Strength and Physique

Q:  I'm a 23 year old male. My problem is that I have really fat thighs and calves. It actually runs in the family. I tried all sorts of leg exercises, but they end up looking more thick. If I do too much cardio I end up losing weight from my upper body. Any help or advice will be appreciated.  Thanks,  Jivesh My Answer: Tough to say what your issue is, because I don't know if you're fat overall or just fat in the legs. But let's just assume you're fat in the legs and not the upper body. If this is the case, then you have a major problem. You as a young male should not be having a pear shaped body like a woman. If you're fat in the hips and thighs, then you've got too much estrogen circulating in your body. Again I don't know what exactly your issue is, because I don't know if you're fat overall or just fat in the thighs.  Drinking a lot of alcohol screws up your androgen levels, so avoid alcohol. With that said, you should avoi...

Q: Really loved your article on training police officers on Bodybuilding.com and thought I would reach out to you. I too am a full time police officer over in the UK. I've been on the job for five years, and I suspect we hold the same frustrations about fitness and health within the service. I am hoping to set up my own strength and fitness consultancy business in the near future as a bit of a side venture. I was wondering if you had any advice on setting this kind of thing up whilst also tackling the shift work. Have you any sporting aspirations yourself? How do you juggle working with training, eating and recovery? My aim with my venture is to start out initially by just offering my services for free to colleagues and friends and take it from there really. My background is in Sports Conditioning having completed a university degree some years ago. Do you guys have to do a fitness test every year? Are you given time to do any physical training? What facilities are...

Q: My name is Jesse, and I need to lose about 40 pounds by June. I'm 16 years old and weigh 225. I've always been bigger than most, and I'm ready to put an end to that.  More importantly I need to lose the weight to go in the career I want, which is the Army. I want to be physically ready when I'm there. I have a gym membership, so can you just give me some lifts that will burn fat kind of quick but help me gain muscle at the same time and maybe a diet plan that won't leave me feeling like I'm not even eating.  Thanks, Jesse My Answer:  If you're looking to go into the Army and you want to lose weight, then I suggest you train as they would in the Army: endless running and endless push-ups.  High volumes of cardio and low-tension calisthenics will make you lose weight.  So do calisthenic exercises like push-ups, burpees, jumping jacks, body weight squats, box jumps, lying leg lifts, flutter kicks and pull-ups. If you can't do pull-ups, then do in...