I grew my butt too big. And I don't like it.

[donnamp]

Originally Posted by rhbrand

I think this is why I want as much muscle as I can. I've worked as an RN in long term care aka nursing homes, long enough to see that besides dementia, just being to damn weak to get yourself on and off the toilet, a chair, your bed, etc is the main reason women end up in nursing homes. If lifting heavy and gaining muscle will keep me from ever ending up in a nursing home with someone else holding me up and wiping my butt, I'll gain as much muscle as I can! Yes, any exercise will help, but well, if heavy squats now mean in 40 years I can lower myself on the toilet and stand up off it, I'll do it!

This is my MIL and it has made me re-think my exercise program to add more strength training in!

Donna

[LynnO]

If you want to get smaller, many people have a lot of luck with Tracy Anderson. They also seem to gain some functional strength.

I'm in the keep muscle camp, but thought I'd take a crack at your question. Although maybe try a different size or brand of jeans and see if you enjoy your current look with a slightly different style.

As part of the other conversation, my MIL has always been small and never exercised. She is now proud of how thin she is, but her health is declining at a rapid rate, . She simply doesn't have enough body mass to take out some "cells" that should be removed. It is somewhat of a chicken and egg thing, her health declining makes her thinner which makes her health decline more. I'm not really sure being more muscular would have helped, but it is sad that she wants to be commended for her thinness and how little she eats.

And she is on my FIL ALL.THE.TIME about what he eats. He's 83, in decent shape and let him freaking eat desert and stop being anorexic by proxy. Grr. I wish we could have one visit without a 15 minute discussion of my FIL's weight and what he ate. It's messed up, but I got a very negative response when suggesting maybe eating more, so.... I worry that there is a whole next generation of women my age (50s) expecting to be rewarded for being thin, as if the being thin is a benefit to the world.

[Chomper]

This blog post on favorite jeans of fit bootie ladies might be of interest/help:

http://www.motherfitness.com/the-fit...e-jeans-picks/

Colleen, I feel like I have seen pictures of Jen Sinkler online rocking skinny jeans, and she has a lot of muscle. Either it is possible to find skinny jeans that fit muscular women, or she is always wearing jean leggings like her choice on this blog. I kind of like muscular women reclaiming skinny jeans, but I can understand feeling self conscious trying to do so. I just hate wearing tight clothing personally.

[Calistro]

Originally Posted by Chomper

This blog post on favorite jeans of fit bootie ladies might be of interest/help:

http://www.motherfitness.com/the-fit...e-jeans-picks/

Colleen, I feel like I have seen pictures of Jen Sinkler online rocking skinny jeans, and she has a lot of muscle. Either it is possible to find skinny jeans that fit muscular women, or she is always wearing jean leggings like her choice on this blog. I kind of like muscular women reclaiming skinny jeans, but I can understand feeling self conscious trying to do so. I just hate wearing tight clothing personally.

Chomper, Thanks for that great link. Looking at all those women and their well rounded butts has inspired me to start lifting heavier again. I love the way they all look and I love muscle

I remember having large quads and calves when I lifted in the past and struggled with finding the right trousers and boots to fit, but I loved my fit strong physique back then.

[Izzy]

Where as this reply doesn't fit part of this discussion on muscles and appearance and the fit of jeans but it does fit on the overall health benefits. It has been proven that as you age your cholesterol levels start to climb even with healthy eating; though healthy eating will keep your levels lower than un-healthy eating. Adding weights (muscle) to your routine will lower your cholesterol levels. I know people in their late 50's-early 60's on BP meds who started lifting weights and in all cases were able to get off their cholesterol medication.

In addition, the reference to flexibility and balance, as you age and lose muscle tone you are more prone to losing your balance and thus could have more incidents of falls. Having better muscle tone will improve your balance, keep you stronger, and there is less likelihood of falls that could debilitate you.

[momofcha]

Originally Posted by Izzy

It has been proven that as you age your cholesterol levels start to climb even with healthy eating; though healthy eating will keep your levels lower than un-healthy eating. Adding weights (muscle) to your routine will lower your cholesterol levels. I know people in their late 50's-early 60's on BP meds who started lifting weights and in all cases were able to get off their cholesterol medication.

Seriously? I never knew this! I just recently had my cholesterol levels checked and for the first time they were out of optimum range. I also had them checked for insurance purposes back in March and they were perfect! I changed nothing from March-August.... I may have lifted a touch less, but not that much. I'm so concerned that I'm going to have them checked again in a month or two (and I'm concerned, they're still relatively normal, but out of the optimum range that I'm so used to). My diet hasn't changed really at all except I was eating less chicken and more red meat.

Interesting.

[Chomper]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1756170/

The benefits of strength training seem to be boundless...

Balance! Thanks for bringing that up! It needs to be trained and core strength is key to balance. I love doing single leg strength exercises as a great way to get more balance training, as well as to prevent the dominant leg from doing most of the work. Yoga also great for balance work.

[eyefit]

Originally Posted by Izzy

Where as this reply doesn't fit part of this discussion on muscles and appearance and the fit of jeans but it does fit on the overall health benefits. It has been proven that as you age your cholesterol levels start to climb even with healthy eating; though healthy eating will keep your levels lower than un-healthy eating. Adding weights (muscle) to your routine will lower your cholesterol levels. I know people in their late 50's-early 60's on BP meds who started lifting weights and in all cases were able to get off their cholesterol medication.

In addition, the reference to flexibility and balance, as you age and lose muscle tone you are more prone to losing your balance and thus could have more incidents of falls. Having better muscle tone will improve your balance, keep you stronger, and there is less likelihood of falls that could debilitate you.

This makes total sense to me now! Before I got into working out like I do now (i.e. lifting weights...I never touched a dumbbell over 5 lbs in my twenties. ), my cholesterol always hovered around 201-205. Even in my twenties and I was never obese or anything like that. My eating was always fairly healthy...in fact I leaned a little more toward vegetarian back then than I do now. At my last physical my blood work showed my cholesterol was at 160 with perfect HDL/LDL ratios. More than 40 points shaved off!!! In fact, everything came back so dang perfect my doctor told me I was boring. LOL

I believe it was Chomper that mentioned upthread something about flexibility being genetic and I totally agree with that. Not that you don't need to work on it as you age since we all stiffen up. However, for me I have always been extremely flexible. I didn't realize when I was younger that I need to strengthen my muscles to avoid hyperextending my joints. I probably did more stretching back then than I should have. It's not good to have overly stretched tendons and joints as it affect the stability of your joints. In fact, part of my knee and low back problems were due to weak muscles and overly flexible joints. Now I have very little issues with my knees (even with high impact) and I haven't seen a chiropractor in years for my low back.

I do try to incorporate a week of yoga every 6-7 weeks. My hips especially are getting tighter as I get older.

OP- sorry if this thread got off track. You should do what you feel happiest doing whatever that may be. If that means doing more cardio or Tracey Anderson or what have you than go for it! I will admit that I hope we have convinced you to consider embracing your musculature , but if it just makes you miserable then you should totally follow your own bliss and do what makes you happy.

[LaCatrina]

Originally Posted by gilbjeter

After I was done having kids at the age of 32 ( I am now 35). I got in the best shape of my life with Insanity and Turbo Fire. I was the skinniest I ever was and I loved it because I am short and curvy. In the past years, I have added in cathe, body beast, weight training and most recently edge booty extreme. I really focused on the heavy weights this spring into summer. I feel so bulky and realizing the heavy weights don't do it aesthetically for me. I do not feel like I gained a lot of weight from my Insanity days ( I rarely weigh myself), and I must be in good shape because I workout like crazy, my diet has not changed either. But the problem is I think I have put on too much mass. I tried on my old skinny jeans from when I was doing insanity and turbo fire and I could not them past my hips. I want to be tiny and thin again. Everything in the fitness world lately says to build muscle, embrace curves, etc. but I just don't like this for myself. Havin a pity party over here.

I feel your pain. I experienced the same thing

I was lifting heavy weights and kettlebells, and I did get crazy, circus freak strong doing that. It was fun. However, I was in pain all the time and my clothes didn't fit me. I was hungry like nobody's business and I gained weight because I just couldn't keep how much food I was eating in check (healthy, all clean stuff, but a lot of food nonetheless). I'm short, so I looked kind of good in a bikini, but I definitely looked shorter and plain fat in clothes. In my case, I think I'm able to build muscle fast, and I wasn't losing much fat at the same rate because I just couldn't eat less.

Like Christine says, go back to what worked best for you and you enjoy, and here and there throw in some heavier weights just for maintenance or for fun. Now I do only Hamelin D'abell Method with some Kundalini yoga, Callanetics and some stretching and it works great for me. I can still swing and rack 25 kilo kettlebells with my husband whenever I feel like it, and I can still squat and deadlift as heavy as before.

I honestly don't think that Margaret Richard, Miranda Esmonde-White, Karen Voight or Kathy Smith are wasting away or losing strength one bit

[Izzy]

Originally Posted by momofcha

Seriously? I never knew this! I just recently had my cholesterol levels checked and for the first time they were out of optimum range. I also had them checked for insurance purposes back in March and they were perfect! I changed nothing from March-August.... I may have lifted a touch less, but not that much. I'm so concerned that I'm going to have them checked again in a month or two (and I'm concerned, they're still relatively normal, but out of the optimum range that I'm so used to). My diet hasn't changed really at all except I was eating less chicken and more red meat.

Interesting.

I suggest you keep having it checked and see where this takes you. My dad, for one, started adding weights to his routine at the age of 75. He was already walking about 3-5 miles a day, weight the same as he did in high school but had to go on cholesterol meds. He was really mad at himself for that. He prided himself for being pretty healthy. I kept telling him to do some weights. So he went on Collage, got a few senior dvd's and did them every day. After 6 months he came home and said he was off his cholesterol meds and never went back on. He stayed on his routine of walking and weights until he passed at 83 (in a car accident, not due to health). My neighbor was over weight for 20 years. He had been on cholesterol meds since the age of 35 and was in early stages of diabetes. He started adding weights and biking and after about a year (he was way overweight) he lost 40# and was able to get off his cholesterol meds as well as no longer in the pre-diabetic state. A friend of mine never exercised except for some walking on occasion. She had been on cholesterol meds for about 10 years. She started to lift weights, 3-8#'s and after about 9 months was told she could go off her meds.