reverse weight lifting

[delerium]

If you didnt balance out your weight lifting and did more lat pull downs and now your out of proportion with bigger lats how can you make them smaller w/o making everything else just as big?

[PixieGreen]

Yes but of course it will take some time. Continue to work them out but more reps at a much lighter weight.

Christa

[delerium]

and what if you havent worked your oversized lats in a good long while...if you begin working them again with more reps less weight like you said...they will get smaller than they are now even if they havent been worked on in awhile?

[PixieGreen]

Hmmm, well then you would have to work the surrounding muscles with the opposite strategy, heavy weights fewer reps to failure, aiming for proportion, not reduction in size. Your lats will become more defined but not smaller unless you lose weight, but if you're losing weight you can't gain surrounding muscle. Does that make sense?

Christa

[delerium]

Yes Ive lost weight i went from 124 to 105 and everything gets smaller except lats so its still the same out of proportion ratio. My weightlifting teacher in highschool ruined my life...i was a little pudgy and was self conscious about my love handles so i asked him what would get rid of them he said work the lats. Well i also wanted to lose weight overall so i took hydroxy cut and worked the hell out of my lats and im afraid ive permanantly unproportioned my body. I dont want to be as big as my lats everywhere else.
im sooooooooo self conscious about my back now its difficult to wear tank tops and stuff....only once a few moths ago did i get a comment from behind "damn muscles!" while wearing a tank top

I wouldnt have a problem being heavier to balance it out so id atleast have a butt to match the lats but when im heavier its all mostly in my mid section... as of being 105 now i still have a pot belly. its depressing. seems like im damned if i do damned if i dont

[PixieGreen]

Oh delerium, don't let it get you down. You have been losing your fatty layer so your muscles seem bigger but over time your body will balance out. Are you currently lifting weights? Maybe an allover body-weight bearing workout would be better now, like power yoga or something similar.

I speak from experience when I say your body probably isn't as imbalanced as you think it is. For years I thought I had a freakishly big nose, I was terribly self conscious about it. Once day i looked at an old picture and I realized my nose is normal, I thought looked big because I always looked at it an inch away from the mirror. :)

Wasn't it the scene in Pulp Fiction where the french actress gave that great speech about how pot bellies are attractive on women? I loved that scene! So true!

Christa