Widen my Hips?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerful Women
1

Hello everyone! I’m new here and have a few questions about the proper exercises I should be doing to widen my hips.

I am a 26 year old female, about 5’6" and weigh about 148 lbs. I have a T shaped or cone shaped body and would like to train to get more of an X shaped or hourglass figure.

I know that my hip width is more genetics than anything but I would like some advice on what exercises I can do to get a better proportioned body as my hips are narrow compared to my shoulders. I would also like to build my lower body in general while simultaneously slimming down my inner thighs.

Any advice is greatly appreciated and sorry if this has been discussed before, I look forward to your replies!

2

eat and pray the fat reaches your hips?

3

Welcome!

I’d say just focus on glutes, hams and quads. If you have proportionally bigger shoulders, maybe don’t train them as much, and work on bringing up your whole lower body. Be happy that you already have some nice shoulders!

Squats
Hypers
Deadlifts
Weighted Glute Bridges
Walking Lunges
Bulgarian Split Squats

Even if your hips are narrow, a nice bubbled up behind will give the illusion of more curves. GLUTES!!!

4

[quote]nlmain wrote:
eat and pray the fat reaches your hips?[/quote]
Hilarious. For this method I suggest a sacrificial lamb!

It’s impossible except through divine intervention (see above) to change your “body type”. However, doing compound lifts like squats, deadlifts and chin-ups combined with leaning out may balance you out a bit. Just a heads up…the leaning out part will come through nutrition.

5

Thank you for your replies! I have already begun changing my diet.

I have started doing most of the exercises that you’ve posted Powerpuff, and I will incorporate the others as well, thank you again.

I have been doing clamshells with weights, will this help to add bulk to my hips? Should I not do these, should I incorporate something else that target that area?

6

yep. sure. keep doing what you’ve been doing. that’s EXACTLY the right thing. yeah, that too. uh huh. yup. oh yeah. right there. riiiight there…

did you want advice or did you want us to reinforce that what you’re gonna do anyway is the right thing?

7

I think this question would be better answered by figure athletes than powerlifters. What you’re talking about is very specific and the compound lifts aren’t really the best thing for precise body contouring, as much as everyone loves them.

8

http://figureathlete.T-Nation.com/free_online_article/training/targeted_muscle_developing_the_x_shaped_body&cr=mwaTraining

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SoMe -

True. Most of the women here have more of a Power Lifting, or OLY focus, rather than fine-tuning the aesthetics.

If you want to learn the compound lifts or focus on strength, then this is a great place to do it. I probably have more of an interest in body building than a lot of women here, but I didn’t feel comfortable on the FA site. Lots of people talking about cutting after lifting for only 3 months. And I wanted to learn the compound lifts because it’s a lot of fun.

I don’t think you can actually widen narrow hips, but maybe the video link above will be helpful in bubbling up your glutes. As Frenchie mentioned, you will have to EAT to gain bulk. A lot of women don’t want to do that. Society says skinny is the beauty aesthetic for women. Glad to hear a young woman trying to gain muscle! I hope you don’t get discouraged by trying to change your body shape. Focusing on strength gains is a healthier way to go. Usually good changes in your shape will come with it. Good luck.

11

I think if you are working on lifting for aesthetic purposes alone it is still a good idea to have a strength base first.
Learn how to do basics first bench press, overhead press, squat, and deadlift and get strong with these lifts.
Read some of the logs of women who are doing 5/3/1 or power lifting(bench press, squat, deadlift) they are always talking about their asses growing. :slight_smile:

Adding muscle takes time. You have to be in it for the long haul and be patient.

12

The gluteal muscles do not originate or insert on the sides of your pelvis, but the posterior portion. In other words, squatting, deadlifting, lunges, etc give you bubble ass, your butt will bubble behind you, not so much widen your hips.

13

[quote]ironcross wrote:
I think this question would be better answered by figure athletes than powerlifters. What you’re talking about is very specific and the compound lifts aren’t really the best thing for precise body contouring, as much as everyone loves them. [/quote]

Totally disagree here. If you want to build your lower body, regardless of whether you’re concerned more about your numbers or your looks, you’re going to have to learn to squat, deadlift, front squat, RDL, GM, etc correctly. Dependent upon your goals, your exercise choices and rep schemes may be different, but this is the kind of stuff that a beginning lifter needs to learn regardless.

Precise body contouring is not something a beginner needs to be concerned with. Developing motor control and gaining overall strength and mass is. And, I don’t know if you’ve spend much time over on FA, but most of the girls there are small and weak and I wouldn’t be looking to them for advice on much of anything other than how coordinate your makeup with your posing suit and eating disorders.

14

My best advice is to lift hard, correctly, and learn to love the body type that you have. I’m saying that as someone who spent years getting pissed about the fact that I didn’t have long skinny legs only to find comfort and satisfaction in the body and genetics that I actually have.

Seriously, best of luck.

15

[quote]buckeye girl wrote:

[quote]ironcross wrote:
I think this question would be better answered by figure athletes than powerlifters. What you’re talking about is very specific and the compound lifts aren’t really the best thing for precise body contouring, as much as everyone loves them. [/quote]

Totally disagree here. If you want to build your lower body, regardless of whether you’re concerned more about your numbers or your looks, you’re going to have to learn to squat, deadlift, front squat, RDL, GM, etc correctly. Dependent upon your goals, your exercise choices and rep schemes may be different, but this is the kind of stuff that a beginning lifter needs to learn regardless.

Precise body contouring is not something a beginner needs to be concerned with. Developing motor control and gaining overall strength and mass is. And, I don’t know if you’ve spend much time over on FA, but most of the girls there are small and weak and I wouldn’t be looking to them for advice on much of anything other than how coordinate your makeup with your posing suit and eating disorders.[/quote]

I haven’t spent any time over on the figure althete side of this site, but I have worked with a body building trainer with a good rep and also followed a body builder through competition. It’s a very different style of lifting than what’s going on in here and they do have some tricks/specific exercises for hitting specific muscles, including building one part of the leg instead of another. This poster doesn’t want to build her inner thigh.

Now, while I personally think that’s bogus, it’s her body and I’m not going to spend a lot of time trying to sell her on an idea she’s not crazy about. If she does squats and deads, her inner thigh area is going to grow a bit. If other people on here want to try to correct her idea of what she wants training to do to her body, go for it. I’m just going to answer her question as best I can. Honestly, I think body builders probably have more to offer her in answer to this question than those who are focussed on strength or athletic performance.

16

If only there was a forum for beginners…

17

You know how you widen the pelvis, have a baby or better yet, twins. No caesarean cheating either.
We are talking about BONE here, it’s not going to get wider by lifting.

If you want an X-shape OP, work on building up your legs and narrowing your waist. A wider upper back will create the illusion of a tinier middle. If your shoulders and arms are well developed, then just lay off working them hard.
Without pics, I can’t comment on the inner thigh issues. As always though, building muscle will help reduce fat if your diet is in order and you do some sort of GPP or cardio as well as lifting.

18

[quote]ironcross wrote:

[quote]buckeye girl wrote:

[quote]ironcross wrote:
I think this question would be better answered by figure athletes than powerlifters. What you’re talking about is very specific and the compound lifts aren’t really the best thing for precise body contouring, as much as everyone loves them. [/quote]

Totally disagree here. If you want to build your lower body, regardless of whether you’re concerned more about your numbers or your looks, you’re going to have to learn to squat, deadlift, front squat, RDL, GM, etc correctly. Dependent upon your goals, your exercise choices and rep schemes may be different, but this is the kind of stuff that a beginning lifter needs to learn regardless.

Precise body contouring is not something a beginner needs to be concerned with. Developing motor control and gaining overall strength and mass is. And, I don’t know if you’ve spend much time over on FA, but most of the girls there are small and weak and I wouldn’t be looking to them for advice on much of anything other than how coordinate your makeup with your posing suit and eating disorders.[/quote]

I haven’t spent any time over on the figure althete side of this site, but I have worked with a body building trainer with a good rep and also followed a body builder through competition. It’s a very different style of lifting than what’s going on in here and they do have some tricks/specific exercises for hitting specific muscles, including building one part of the leg instead of another. This poster doesn’t want to build her inner thigh.

Now, while I personally think that’s bogus, it’s her body and I’m not going to spend a lot of time trying to sell her on an idea she’s not crazy about. If she does squats and deads, her inner thigh area is going to grow a bit. If other people on here want to try to correct her idea of what she wants training to do to her body, go for it. I’m just going to answer her question as best I can. Honestly, I think body builders probably have more to offer her in answer to this question than those who are focussed on strength or athletic performance.[/quote]

Perhaps if you had spent some time over on FA you would be a little more reluctant to send anyone over there. There’s some good info over there, I wouldn’t trust a newbie to wade through all of their bullshit just to find the good bits.

Now, I’m not saying that my friends that are BBers don’t train differently from the way that I do, but there are far more similarities than differences. Things like squat, bench, deadlift, rows and OHP are the sort of exercises that are not only going to make you strong, but also help develop that x-frame.

I can only speak for myself, but I don’t feel that my experience in the weight room is so limited and sports specific that I can’t give a new lifter advice about things other than powerlifting. Bodybuilders and figure girls are not the only ones who care about fat loss and building this muscle group or that.

And as far as the OP’s “I want to slim my inner thighs” comment goes, I interpreted that as a reference to that little chunk of inner thigh fat that most women have. And if she wants that gone someone should be telling her about the important role diet will play into fixing that problem area. NOT discouraging her from squatting or deadlifting because it can lead to hypertrophy of the adductors.

19

the link I posted is a program to specifically build the ‘x-frame.’

Bigger shoulders and butts ftw!

20

That’s ok. I didn’t even realize there was a figure athlete specific site related to this one. I was just referring to figure athletes in general.