If you want to enhance your shape, forget about targeted or isolation-based exercises on the areas that you consider 'big'. In fact, isolation exercises such as leg raises, 'bum lifts' and inner or outer thigh patterns are the absolute last exercises you want. Training this way is how the top bodybuilders train... to get bigger! Instead, focus on multi-joint exercises that use many muscles at a time to create the movement. The benefit of training this way is that you create symmetry and balance in the muscles that you are using and so you de-emphasise any problem areas that you may have.
In the lower body, you can use the following multi-joint movements:
Squats
Lunges
Deadlifts
Step-ups
Jumps
For the upper body try:
Pushups
Pullups
Bench Presses
Lat pulldowns
Rows
Dips
Shoulder presses
"Okay," I hear you ask, "but what about if I have an imbalance between my upper and lower body such as big hips but small shoulders?" This is so much easier to address than you think. Remember, your structure is pre-determined so you can't change it but that doesn't stop you from using exercise to enhance what you already have!
In this case, your main emphasis should be on trying to add some muscle mass to the upper body in order to give a more balanced appearance. How do you do this? Focus on the shoulders with a variety of strength exercises that use both heavier resistance multi-joint movements and lighter isolation exercises such as side raises for higher reps.
Like it or not, the bodies that we wear are ours for life. We have clear choices about how we use them. We can either engage in futile battles, trying to change our appearance through attempting to change our underlying structures or we can work with the fantastically unique body shapes that we've been given. Clearly, the former route (the one that most of us take) follows a path toward lifelong unhappiness that leaves us battling to change the unchangeable and condemning us to failure.
The latter choice however, one in which we use our strengths as a foundation for our weaknesses, offers us the chance to create our own truly unique works of art and to find happiness as a result. After all, wearing a body that you yourself have designed has got to be a lot more satisfying than trying to mould yourself into a look-alike of someone else don't you agree?
















