How to get rid of muscly bulky shoulders on a female

yor_candy_girl · 2005-05-22 15:27:40

Hi, Im a twenty year old moderately active female. I used to train as a discus thrower which required me to do alot of explosive weight training with my upper body. Unfortunately for me, my shoulders and arms went really muscly and bulky which really doesn't look lady like (not meaning to sound vein!) I stopped training…

22-05-2005 04:27PM

#1

yor_candy_girl

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Hi,

Im a twenty year old moderately active female.
I used to train as a discus thrower which required me to do alot of explosive weight training with my upper body. Unfortunately for me, my shoulders and arms went really muscly and bulky which really doesn't look lady like (not meaning to sound vein!)

I stopped training two years ago now and since then I have lost a bit of weight on my arms but my shoulders are still really bulky and my arms are extremly un-toned. I want to tone my arms without increasing the muscle mass on my shoulders...in fact I want to reduce the size of my shoulders and arms, but get them toned.

Also, my legs have lost the tone. I would like to reduce the size of my thighs without the fear of exercise increasing the muscle (and not losing the fat)

Has anyone got any suggestions?

Thanks x

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#2 22-05-2005 07:55PM

rasherboy

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are your shoulders auctually muscly or just thats the way your bone structure is? i no a few girls who are like that!
also are you doing any exercise? or does your job involve any exercise of your shoulders?

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#3 23-05-2005 09:37AM

yor_candy_girl

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Yea,...my shoulders are a little broad anyway but they weren't muscly before I used to train. When I lift my arms up you can see the muscles tense and they feel real tense as well.

Im a support worker for which requires quite a lot of manual handling. When I go to uni, I walk up and down the stairs to the 7th floor just for a little extra exercise..that only affects my shoulders cuz of the stress of the weight of my bag full of books... Quite recently (over the past few months) I have been doing javelin, shot put and discus training (but without the weights training) and Ive noticed an increase in shoulder size. Other than that I play netball once or twice a week.

Just looked in a book and I think Im refering to the subscapularis and latissimus dorsi muscles?...

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#4 23-05-2005 09:44AM

Saruman

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You know, without being PC, some guys dig muscles on chicks!!!

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#5 23-05-2005 10:43AM

GreeBo

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yor_candy_girl wrote:

I have been doing javelin, shot put and discus training (but without the weights training) and Ive noticed an increase in shoulder size.

I think you are gonna have to choose between these sports and slim shoulders coz they dont appear to be compatible.
if you play any sport for a while your body will start to adapt to play that sport better, in your case thats a large upperbody.

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#6 23-05-2005 10:51AM

yor_candy_girl

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yea Ive given up the athletics again because of it...I was training for a uni competiton and now that's over,...ive stopped cuz of my arms...oh and its my deltoid muscles I think actually

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#7 23-05-2005 04:39PM

Transform

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Same could be said of swimmers.
Stick to the netball and do lots of cardio

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#8 23-05-2005 05:06PM

GreeBo

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Transform wrote:

Same could be said of swimmers.

just swimming wont bulk you up, just look at Maek Spitz, its the gym work that gives swimmers that phisique.

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#9 23-05-2005 05:12PM

pwd

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http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=239902

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#10 23-05-2005 07:07PM

rasherboy

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yor_candy_girl wrote:

yea Ive given up the athletics again because of it...I was training for a uni competiton and now that's over,...ive stopped cuz of my arms...oh and its my deltoid muscles I think actually

regard;less of what muscles it is its gonna take a while and chances are it will go through the stage of flabby like relaxed muscle! not nice! but keep up the cardio do to make sure it dont turn to fat!

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#11 23-05-2005 07:17PM

ApeXaviour

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aye, take up non-sprint running (>1000m) or something similarly low-impact/aerobic and give up the discus, shot-put and javelin. Only way I'm afraid to lose muscle but keep toned.

Also your diet is a factor..

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#12 23-05-2005 07:30PM

logic1

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rasherboy wrote:

regard;less of what muscles it is its gonna take a while and chances are it will go through the stage of flabby like relaxed muscle! not nice! but keep up the cardio do to make sure it dont turn to fat!

What are you even talking about? What will go through a stage of relaxed muscle? Muscle will never appear flabby. It doesn't go through stages. When it's tensed it's solid when it's relaxed it's still not flabby.

It doesn't get gradually harder or softer over time. And muscle will never "turn to fat".

You really need to read a textbook or something and stop giving rubbish advice.

.logic.

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#13 23-05-2005 07:37PM

rasherboy

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not ment literally that it would turn to fat!! that if she does no upper body cardio the muscle will go and auctually muscle can appear flabby! fact! its still muscle but just less defined!

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#14 23-05-2005 07:43PM

logic1

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rasherboy wrote:

not ment literally that it would turn to fat!! that if she does no upper body cardio the muscle will go and auctually muscle can appear flabby! fact! its still muscle but just less defined!

Not meant literally so why say it? We're supposed to magically interpret your grammatical minefields to expose the true meaning as if by magic?

And what's "upper body cardio" when it's at home? And muscle can't appear flabby FACT! Muscle is muscle fat is fat. If you lose muscle and gain fat you can appear flabby because, well basically you are flabby.

Less muscle does not appear more flabby than a greater mass of muscle. This is truly ludicrous. Look at any lightweight bodybuilding competitors then look at the heavyweights. The lightweights should appear flabby according to your rationale right because of course they have less muscle FACT?

.logic.

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#15 23-05-2005 07:54PM

rasherboy

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jebus man! think about it muscle becomes more "solid" when you tense it!
but in some people seems flabby when untense(what i ment)

upper body cardio was a typo i ment upper body exercises

dude stop trying to be a book! every body probably knew what i ment! as for my use of the word "flabby" it was what it looks like not what it is!

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#16 23-05-2005 07:57PM

logic1

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rasherboy wrote:

jebus man! think about it muscle becomes more "solid" when you tense it!
but in some people seems flabby when untense(what i ment)

That's not what you said and I've never seen anyone that has muscle which looks flabby when untensed unless they actually are flabby.

dude stop trying to be a book!

Dude stop being an idiot!

every body probably knew what i ment!

I'd highly doubt it. And even if they did, you're still wrong.

as for my use of the word "flabby" it was what it looks like not what it is!

Right..... Glad you cleared that up.

.logic.

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#17 23-05-2005 08:00PM

rasherboy

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how can you never of seen people whos muscles seem flabby-ish when not tensed? they are everywher! people have this especially on their thighs etc..

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#18 23-05-2005 08:06PM

logic1

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rasherboy wrote:

how can you never of seen people whos muscles seem flabby-ish when not tensed? they are everywher! people have this especially on their thighs etc..

Because that's not muscle it's flab. I've trained with dozens of competitive bodybuilders, muscle will never look like flab, they're two distinctly different cell types with very recognoisable characteristics.

.logic.

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#19 23-05-2005 08:10PM

rasherboy

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yeh in body builders whos job is to get bigger and more defined! i no people who have had body fat test of about 8 and had muscle that was soft to touch and looked flabby when un tensed

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#20 23-05-2005 09:43PM

OfflerCrocGod

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Saruman wrote:

You know, without being PC, some guys dig muscles on chicks!!!

Ye.

About 1 in 1000.

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#21 24-05-2005 03:10PM

yor_candy_girl

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OfflerCrocGod wrote:

Ye.

About 1 in 1000.

Ok...not necessary!..anyways...yea thanks for all tha info...out of all of it I think I might try the skipping PWD- http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=239902 or jogging in the morning (although I know this will mainly for my thighs)...unless anyone else has any other suggestions?????

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#22 27-05-2005 08:00PM

koala

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swimming will tone you up, but wont get rid of muscle

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#23 27-05-2005 10:16PM

nesf

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It can be very hard to lose the muscle you build up from training in years past.

I've never really heard of a good healthy way of doing it.

Sometimes your body just gets used to having muscle in certain places even when said muscles aren't being used.

(This is from personal experience rather than empirical evidence, I've noticed in myself and in other people that sometimes a body can keep some "leftovers" from the sports you trained for as a kid. Thick legs after running as a kid, general body strenght from doing a lot of (relatively) heavy manual work when younger etc)

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#24 28-05-2005 01:12AM

poobum

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losing muscle is hard and relaitvely unresearched thing at the moment...m not realy sure what could do it except stop all upperbody work altogether this will speed up the degradation of the muscles...i think

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#25 28-05-2005 02:14AM

ApeXaviour

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yor_candy_girl wrote:

out of all of it I think I might try the skipping

Skipping is intensive and will actually build upper-body strength. Why do you think boxers do it? I don't recommend it. You need to do things that are as aerobic as possible (aerobic: think skinny marathon runners, anaerobic think muscely sprinters). Long distance, low resistance jogging/cycling/stepping etc. are what you need. When you feel a burn, break a sweat, get a second wind and pant with exhaustion you know you are doing the right type of training.

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#26 28-05-2005 02:49PM

pwd

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boxers skip to develop agility and rhythm, and to improve their ability to exercise at very high intensity for short periods, like a 2-3 minute round. This is how long they perform the exercise at a time, and when done for such a short period it will not have the sort of catabolic effect I described.
Skipping is highly aerobic. It is well documented that muscle is destroyed at the maximum rate when the body is pushed beyond its ability to attain energy from other sources. This occurs during high intensity exercise over a period of time. The only thing about skipping for this goal is that most people wouldn't be able to do the exercise for long enough at a time for this sort of effect.

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#27 28-05-2005 02:58PM

nesf

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ApeXaviour wrote:

Skipping is intensive and will actually build upper-body strength. Why do you think boxers do it?

Eh. When I trained as a boxer, I skipped to improve my footwork and make me lighter on my feet and more agile.

So long as your using a light rope you won't build be building a lot of muscle on your upper body. This is where a "weighted" rope comes in.

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#28 28-05-2005 04:40PM

ApeXaviour

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nesf wrote:

Eh. When I trained as a boxer, I skipped to improve my footwork and make me lighter on my feet and more agile.

Did ya? I did it mostly for fitness.

Okay I do concede that skipping is definitely aerobic, but there are degrees of aerobic. Now maybe I just have a heavy rope but I still wouldn't recommend it as ideal training to lose shoulder/arm muscle.

Now that I think about it though, I suppose it does depend on how you skip. I'd do about 400 skips in a 3min round (or so my handy counter would have me believe). Which is intensive and if I'm out of shape, will give me the DOMS in my upper body the next day. My point still stands but I suppose if you were to skip leisurely for an extended period with a light rope, it might do

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#29 28-05-2005 05:12PM

nesf

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ApeXaviour wrote:

Did ya? I did it mostly for fitness.

Eh, I used to be a "strong" light heavyweight when I was younger. It was always my footwork that was the weakest thing for me. So I used to put a lot of effort into improving that. Found skipping to be a good way of improving my co-ordination and make my foot work "automatic" rather than something I needed to think about.

It stayed with me actually, people still comment today how light on my feet I am considering my height and weight.

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#30 28-05-2005 06:05PM

ApeXaviour

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I wasn't doubting you nesf Fair play, yeah I suppose it would do that, though I was always kinda light on my feet so wouldn't have regarded that aspect of it really.
You goin to boards beers?

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#31 28-05-2005 06:39PM

nesf

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ApeXaviour wrote:

I wasn't doubting you nesf Fair play, yeah I suppose it would do that, though I was always kinda light on my feet so wouldn't have regarded that aspect of it really.
You goin to boards beers?

Definitely the Cork one, and hopefully the Dublin one

To be honest about it, I spent most of my time when boxing and kickboxing trying to stay out of heavyweight. I've thick bones and am about a stone heavier than would be normal for my build and height. Meant my punches were hard and I could absorb a lot of punishment but also meant that I was always fighting against my weight to get myself into light heavyweight.

I was too small to fight heavyweight seriously. I stopped all that 5 years ago, and nowadays i've about 10kg over what I used to weigh back then...

Back in the gym and training again now though. Although I don't think I'll return to contact sparring/boxing, my back and jaw are still messed up from 5 years ago!

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