Mitigating big thighs and calves, lessening cardio?

Not sure if this is the right sub forum but wanted to discuss about with thick tree trunk legs and what to do to get rid of them. For reference, I'm 5'7", 150lbs and my calves were 16 inches, thighs 21" near the waist. I feel like I have unusually large legs even though I don't work out. I blame trail running and backcountry skiing although I tried to decrease my time spent on those activities this year. At this point I don't know how much it hinders my climbing nor is it the most important thing I can focus on that will push me to climb harder, it is just that thick legs have been bothering me for a long time. Have people found that stopping all forms of cardio helped to decrease leg mass? Should I be giving my entire rack to my gf on the approach to save my legs? 

Pic of said calves. 

Love your body my dude. 

Rio H wrote:

I don't work out. I blame trail running and backcountry skiing although I tried to decrease my time spent on those activities this year.

Trail running and skiing would not give you huge calves and hips.
If you do not lift weights it must be due to your genetics and you can do nothing about it.

one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. i used to care a lot about my smaller legs. as hard as i tried i couldn’t add anything to my calves, even when i was deadlifting 400 and lifting legs 3 days a week. eventually i realized the futility, and meaninglessness of the goal. the sheer size of my legs had no real impact on my athletic performance at the time anyways.

climb on and embrace the donk

plus i bet your pistol squat is ruthless

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. Like height and arm span I guess the fun part of climbing is overcoming problems with what you have. 

Fellow Quadrasaurus Rex here. Learning to use the legs on steep terrain is an art but once mastered your center of gravity is closer to the legs and you'll need less finger juice. Steep static board climbing in extended positions will teach you the dark art of "leg crimping". Embrace heel hooks / kneebars and shake what your momma gave ya.

Those trunks are just training weight for campus workouts.  The rest of us silly bird-legged creatures are envious, because we have to wear stupid vests.

Long Ranger has it right.

My gf carries the water, food and rope, I carry the gear, which is usually extensive because we mainly travel to single pitch areas but both love trad of all types, and sport climbing.  With bouldering, I carry two or three pads and she carries the food, water, shoes, chalk, etc.  It evens out.

Do you have any idea how difficult steep uphill approaches are with long Ichabod Crane legs AND tiny calves and quads?  You've been blessed, my friend.  Use it to your advantage and don't look back.

Community doing a good job here dispensing the wisdom.  

Just think--it could always be worse.  I raced road bikes at a decent level for decades and I was a sprinter (generally sprimters are big and muscular).  That background combined with genetics has given me tree trunk legs, not just calves but thighs and glutes (that is, a big ass).  I try to look at the bright side: approaches with heavy packs are generally no problem, and I think that my leg muscles have helped prevent worse injuries skiing and mountain biking.  But my lower body is definitely an anchor that holds me back in terms of technical grades.  

Now that I'm fifty and sarcopenia is kicking in, the muscle mass is slowly dissapearing.  I figure I'll have some great years as diminishing strength is counter-balanced by less mass :)

21" thighs really aren't even really that big. That's between small and medium on the BD harness size chart. Or maybe I'm slightly bitter because mine are bigger despite being lighter.

Things you should do:
Duct tape your kneepads because straps do absolutely nothing.
Take it as a compliment when every belayer inevitably comments on your calves.
Play dumb when others don't find that high-step pistol squat move casual.

I am 5'5", 135lbs and just measured the middle of my quad at 20".  

Like you, I enjoy other leg heavy sports outside of climbing like mountain biking.  I've never once thought about having too big of legs for climbing and I climb kinda hard.  

Enjoy your sports; I think you've got nothing to worry about!  

Nice calves!  My unscientific, uninformed, worthless advice: don’t lessen cardio. 

When I was a preteen and teen I was a little, skinny guy with big thighs. Was always self conscious, thought I had girl thighs. Then i became a reasonably tough climber at 20-40 years in spite of them. Never gave it any further thought. I was known for insane high step rock-ons and frog squat rest stances. As others said, use what you’ve got.

"...even though I don't work out. I blame trail running and backcountry skiing ..."

unless you've somehow mastered telekinesis or force push, your statements don't make sense. 

as with everything - use it or lose it. if you stop doing enduro, you'll lose your enduro muscles. you'll notice that when people switch to a sedentary lifestyle, their physique follows. most physical activities can be maintained at 1/week. if you do enduro once a week, you won't lose your existing muscles or abilities. 

there seems to be something called an 'interference effect', which is muscles becoming more efficient at utilizing the energy system employed. that is, muscles in aerobic will produce aerobic metabolites and lose the capacity to be powerful or strong. maybe switch to hard bouldering for a bit.

5’ 10’ with 26” thighs here.

For a while I would think controllable paralysis might help: disable my legs until I have just the right amount of unrecoverable loss of muscle mass. Then turn them back on.  Voila!

But then I got turned on to alpine climbing.  ;)

This thread has inspired me to measure my legs.

I have found my lower body strength a net positive in my outside climbing trips. 

Short Fall Sean wrote:

This thread has inspired me to measure my legs.

And?????

Weird flex.

Bill Lawry wrote:

And?????

About 21" at the widest part of my thigh, which makes me question the OP's entire MO. I am definitely no one's definition of thunder chunky, but who knows, maybe I have skinny calves and secretly fat thighs.

Short Fall Sean wrote:

About 21" at the widest part of my thigh, which makes me question the OP's entire MO. I am definitely no one's definition of thunder chunky, but who knows, maybe I have skinny calves and secretly fat thighs.

Thanks for playing along. :)

A percentage of us are very focused on strength-to-weight ratio. Or at least toying with it out loud so to speak. All pretty harmless unless things like controllable paralysis are on the table.