a worthwhile reward. The bench press is more difficult than calf raises. But which lift are guys more excited to do? Same deal with rows being more challenging than leg curls, or overhead pressses being more challenging than leg extensions. As for guys being preconditioned to think of upper bodies as being more important, yeah. The most badass physique is just an upper body. Again, these are just upper bodies. What about on Cosmopolitan?
Is that because of nature or nurture? Thank you. So why is that even an argument? That can happen. As I moved from a size small up to a size large t-shirt to accommodate my growing chest, shoulders and upper arms, the waist on my shirts gradually got baggier. First, there are no mobility issues from having tight t-shirt sleeves. Third, most shirts are designed with fairly big arms by default. First of all, there are no mobility issues from having tight pants.
If there are, buy better pants and shop at better places. Third, most pants are designed with fairly big legs by default. Finally, it looks very good. See how this works? What specific pants are you wearing, in what waist size, and to fit what waist, butt, and thigh measurements?
And how much can you squat and deadlift? As for pants being loose by default, yeah, absolutely. I would need big-leg pants with a inch waist. More of a special-order thing, right? A t-shirt stretches quite freely, most pants do not. I bring my pants to a tailor. I wear chinos, denim both tapered and both usually tailored , at the gym I usually wear tighter sweatpants or joggers.
I squat around kg x 12 reps atm. Deadlift is a little lower than that. Also, I thought it was interesting that my measurements were almost exactly dead on with your example for Greek aesthetics. But I do want to get bigger and stronger legs, still. I want to get a lbs squat high bar, ATG. If I gain some weight in my legs, sure, some movements like planches, Malteses and levers will get more difficult. And honestly, not only do I not want weaknesses, but I want to be a powerful athlete, all around.
But could I make use of it for performing as a porter someone who carries and throws people around in circuses if a job asks for it? Hell yeah. Or take your example of a guy who trains the legs wholeheartedly… And give him a bigger, thicker upper body to still make him more upper body dominant. That might depend on your body proportions, though, and also on what you want to look like. Jeff Nippard is a great natural example of that, too. Looks absolutely awesome.
What do you think about my stats? My ankle measures in at 8in. I hate wearing shorts for this reason. Any advice you could offer would be appreciated, thanks for the great article. In that case, does it matter […].
In fact, many lifting programs are heavily weighted towards bulking up your lower body. Bulking down, so to […]. In fact, some […]. Oddly enough, leg size is largely irrelevant to aesthetics.
That approach of improving leverage while minimizing range of motion is perfect for powerlifting. The downside is that instead of building up a bigger back, powerlifters build up a bigger lower body.
Flexed and measured at the biggest point. Hey guys. Awesome site. Quick question. Just curious. Very interesting! And do I care if the different heads of my quads are fully developed? Will I go to the effort of including leg extensions to bring up my lagging rectus femoris muscles? I just care about getting stronger at the squat and deadlift. But our upper bodies have a much bigger impact on our appearance.
Do I care about having full biceps and triceps? Will I include skullcrushers after my bench press to bring up the lagging long heads of my triceps? And, of course, I also want to get stronger at the bench press, overhead press, and chin-up. I want both size and strength. I mean, what people find attractive varies wildly though. What people find attractive definitely varies. For a lot of people, anywhere between chicken legs and elite sprinter legs is totally cool.
With that said, lifting weights builds muscle very, very well. Now, are big legs too big to be attractive? Those guys look totally rad. Thing is, having huge legs comes with some tradeoffs, at least for me.
So a lot of people who put effort into bulking up their legs find themselves having to wear pants that fit poorly, are uncomfortable, or are custom-made.
Mind you, most guys who are super into building big legs happily wear athletic clothes all day long e. So it all depends. He looks like a good with decent muscle-building genetics who did a great job building muscle.
Many men have fully developed chests without having fully developed legs. Adam Driver is a good example of that. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. If you like the blog, you'll love the newsletter. It kicks off with a series about how to build muscle:. Some strength training programs tell us that we should focus our energy on getting stronger at the Big Three lifts: the squat, bench press, and deadlift.
Is that a good way to build a strong and attractive physique? What Leg Proportions are the Most Attractive? Shane Duquette. Sign up for our 5-part bulking mini-course that covers everything you need to know about: Hardgainer genetics and how to make the most of them How to take a minimalist approach to bulking while still getting great results What you need to know about aesthetics, health and strength while bulking up.
John on September 27, at pm. Shane Duquette on September 27, at pm. Quadzilla on September 29, at am. John on April 6, at am. Bib Fortuna on October 25, at pm. I agree. Ben on September 27, at pm. Nice job, Ben! Ben on September 28, at am. Krsiak Daniel on September 29, at am. Shane Duquette on October 1, at pm. JK on September 27, at pm.
Y on September 28, at am. Have the winners been selected for that promo comp thing jared sent out? Jared Polowick on September 28, at pm. Joe tijerina on September 28, at am. I hope that helps. Feel free to email us if you ever have any problems or questions like this!
Shane Duquette on September 29, at am. Gio on October 1, at am. Hey B2B, Great article! Shane Duquette on October 1, at am. Krsiak Daniel on October 8, at am. Shane Duquette on October 8, at pm. Andy on October 10, at pm. Shane Duquette on October 11, at am. Hey Andy, good question! PG on November 27, at pm. Does your recipe book contain vegetarian options? Jared Polowick on November 28, at am. Juan Guerrero on December 15, at pm. Shane Duquette on December 15, at pm. Donald on February 4, at am.
MB on March 19, at pm. Shane Duquette on March 20, at am. MB on March 31, at pm. Shane Duquette on April 2, at am. Jack on March 24, at pm. Jk on April 2, at am. Shane Duquette on April 2, at pm. Nahid Salman on May 1, at am. Shane Duquette on May 1, at pm. Mike on January 2, at am. Shane Duquette on January 2, at pm. Josh on January 6, at am. Shane Duquette on January 15, at am.
James on February 2, at pm. Steve S on July 11, at pm. Shane Duquette on July 11, at pm. Hey Steve, congrats on the gains, man! Steve S on July 12, at am. Steven S on August 28, at pm. Shane Duquette on November 28, at pm.
Thanks for responding. Andre Masters on December 3, at pm. Shane Duquette on November 7, at am. Giovanni on August 14, at am. Hi Shane, you squat kg back squat I guess and deadlift kg. Shane Duquette on August 15, at am. Hey Giovanni, thank you!
Giovanni on August 15, at am. Shane Duquette on August 16, at pm. We need bigger muscles to lift heavier, not the other way around. Victor on August 15, at pm. I showed up on my first day of work in the New York City office to find half the staff standing at their computers.
Because they didn't have chairs. The office consisted mostly of jerry-rigged desks about waist-high that we would belly up to like a bar. Turns out my hipster coworkers were onto something. In case you were wondering, though, doing "light office work" while sitting burns 96 calories an hour for an average pound woman as opposed to calories while standing, according to a widely accepted compendium of physical activity.
Besides, Hamilton adds, "when we're sitting for extended periods, hundreds of 'bad' genes are turned on, including ones that stimulate muscle atrophy. Intrigued, I head to the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center to see firsthand the toll that opting for a chair and a laptop all day is taking on my legs.
Once there, Barry R. Chi, M. I reenact a day in the life of my legs by sitting, standing, walking in both heels and flats , rising up on tiptoe, and jogging. We cap this off with squats and lunges as a yardstick to measure everyday muscle activity against. It's as if I'm not even there. But something happens when I stand up in front of the monitor. It fills with electrical activity. Chi, pointing to the elevated lines. Interestingly, when I stand or walk in heels my quads and hamstrings show greater surges than when I'm in flats, but Dr.
Chi quickly warns against long-term high heel side effects like back pain. The length of your legs is basically a matter of genetics—and we may be talking way, way back in the family tree. Leg muscles are another story. They depend greatly on our genes and what we do with them.
We'll get to the latter half of that equation—diet, exercise, couch-sitting habits—later, but for now, a quick leg muscle anatomy lesson. We all have the same main leg muscles: quadriceps, hamstrings, adductors, shins, and calves. Within those larger muscle groups, though, there are several smaller muscles, each with their own unique function s —adduction, flexion, extension, rotation. For example, the semitendinosus, semimembranosus, and biceps femoris are all part of the hamstrings.
It's worth noting that while adductor muscles are located on the inner thigh and help to move your leg into the mid-line of your body, abductors are not merely "outer thigh" muscles, but rather muscles located in the glutes that help rotation your hip. For the purposes of this story, we're sticking to below the booty. But there's a wide range of sizes and muscle makeup among people that even experts debate.
Muscle fibers in humans evolved so that most of us have legs with a majority of slow-twitch fibers, which give us our staying power during long runs," according to Daniel Lieberman, Ph. With fewer powerhouse fast-twitch fibers, humans are at a disadvantage when it comes to speed. The fastest human, [Jamaican world champion sprinter] Usain Bolt, runs only The quadriceps, or quads, it turns out, are the real wild cards of your leg muscles, as they can range from predominantly fast-twitch to the complete opposite: The quads of someone like Bolt can contain up to 90 percent fast-twitch fibers, says John P.
McCarthy, Ph.
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