If you have 35 inch thighs, then your legs are 13 inches bigger than the average quad size.
There are actually a variety of reasons for people having 35 inch quads.
For example, dedicated lifters with good leg genetics can sculpt colossal 35 inch legs that consist of predominantly lean muscle mass.
Other people have 35″ thighs due to a combination of thigh muscle mass and leg fat. For example, you might have genetically muscular legs and a tendency to store the majority of your body fat on your legs rather than on your upper body and midsection.
Others still have 35 or even 36 inch thighs due to unfortunate medical conditions that cause disproportionate amounts of fat to accumulate on their legs.
How big are 35 inch thighs?
35 inch thighs are extremely big and are an obvious sign that you’re either a bodybuilder or are carrying a lot of extra body fat.
To put the sheer size of 35 inch quads into perspective, many Mr. Olympia winners don’t have 35 inch legs on stage (perhaps they do in the off-season).
Now, whether or not 35 or 36 inch thighs are desirable is another matter entirely. But if you’re a bodybuilder, then having 35 and 36 inch quads will certainly help you to score top points with the judges.
How do you get 35 inch quads?
Obesity is the most common cause for people having 35, 36, and 37 inch thighs.
That’s right; most weight lifters don’t have anywhere near 35 inch legs.
The human body can gain fat far more easily than it can put on lean muscle mass.
Overeating and a lack of exercise are common causes of obesity, [1] but many people also store excess fat (and muscle) on their thighs due to their genetics.
The good news is that your genetics are rarely the sole cause for your legs being big. By eating in a calorie deficit and following a sustainable exercise regime, you can slim your legs, reduce your BMI, and improve your health.
Who has 35 inch thighs?
Check out the two bodybuilders who have tape-measure-verified 35 inch quads.
Garage Muscle Training
Elijah from Garage Muscle Training has verified 35 inch thighs, meaning that his legs are bigger (and leaner) than some men’s waists.
Many people claim to have 35 inch legs but never actually verify their size via tape measure, so it’s interesting to see someone with legitimate 35″ thighs (they’re quite a rarity outside of pro bodybuilding circles).
You obviously have to put in a ton of time in the squat rack to build your quads anywhere close to the 35-inch mark. And even with some serious love for squats, most people still don’t have the genetics to build jean-ripping 35 inch thighs.
Obviously, it’s much easier to sculpt 35 inch quads when you’re bulking because gaining body fat bulks up all of your circumference measurements—including your thighs.
Trey Brewer
Former competitive bodybuilder Trey Brewer had some of the biggest wheels that the sport of bodybuilding has ever seen.
At one point, his humongous thighs measured a tape-tearing 35 inches while being full of striations and vascularity. It’s no wonder that he sometimes didn’t train his legs before shows; otherwise, they might have gotten too big and dwarfed his upper body.
The crazy part?
Brewer was just 21 years old when he had his incredible 35 inch quads measured. But considering he was squatting close to 700 lbs, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that his legs grew so quickly. [3]
Who has 36 inch thighs?
Not everyone with 36 inch thighs wants them or has them because of strength training.
Nor because of genetics.
When Faye Rodgers-Harris realized that she was suffering from lipoedema—a painful health condition that causes excess amounts of body fat to accumulate on the legs—she had liposuction surgery to remove the excess fat from her legs. [2]
Her quality of life must have improved so much now that she was able to fix her debilitating condition.
It’s humbling to see cases like Faye’s because it really puts things into perspective by showing that your own situation is (hopefully) much less serious.
If you just have 36 inch thighs due to obesity, then you can likely lose the fat and transform your body via diet and exercise alone, which is to say, without undergoing surgery.
Does anyone have 37 inch quads?
Here are two mass monsters who have verified 37 inch quads.
Eddie Hall
Strongman Eddie Hall posted a picture on Facebook a while back where he flexed his incredible 37 inch quads.
Even though Hall doesn’t train exclusively for hypertrophy, his monster thighs are still considerably bigger than those of most professional bodybuilders.
Not only that, Hall’s thighs are as big as many men’s waistline—while being much leaner and stronger.
Rhys Davies
Unless you’ve watched the Terrible Twins YouTube channel, then you might not have heard of Rhys Davies, but you definitely won’t forget his quads or exuberant personality in a hurry.
At 6’2″ and 305 lbs, Davies is much taller than the average bodybuilder, which likely means that his large frame has more potential to put on muscle mass (a bigger frame has more space to “hang” muscle tissue).
At the time of recording his video, his off-season quads measured 37 inches, despite him having not been a bodybuilder for very long.
Davies admits that some of his leg development is due to genetics, noting that his quads were big even when he was a light-heavyweight boxer.
Still, he says that his growth-provoking training intensity is one of the keys of his bodybuilding success; double drop sets and pre-exhaust squats are the norm for his leg-building workouts.
How about 38 inch thighs?
While it might be possible for a large-framed bodybuilder to sculpt 38 inch quads if they bulked up to a higher body fat level, the reality is that most people don’t have the genetics to build 38 inch quads of any description.
On the other hand, people who’re obese may have 38 inch thighs, especially if they tend to store a high proportion of their body fat on their legs.
So even though being overweight and obese can increase your risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancers, [4] there’s always the possibility of losing weight and inches from your thighs by exercising and eating a healthy diet.
Losing weight, of course, means eating in a calorie deficit so that your body can decrease its mass.
But you also need to eat enough healthy fats and consume sufficient protein so that you can maintain your muscle mass (you don’t want to end up too skinny either).
Conclusion: Why do some people have 35 inch thighs?
As mentioned, a high BMI is the primary cause of excessively large thighs.
While it’s possible to get 35 inch legs from weight lifting, this is usually only true for professional strength athletes or those with extremely large frames—often both.
Additionally, some people have 35, 36, 37, and even 38 inch thighs due to a combination of muscle mass and fat tissue. Many overweight people, for example, actually have really muscular legs; they just also happen to have a lot of body fat as well, which causes their circumference measurement to increase.
References
- NHS website. (2021, November 29). Causes. Nhs.Uk. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/obesity/causes/
- Jackson-Edwards, P. (2015, November 5). Solihull’s Faye Rodgers-Harris has 12 LITRES of fat sucked from her legs. Mail Online. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3303228/Woman-TWELVE-LITRES-fat-sucked-legs-make-36-inch-wide-thighs-look-normal.html
- Hruby, A., & Hu, F. B. (2014). The Epidemiology of Obesity: A Big Picture. PharmacoEconomics, 33(7), 673–689. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40273-014-0243-x
- Muscular Development. (2007). A Star Profile | Trey Brewer – The Muscle Prodigy. Muscular Development. https://www.musculardevelopment.com/news/bodybuilding-news/15953-a-star-profile-trey-brewer-the-muscle-prodigy.html