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Any exercise can tone your legs. Whether they "bulk-up," in other words, exhibit wide muscles, depends on many factors. The type of walking you do is one factor. Your heredity is another factor. Your body type would also be a factor. Your personal hormone levels such as testosterone and estrogen are still other factors. Generally speaking, women don't usually bulk up and men typically do. But that depends on all the above factors as much as which sex a person is.

First, let's examine the type of walking that you do. Stair climbing and power walking will create more muscle than walking on a flat surface. Likewise walking up and down hills will create more muscle mass than walking on a level area. Power walking should build more muscle than leisurely walking. But whether those muscles will be wide or long depends more on heredity, body type, and hormone levels.

Heredity plays an important part in whether your muscles are wide or narrow in their development. If you inherit poly-cystic ovarian disease, your muscle development may be more than someone who did not inherit it. If you inherit more testosterone, you muscle development should be more than someone who inherits lower testosterone levels. The body type you inherit can also be a factor in whether your body will provide wide muscles or not.

The three basic body types are ectomorph, mesomorph, and endomorph. Ectomorphs tend to have more narrow muscles. Their bones are more narrow and so are their bodies. Mesomorphs tend to have wider muscles, wider bone structures, and wider bodies. Endomorphs tend to be in between, but are often wide. Their body tends to want to keep a layer of fat over muscle. So it's harder to see their muscles. Additionally, a person can be a mixed morph. A person can have an ectomorphic top half of their body and a mesomorph bottom half or any two combinations of the above morphs. All of that depends on what a person inherits from their parents.

Therefore, during any exercise, whether or not a person develops wide muscle, or "bulks-up", depends on many factors. Usually women have a higher ratio of estrogen to testosterone. They usually don't build wide muscles, but if the testosterone levels are high and they inherit being a mesomorph in the leg area, they may bulk up. Usually men bulk up because they have a high testosterone to estrogen ratio. But if they inherit an ectomorphic build in the leg area and they inherit lower testosterone, they may not be able to bulk up. In other words, that question is a complex one in which a person's exercise, heredity, hormone levels, and body type all play a factor in the outcome for the exerciser.

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