Hey all,
does anyone have any advice about "de-bulking"?.... after doing a lot of inclined hill walking/ellipse, i noticed that my calves are huge--they totally bulked up! Is there anyway to reduce their size/make the muscle longer/leaner? Would stretching help?

Also, what do wrist weights do? As in walking while holding 2-3 lb weights? Will that help build upper body or just create more resistance for the lower body?

Thanks!

since you asked, my opinion is that at 97lbs there is no way in heck that anything on you is huge or bulked up - no offence intended, but have you ever had body image issues in the past? my guess is that your calves have gone from sticks to the beginning of shapely and that this is what you are reacting to. Maybe you can ask a (normal weight) friend if your calves are "huge" and need to be de-bulked.

Trusty, you might want to check out Pilates. The exercises make muscles longer and therefore leaner. It will, however, take some time for it to work its magic.

oh, thanks LisaS--no offence taken at all, it's actually nice to be reassured that perhaps its all in my head umm, let's see-- body image issues? Like an ED?, then no... like feeling fat and wanting to loose weight..then yes, but i was overweight so that's not really an issue

beginning of shapely-- alas, certainly not. I guess they aren't "huge" but they are out of proportion to the rest of my muscles/body which are, as u say, stick-like. I know these on-line tools are silly, but i use mybody.com and my calves were def on the high side while my snees/thighs/arms were on the low side--i guess this makes my calves seem bigger to me. I've always had big calves though--before it was fat i guess, and now its muscle.....

Hi Trusty...I know I am not that experienced with it yet, but what about yoga...all the stretching might help. I have been going for about a week and am in love with it. I can't see the difference yet, but it feels incredible and all the instructors have amazing legs that are perfectly proportioned. From all my running my thighs and but look huge to me (think J-Lo) so I asked one of the teachers and she said yoga can help balance out the body? I have my fingers crossed...
Jenn

Me too. My calves are bigger than my knees by about an inch and a half.

I think after working them the way you did, it will take a while, whatever you do. For me, just my weight has been enough of a workout for them; I have a LOT of muscle around my calves (and even ankles). I'm going to be watching my calves shrink (hopefully) by doing the spoon EYS workout.

One thing: if you decide to do that workout, on the L-kicks, make very sure that you are keeping all your weight on the leg that is on the ground. And also make sure to keep your foot pointed at a 90-degree angle to your leg. You can really feel the stretch, and I think the stretch without the weight is crucial to lengthening those muscles. That's probably why the yoga and pilates helps.