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I big calves (the muscles below the knee) and I have been trying to find a way to make them smaller (i.e. more feminine).

Short of surgery is there any way to make them smaller?

live in a wheelchair?

Quote from: tomthom on March 02, 2013, 02:08:21 AM
live in a wheelchair?

And end up with biceps and big arms? No thank you :)

yeah well doing surgery to take out muscle like that is a big no no. that's pushing the extremes of ethics. that and if they ->-bleeped-<- up you'll be walking like House without all that lovely vicodin.

Jenlee, do you do any exercises? Lunges, squats, etc would make them bigger.

But overall, I've seen tons of cis-women with big calves, mainly women who work out, and they almost seem to take a pride in it. Women love doing lower body exercises because that's where they're naturally stronger and having strong legs and butts is sexy.  :-* If you're worried about your calves and are afraid you can't get them smaller, try doing some butt exercises, having a strong sexy butt will help distract from big calves. I hear the Brazillian Butt Lift program on Beachbody is amazing, but you can find a lot of butt exercises over on youtube.

Accept yourself!

If that doesn't work, go on a low caloric diet and do the eliptical but set to NO incline and no resistance so you aren't using calf muscles, just moving legs back and forth in a smooth motion with little resistance. If you spend an hour or so doing that and reducing calories, you should be able to burn muscle but make sure you do it under a Dr.'s supervision so you don't mess with your heart. It's tricky, but can be done.

I used to be a professional ballet dancer and then later, after retirement, a personal trainer (PT). There are a number of goals and outcomes to a dancer's training, including (a) strengthening dance specific muscles (b) lengthening muscles and (c) refining or limiting muscle growth. The latter is important to achieve the line and shape of a classical dancer. Contemporary dancers have similar goals, but they train differently to achieve a different core strength and body shape. But whatever technique is used, the end result should be a strong, streamlined physique, which is achieved, importantly, through daily, high repetition exercises (a company ballet class lasts from 1-and-a-half to 2hrs, and then they start the day's rehearsals). The high reps are what continually break down the muscles and keep them lean. A good diet helps, too, though genetics do play a role in how you metabolise food. I used to eat whatever I wanted when I was a dancer, so I must have been lucky on that front. But for all dancers, the sheer workload made it difficult to put on a significant amount of weight (though some did, and they certainly made their mark on my spinal health).

When I was a PT I always had clients coming in and saying, "I want bigger biceps" or "I want to reduce the fat under my triceps" (I'll let you assign gender to those specific requests). The underlying assumption of these requests is that if you work on those specific areas you'll get the results you want. While this is partly true with respect to muscle building (there are better, more holistic ways in achieving this goal), the other request is almost impossible. Moreover, once you let these people have free run of the gym themselves, you watch them, month after month, working those single areas with little success while neglecting the rest of their bodies.

Now, in my opinion, a dancer's training is holistic, in the sense that they have to do a, b and c to achieve the required goals. If you really want to try and spot reduce a particular body part (which is quite difficult), my advice is that you also engage in regular cardio exercise, cardio that tests your limits (but, please, have a professional devise a routine). Then, perhaps counter-intuitively, you need to regularly train your legs with low-to-no-weight high rep exercises (70-80reps), so that you break down the muscle tissue in your legs. For a while you may notice that your calves actually seem to get bigger, but that's not what is happening. What's actually happening is that your legs are getting more toned, not bigger. Toned legs can often have the appearance of looking larger than an unshaped mass of muscle (unless, of course, you're talking in terms of WWF or bodybuilder mass). Caloric intake should also be reduced.

If it sounds like a lot of work, well, it is. A moderately easier method is to forget about reducing your calves specifically and work on your body as a whole. What I do is a High Intensity Training (HIT) workout on a treadmill or the long form method of endurance training (I haven't yet established whether HIT will give you the same lean muscles as traditional endurance training does with marathon runners) and restrict my calorie intake (not eating for an hour or two after training is a big plus, in my opinion -- but keep up your fluids!). Adhering to this method along with your HRT program will likely see more than just your calves reduced.

Now you're really going to hate me, because despite the above advice on high-rep muscle workouts, in my case it didn't really work (which is why I changed my routine to HIT/endurance and low calorie intake). As I wrote in another thread, following the above routine and reducing calories just maintained the muscle I already had (weird). However, when I think about it, this is what happened when I was dancing; I just seemed to have a default muscularity. Genetics play a role in defining your limits. I'm a mesomorph, for example, who stacks on muscle very easily. To this end, you should not take my experience as a measure of your own training experience. There's a reason why dancers from repertoire ballet companies all look the same, and it's not just because of their diet or training. In this respect, some acceptance may be required on your part.

Hope there's something in there that helps, though looking back at it, I seem to be more of a hindrance. Experiment with some of the ideas and give them some time to show results before abandoning them. Anyway, good luck with whatever you try!

After 3 and a half years of hrt (and almost a year of near flat-line T levels), my once large calf muscles are about half as large...but still larger than average.

Thing is, I'll never be a waif. Neither will many other women. C'est la vie.

N.J.