Ask Joe Weider

Tip of the Week: Bodybuilding is not a dirty word.

When many people hear the word "bodybuilding," they think huge muscles, posing oil and shaved bodies. While these are part of bodybuilding, they constitute a fraction of its bigger whole. It's comparable to thinking about driving around a track 500 times in a row at nearly 200 mph when you hear the word "driving."

When I first endeavored to promote bodybuilding nearly 70 years ago, I was looking to expand awareness of a holistic lifestyle that included not just building strong, showy muscles, but vigorous health and boundless energy, as well. For some, the latter two aspects have fallen off the radar — and they only associate muscle-building with the term.

As you know, the body is a whole lot more than just muscles. So then, bodybuilding is literally about building the body, both inside and out. This is why I hope the next time you hear the word "bodybuilding," you don't cringe, but recognize that this defines you, too.

Q: I'm a 66-year-old woman who has been exercising regularly for over 30 years. I've maintained a very respectable figure (so people tell me) for a woman my age and am the same bodyweight as I was 20 years ago. So, the problem isn't with my strength or my muscles or even fat, but with my skin. It's gotten progressively looser over the years, and it's driving me crazy. When I pull it taut around my knees, for example, my legs look great. But when I let it go, I see loose skin. Is there anything I can do or take to help tighten my skin, Joe?

Joe: Being 88 years old, I can empathize with your situation. Having loose skin can be a real downer when it obscures the fruits of your hard work in the gym. Unfortunately, the loss of collagen in our skin is an inevitable part of the aging process. Other than having surgery to remove excess skin, there isn't much we can do to stop this process. However, with proper nutrition we can at least slow it down.

I recommend supplementing with vitamins A, B (complex), C, E and K. In addition, recent research has shown that copper peptides applied topically can improve the skin's appearance.

Other compounds that seem to improve the skin's tone are hyaluronic acid, alpha lipoic acid, DMAE and a diet rich in essential fatty acids.

Together, these can give you some noticeable improvement in the quality of your skin — but as for stopping or completely reversing the effects of aging on the skin, there's no known solution yet, I'm sorry to say.

Q: Is it possible to actually reduce the size of a muscle group? I know this probably sounds like a joke, but I would like to get my thigh muscles smaller. They're not particularly fat, just very muscular. By the way, I'm a 23-year-old woman, and I've always had powerful legs.

Joe: Honestly, I've never given too much thought to the idea of actually reducing a muscle's size. For me and my pupils, it's always been about building up, not tearing down. So what I'm about to suggest is actually counterintuitive to the way I am programmed to think.

It's difficult to spot reduce a particular muscle group. If your thighs are naturally muscular, then there's a genetically programmed minimum size where they want to stay, regardless of what you do. More often you'll see this in the calf muscle, where some people have large calves from doing nothing more than walking during their day, while others' calves are much smaller despite taking on the same workload.

I assume you do some kind of exercise during your week. If so, then consider what you may be doing that could activate the muscles of the thigh. Even something so simple as bicycling could stimulate muscle growth if those muscles are looking for any excuse to grow.

So, you need to either lay off any kind of thigh-stimulating work or essentially overtrain them — work them with high reps and light weights several times a week to keep the muscles in a depleted, smaller state.

My first advice would be to appreciate the genetic blessing that is your thighs, though. Muscles are beautiful!

Joe Weider is acclaimed as "the father of modern bodybuilding" and the founder of the world's leading fitness magazines, including Shape, Muscle and Fitness, Men's Fitness, Fit Pregnancy, Hers, Golf for Seniors and others published worldwide in over 20 languages.To find out more about Joe Weider, write to him and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.