When I gave advice on fitness running, I often encountered this question asked by those youngsters in their prime, especially girls who pay a lot of attention to their looks, and they are extremely sensitive to the thickness of their legs. I believe that the phenomenon of legs becoming thick is often closely related to training methods and techniques of running. In practice, ordinary runners generally do not go through systematic training, so the majority of people’s thick legs are caused by the accumulation of fat. Especially for women, in addition to the legs, the buttocks are another main body part that accumulates fat. You can use your thumb and forefinger to pinch the skin on your legs, and then, you will see how thick the fat is on your legs.
Running is a good exercise that benefits both health and fitness. Especially the aerobic and relatively gentle exercises, such as long distance running and jogging, can effectively burn or reduce body fat, including fat on the legs. Studies show that within the first 30 minutes of running, 35% of the runner’s energy goes toward burning fat, and this increases to 50% at 40 minutes. This makes the leg muscles become tight and decreases calf dimensions, which is the main reason why marathon runners have lean bodies with slender legs.
There are a few things that need to be mentioned. First, this kind of running requires a long enough period of time, generally more than 30 minutes. In addition, one should adopt a slow and even rhythm, and emphasis on speed, power or uphill running tends to increase the strength of muscle contraction, stimulating muscle growth, and ultimately enlarging the leg muscles. As a result, the legs become thick; this is often the case with great sprinters.
Secondly, running techniques can affect the distribution of the leg muscles. In the correct running method, one’s knees are slightly bent when landing. One should use ankles, knees and hips to buffer, and during push off one should use the buttocks and thigh muscle strength to complete the action. I often see runners doing exactly the opposite; they always use their shins to thrust against the ground. Over time, the lower legs will inevitably become stiff and thick. We recommend that you should either look for an experienced coach to guide you, or use textbooks as reference to adjust your running technique.
Finally, if you want to use running as a method for beautifying your legs, you must persevere. In addition, before training, you should do a lot of stretching, which fully activates the muscles to ensure their flexibility. After running, you should do cool-off exercises immediately in order to reduce the accumulation of muscle metabolites.
Of course, there are few people who are born with very developed leg muscles; once they start running, their muscles begin to develop, and it is especially obvious during exercise hyperemia. Therefore, you should make a practical running goal according to your own physical and structural characteristics.
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