Lunges are muscle training exercises that work out your thighs as well as other lower body muscles. If performed several times per week for the right number of sets and reps, lunges will increase the size of your leg muscles and thus make your thighs bigger. If you want smaller thighs, you can still incorporate lunges into your program. Mix lunges with cardiovascular exercise and a low-calorie diet to lose fat throughout your entire body. As you shed body fat, you will reveal your toned thighs.
Do Lunges Shrink Thighs?
Lunges will not shrink your thighs by themselves. In fact, many athletes use lunges to build thigh muscle and thus increase the size of their thighs (we’ll get into how to do this below). If you want thinner thighs, you need to pair a calorie-deficit diet with aerobic activity. Aerobic exercise, such as running and rowing, burns calories but does not build much muscle mass, making these exercises a better choice than lunges for making your thighs smaller.
- Lunges are lower body exercises designed to build and tone muscle, not to burn fat.
- Lunges burn almost 10 calories per minute, but they encourage thigh muscle growth.
- Running burns over 11 calories per minute and does not encourage significant muscle mass increases.
- To reduce the size of your thighs, pair aerobic exercise (like running) with a low-calorie diet.
Before you ditch lunges in favor of running, consider your goals. Do you want thinner thighs or more toned thighs? By working lunges into your routine, you will build thigh and butt muscle, as well as muscle tone. If you pair lunges with a low-calorie diet, you can shed fat and build muscle.
What Muscles Do Lunges Work?
Lunges are much more than just a thigh exercise. Although they work your quadriceps (the muscle on the front of your thigh) and hamstrings (the muscle on the rear of your thigh), they also work your gluteal muscles (your butt) and your calves. This makes them an incredible muscle-toning exercise for your entire lower body.
- Quadriceps muscle on the front of your thigh.
- Hamstrings on the back of your thigh.
- Gluteus maximus, also known as your butt.
- Calves
By working almost your entire lower body, lunges are an excellent choice for any workout program. You can even perform lunge variations that focus on the inner thigh muscles and tone your legs all around.
What Exercises Give You Thicker Thighs?
In addition to traditional lunges, some sample body weight exercises that help build muscle in your thighs include squats, step-ups, single-leg deadlifts, archer squats, side lunges, glute bridges, split squats, and skaters.
- Lunges and other body weight exercises such as squats, single-leg deadlifts, and step-ups will provide an excellent thigh workout.
- Add weight to bodyweight exercises to increase the challenge and drive more muscle development.
- Perform thigh exercises designed with weights in mind, such as barbell squats, deadlifts, weighted lunges.
If you add weight to your exercises, you’ll have even more variety. Not only can you hold weights during the bodyweight exercises listed above, but you can also perform leg exercises designed with weights in mind. Several amazing forms of squats and deadlifts will work your thighs in new ways.
How to Use Lunges to Get Thicker Thighs
In order to get thicker thighs, it takes more than just performing the right exercises. You also need to follow the core rules of muscle building. Here’s your recipe for building stronger, thicker thighs with lunges and other exercises:
- Perform 8–12 repetitions of lunges for each set.
- Perform 3–5 sets of lunges.
- Rest for 1–3 minutes between sets.
- Do lunges 2–3 times per week.
- Each time you successfully complete your goal sets and reps at the current difficulty, make it harder next time. For example, if you complete your lunges while holding 5-pound dumbbells this workout, hold 7.5-pound dumbbells next time you do lunges.
This may seem like a lot of information all at once, but we promise this starter guide to thigh exercises will yield results. As you get stronger, you can specialize your workout to target different muscles in your lower body.
How Can You Get Smaller Thighs in 2 Weeks?
2 weeks isn’t enough time to get results from a weight loss program. No matter how well you diet and how diligently you work out, your body needs time to burn fat and build muscle. Kickboxing is one of the best fat-burning workouts you can do, but this 5-week study found little to no change in body fat percentage among participants who kickboxed 3 times per week. The scientists responsible for the study indicated that other exercise studies needed 12 weeks to show significant weight loss progress.
- A 2-week diet and exercise program will not result in thinner thighs.
- Commit to a 12-week program to see significant weight loss results.
- When beginning a diet and exercise program, consult your doctor to build a safe plan.
- Safe weight loss is defined as losing no more than 1–2 pounds per week. Losing weight faster than this is the sign of a dangerous program.
Losing weight won’t happen overnight. Crash diets and short bursts of exercise can be unhealthy and lead to injury. If your goal is to get slimmer thighs, commit to a 12-week diet and exercise program and stick with it. Remember, losing more than 2 pounds per week is considered dangerously fast weight loss. Remain patient, work toward gradual goals, and the benefits will pay off.
How Can You Make Your Thighs Look Thinner?
Diet and exercise are the keys to losing weight. It’s important to follow a diet that causes you to take in fewer calories from food than what you burn during the course of the day. Of course, the best way to burn calories is with exercise. By taking control of your diet and adding exercise to your routine, your body will enter a calorie deficit wherein your body breaks down fat to fuel your activity. This will result in general weight loss and, more often than not, thinner thighs.
- In order to lose weight, burn more calories with exercise than you gain from your diet.
- Once you are burning more calories than you get from food, your body will break down fat reserves for energy.
- You can trigger weight loss by reducing your calorie intake, exercising more, or combining both.
- You can’t control exactly where body fat will disappear from, so remain patient as you follow your fitness goals.
It’s important to practice body positivity. All of us are built differently. You may be genetically predisposed to larger thighs due either to natural muscle mass or your body’s tendency to store body fat in your thighs rather than other locations. Living a healthy lifestyle will result in weight loss and increased fitness. A healthy body is beautiful, regardless of the measurements.
Do Lunges Increase the Size of Your Thigh Muscles?
When performed in the right number of sets and reps, lunges are an incredible thigh-strengthening exercise. They both build and tone thigh muscles. While lunges are a great addition to any workout program, they are not designed to decrease the size of your thighs. To lose weight and reduce the size of your thighs, pair a healthy, low-calorie diet with aerobic exercise. Running, kickboxing, and rowing are all examples of exercise that will burn more calories than lunges.
