Thick thighs are in, and the love for curves won’t be changing any time soon. But building big thick thighs, requires a lot more than just exercising a few days a week, and throwing in a few squats on leg day. It requires hard-work, dedication, commitment, and a strategic approach to your training and nutrition, to completely change the composition of your legs. We’re going to discuss several critical components in detail to help you build those big thighs.

How To Get Big Thick Thighs

Several critical factors play into developing and building thicker thighs, such as genetics, nutrition plan, training program, and supplementation, so if you think you’re going to get thicker thighs in a week, think again. It’s going take a significant amount of time in the gym and the kitchen to build those quads.

1. Set The Right Expectations

Genetics, or more specifically your body type is a crucial factor in developing your overall strategy to building thicker thighs. Body types are split into three different categories: ectomorphs, endomorphs, and mesomorphs. Ectomorphs tend to be tall, thin, and lengthy. They generally have long slender muscle shape, narrow hips, thin bones, and long limbs. Ectomorphs have and a difficult time gaining either body fat or muscle mass, due to their metabolism and are commonly referred to as hard gainers. The opposite of an ectomorph is an endomorph. Endomorphs are easy gainers and can build muscle and gain body fat with relatively no effort at all. The challenge for endomorphs is that they have a hard time losing weight, even though they have the most muscle mass. Mesomorphs are the genetically gifted of all body types. Naturally built with an athletic physique, mesomorphs have less tendency to store body fat, and can either gain or lose weight without much effort.

Another critical factor that will determine how quickly you’ll be able to build big thick thighs, is your training history and starting point. If you’ve been training for quite some time and want to shift your focus to building stronger quads, then it’s going to be easier for you than someone who has never lifted weights or has no knowledge of resistance training.

Muscle memory also plays a factor in how quickly you can build your quads. A study published in the Journal Of Experimental Biology, muscle fibers which have been previously trained and exhibited muscle hypertrophy is “remembered” through muscle memory and can regain that mass faster than previously untrained muscle fibers [R].

2. Resistance Training And Cardio

If you want thick strong thighs, then you’re going to need a combination of resistance training and cardio. Resistance training or more commonly referred to as lifting weights, is going to build more muscle through a process called muscle hypertrophy.

The body has an amazing ability to adapt to its environment. Applying repeated stress and trauma to your muscle tissue through lifting weights, indicates and signals a need to build more muscle and strength to accommodate heavier loads, more workout volume, and increased workout intensity to protect itself from future stress. Muscle hypertrophy refers to an increase in the size of muscle cells and total muscle mass from physical stress. Hypertrophy is often achieved with resistance training and progressive overload (increasing the amount of weight lifted overtime) to breakdown and rebuild muscle tissue, resulting in more total muscle mass and bigger gains.

Cardio is important as well, especially if you’re looking to change the composition of your legs. Cardio can come in several different forms, whether it’s performing steady-state cardio such as the elliptical, stair-master, or joining a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) or cycling class for an hour. Whatever the activity may be, your target heart rate should be between 70-85% of your maximum heart rate for at least 30 minutes 2-4 times per week, in order to burn body fat and sculpt those thighs.

Hitting your legs at least 2-3 times per week lifting weights, is going to give you the best and fastest results when it comes to building strong thick thighs. On none leg days, focus on upper body workouts, core exercises, and accessory movements with glute bands, to increase muscle activation to build a bigger butt and thighs.

Include a variety of isolated leg exercises and compound functional strength movements like squats, deadlifts, lunges, into your leg day training routine. You’ll also want to ramp up your workout volume and intensity, completing at least 4-5 sets of each leg exercise, with 12-15 reps each set, with progressive overload. Don’t be afraid to get under some heavy weight and push yourself. Your body is far more capable than you may think. Muscle growth will only happen if you exert yourself and increase your workout intensity. Make sure that you push yourself and challenge your muscles with enough weight so that it’s challenging to complete the prescribed rep count. If you feel like you can complete 20 reps of a certain weight without exerting much effort, then increase the weight. It’s important to challenge yourself, otherwise, you’ll never change.

3. Nutrition Plan

You have to eat, to grow. Of course, muscle growth cannot occur without resistance training. However, for your body to build and rebuild muscle tissue, it must be in a positive protein balance, which means you need to eat more protein, than your body is utilizing to rebuild muscle mass. Training without eating enough protein will actually cause you to lose muscle mass, not gain it. Protein is also not the only macronutrient your body needs to replenish and rebuild. Your body requires fuel from high quality proteins, heathy fats, and complex carbohydrates to maximize muscle growth and gains.

Most of us have a hard time accepting that you need to eat more food, to build more muscle. Diets and magazine articles have told you that eating less, and eliminating foods, was the way to lose weight and achieve a desirable physique. Truth is, you must eat the right foods and be in a caloric surplus, if you want to get thick thighs and a curvy physique. How much you eat, your macronutrient ratios, and what foods to include in your diet plan however, will depend on your unique needs as an individual. No one diet, is going to help everyone achieve their goals.

If you’re not sure of exactly where to start with your nutrition, hire a certified nutrition coach from The Swole Kitchen. Learning the fundamentals of nutrition and how to create a sustainable and well-rounded diet from the beginning will save you a lot of time and wasted effort, especially when you have goal like building thick thighs.

4. Supplementation

In addition to your training and nutrition program, supplements can help support and maximize muscle growth. For example, let’s start with protein. You need at least 1g of protein/lb of bodyweight to effectively build more muscle and achieve optimal muscle protein synthesis. That means, if you weigh 200lbs, you need to eat 200g of protein per day. Have you ever tried eating four chicken breasts and a couple of steaks in one day? It gets old, quick. Not to mention, it’s pretty challenging to eat that much food, especially when you’ve been eating light snacks and salads for the past year. Supplements such as whey protein isolate, or plant protein powder, can help you hit your macro nutrient goals, improve recovery, and maximize muscle growth to build those thick thighs. It’s also convenient way to get a fast-absorbing form of protein directly before and after your workout to build more muscle mass. Protein intake is a potent stimulus for muscle protein synthesis. Without protein, you won’t be able to build the the thighs you want. No matter what your level is, any recreationally strength-trained individual or bodybuilder needs protein as muscle fuel to achieve muscle growth and bigger gains.

RELATED ARTICLE How Much Protein Do You Need To Build Muscle

Protein isn’t the only supplement that helps build more muscle mass. Several studies show that performance nutrition supplements such as Kre-Alkalyn Creatine, Citrulline Malate, Beta-Alanine, and Complex Carbohydrates like Swolverine’s Clean Carbs will help you increase muscle growth as well. In fact, carbohydrates are crucial to maximize performance outcomes and recovery post workout in addition to protein to adequately replace glycogen and optimize your results.

RELATED ARTICLE Post Workout Nutrition: What To Eat For The Best Results

5. Hydration

The last piece to get bigger thicker thighs, is to make sure you’re drinking enough water. Drinking an adequate amount of water, will help your body with protein turnover, and regulating your energy and weight. When you regularly drink water throughout the day, it’s been shown that your resting energy expenditure (calorie burning) can increase up to 30%! [R] In more technical terms, this is called water-induced thermogenesis and by increasing it, you can burn more calories at rest. In order to increase your water-induced thermogenesis and calorie burning process, it’s generally recommended that you drink about 34 ounces of water per day (1 liter). One study had a cohort of women drink 34 oz per day, without any other lifestyle changes (except drinking more water) for 12 months which resulted in 4.4 lbs of weight loss. [R] Drinking more water, will help you change the composition of your legs and body, resulting in thicker thighs.

How To Get Big Thighs: Takeaway

If you want a specific physique, with big thighs and a curvy frame, it's easy to get overwhelmed. Focus on your training program, nutrition plan, and your supplementation. If you can optimize those three things, by adding a combination of strength training and cardio, eating raw whole foods with lean proteins, complex carbohydrates, and filling the gaps in your nutrition with key supplements, vitamins, and nutrients, you'll be on your way to bigger thighs and saving lives in no time.

Need Help With Optimizing Your Nutrition and Training Plan To Finally Get The Results You've Been Waiting For?

The Swole Kitchen provides 1:1 nutrition coaching, macro coaching, and custom meal plans to help guide you to becoming the best version of yourself. We teach you how to enjoy the foods you love in the right amounts, so you can fit into your favorite pair of jeans, hit your health and fitness goals, and be healthy and happy. We guide you through making sound nutritional decisions and teach you along the way, so you can learn how to take control of your health, and discover what if feels like to live again.

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