Hello there

 I've jsut signed up to these forums and had a browse. Quite a few useful articles and posts already! However, I was wondering if there were any people out there in a similar situation to myself, and wondered if there was any exercises you did to improve your figure.

 When i say "improve your figure" I honestly dont mean people trying to slim down. I need the opposite! I'm 5'7, ~7 1/2 stone with a BMI of 16.5. Extremely low, I know. This is normal for me, since i've never been heavier than 8 stone and a size 8, despite eating a junk food diet from the age of 4-17!

. I would especially like to enhance my legs, as they are a whooping 29cm diameter at the calf! I've tried numerous exercises to increase the muscle here as I would love to have larger legs to compliment the rest of my figure.

 I also know that people with a slim frame are at higher risk of osteoperosis in later life, and training may help decrease that risk.

 I rarely exercise, although i do jog occasionally, dance-mat and rode for 10 years regularly (not so much now). I've been doing 15 minutes twice a day of squats and calf raises lately. Ive done this before for a few months but found no improvement.

 I would really like advice from similar people who have enhanced their weight and muscle tone through exercises. Thank you very much.

Shell

The give-away is where you say "I rarely exercise" - sorry, but the key is consistency.  If you want to put some size in your legs, then you need to lift weights 3 times per week - squats, lunges, step-ups and calf raises will do the trick.  You should do a weight that you can just about manage 10 times, and do three sets.  After a few weeks it will become easier, so you increase the weight.  It will take months to see a difference in size, so stick with it.

Ironic, most women complain their legs are too big!  Weights are definitely the way to go - if you're skinny you probably won't get much bigger, but even a bit of muscle will make you look so much better.  go for it!

I'm pretty small so i understand what you're saying.  I fluffed around for years making little progress until i buckled down and started to work out regulalry - it's really made a difference to the way i look.

that's good advice - you have to look at what successful people do, and then copy it.  people who add muscle work out hard, they work out consistently, and they eat right.  you might also want to look at your diet, see if you're getting enough protein.

Yoga is wonderful exercise for toning muscles - very relaxing too!

All the advice you've had is good, but if i had to give someone just one piece of advice for building their legs it would be do squats - do them 3 x week, and keep adding weight progressively.  You'll get results for sure.