In this world of extremes and excess, what a noble pursuit it would be to strive for less, not more, for depth and quality over shallow quantity.

...Cardiovascular routine must be a well-planned calorie-reduced nutritional regime- Matthew Muscat Inglott

Fitness professionals often have to handle pretty conflicting requests from clients and gym members. Some wish to gain weight, some wish to lose it. Some wish to boost their energy levels, while others wish to expend as much energy as possible in pursuit of stress relief and a calmer sense of self.

While such requests may appear conflicting on the surface, when we dig a little deeper the underlying themes tend to remain common. Few would object to more lean muscle with less body fat, whatever amount of body fat you may start off with in the first place.

Few would object to a more efficient cardiovascular system that enables one to work out hard, enjoying better energy output that is not squandered as nervous energy and tension through everyday life.

There is, however, one request that persists in baffling us on the rare occasions we hear it: while most are happier with increased lean muscle mass, some wish to specifically reduce the size of their muscles.

With all the research we absorb concerning building muscle and strength, it tends to go against our grain when someone wishes to achieve what appears to be precisely the opposite.

It remains nevertheless, a genuine aesthetic goal for a select few, but how are we to deal with it? The answer certainly is not one easily found on the standard fitness freaks’ bookshelf.

Dancers and models, both male and female, are renowned for wanting smaller, more slender musculature, as are other well-trained physical activity enthusiasts reliant on graceful or pleasing aesthetics. Some of us might simply dislike a particular part of our bodies as it tends to draw unwanted attention or not quite fit in with the remainder of our proportions.

Some of the more common trouble spots include bulky calves, thighs, or shoulders on females. Some bulky athletic males who favour the leaner more fashionable look also tend to seek a general toning-down effect for their oversized physiques. Let us today delve deeper into these rare phenomena and see if we can devise an effective strategy to instigate that elusive big shrink.

How can you train a muscle to become smaller? Is this even possible? When we work our muscles, they adapt in several interesting ways. At cellular level, muscle fibres consist most notably of contractile elements known as myofibrils, and a gel in which they reside called sarcoplasm.

A muscle may actually become stronger while becoming smaller if the number of myofibrils in each muscle fibre are increased while the amount of energy-producing sarcoplasm is reduced. This is one of the effects of pure strength training with very low repetitions and heavyweights.

A worthy strategy therefore for those athletes or performers who require increased or at least maintained functional strength but a leaner more slender appearance, would involve favouring strength-based programmes over traditional high-repetition ‘toning’ systems.

If muscle endurance is also a critical factor, then such endurance work should be limited either to practising your specific activity exclusively, or performing conditioning exercises with only the very smallest of resistance.

For those of us who do not require the same functional ability as elite performers or athletes, yet wish for smaller muscles for purely aesthetic purposes, nutrition assumes an even greater importance. The best case scenario in decreasing the size of any body part always involves burning body fat off that area.

Since body fat comes off the entire system in a generic and not site-specific fashion, an overall reduction in body fat is required. Now here is the problem: how can we reduce the size of our thighs for example, while still using those very same muscles in the cardiovascular activities required to burn the body fat?

Stay away from cardiovascular activities that heavily involve the thighs, like stepping or rowing, and favour those which exploit only minimal flexion and extension of the knee, like walking or jogging.

Runners tend to have slender legs, because while the thighs are indeed involved in their chosen movement, they are not required to move the knee joint to the same degree nearly as much as say, cycling.

The said cardiovascular routine must be assisted by a well-planned calorie-reduced nutritional regimen. If cardiovascular work cannot be exaggerated due to fear of overusing various muscles we wish to make smaller, then the deficit must be made up by tightening up on dietary concerns.

A low-calorie diet will help shed body fat from your problem areas as well as reduce the amount of nutrients resident in each muscle fibre, both helping to reduce the size of the overall area.

Avoid high repetition movements with moderately heavyweights for the areas you wish to reduce in size, because this is precisely how bodybuilders train to gain muscle. Going either way towards the strength or the pure endurance ends of the spectrum are far more favourable in this case.

And finally, on a more mental note, remember that your ‘problem’ areas are most of the time far more ‘problematic’ for you than they are for anyone else.

While you might think certain physical traits are unattractive, there are always plenty of observers out there ready to prove you wrong. What is poison for one may be potion for the other.

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