If you are a naturally thin woman with naturally narrower hips, you may be wondering: is it possible to get bigger hips? What is all that is talked about the waist-hip relationship? What is the most attractive proportion? How can I improve my relationship naturally?

These are questions that we receive a lot. So within this article, we will talk about why so many women want to have wide hips with a small waist, what we cannot change, what we can change and some steps of action that you can take today to begin adding inches quickly. to your hip measurement to begin to immediately improve your waist-hip relationship.

Curious?

Hips larger, compared to what?

First, we have to be on the same page. When we say “big hips”, what do we mean? Great compared to what?

We are not talking about how big your hips are in objective measurement. And we’re not even talking about how big or big your hips are compared to other women.

When people talk about “big hips,” they usually talk intuitively about having wide hips compared to their waist.

hips wide-small-waist-scarlett-johansson-marilyn-monroe-beyonce-brigitte-bardot

Along with strong shoulders, this contrast between the waist and the size of the hip creates the coveted “hourglass” body shape for which women like Marilyn Monroe, Scarlett Johansson, Brigitte Bardot and Beyoncé are famous. But, as you can see, Brigitte Bardot actually has a fairly thin structure in general, including quite small hips, it’s just that they are big compared to her even smaller waist.

By this standard, a woman with a waist-hip ratio less than or equal to 0.7 has wide hips.

To calculate your waist-hip ratio (RHR), start by measuring the circumference of your waist at its narrowest point and the circumference of your hip at its widest point, like this:

Then, divide the circumference of your waist by the circumference of your hip, giving it the waist-hip ratio.

For example, let’s say we have a woman with a 26-inch waist and a 31-inch hip. Divide the size of your waist by the size of your hip (26/31) to get a ratio of 0.838, which is in the healthy range, but it will not give you the appearance of having very wide hips. However, you can further improve your health and appearance by developing wider hips or losing fat around your waist, or by doing both.

Why do so many women want wider hips?

Many women seek to build bigger hips. So much so that it is one of the most common questions we receive, and it almost always appears as a main goal on the part of the members of our program. But why do so many women want big hips?

One hypothesis was that it was a cultural tendency to want wider hips. There is some evidence that culture can change our bodily preferences, but these changes are actually quite small. In fact, our natural instincts could be towards even more extreme proportions (study). This means that our current culture, with more overweight people, is making us subtly prefer hips that are less wide because it seems more normal. So, if anything, wide hips are desirable is biological, and our culture tends to downplay it.

One hypothesis with more research behind is that wide hips are so attractive because they are very healthy. They provide a snapshot of a woman’s general health, similar to the way in which the relationship between the shoulders and the waist provides a snapshot of a man’s health. Having large hips with a small waist is a great sign of health. The better the proportion, the healthier the person looks.

You know this intuitively and, therefore, have a biological desire to build a better waist-hip ratio, either to improve your health, become more attractive or a combination of both.

Wide hips and lean waist = Verified Health

The ratio is indicating how much muscle a woman has. It is signaling its genetics. It is signaling healthy movement patterns or if she sits all day. It is even a sign of fertility health (study) and youth (study).

Due to these massive implications for health, even the World Health Organization (WHO) published a report on the waist-hip relationship. Scientists believe that a waist-hip ratio greater than 1.0 can indicate quite accurately the cardiovascular health of a woman, if she has diabetes, and even if they are at risk of contracting certain types of cancer (report).

Marginal note: Interestingly, the WHO report also addresses ethnic differences in the waist-hip relationship. They make reference to three different studies that find that women of Asian descent naturally store more fat around the vital organs in their waist (visceral fat), and therefore benefit from having even smaller waists (in terms of health) in comparison with European and African women. and the ancestry of the Middle East. This ensures that any unhealthy visceral fat is minimized. So, if you are of Asian descent, you should definitely aim for a slim waist, and therefore a lower ratio than most averages.

This is the reason why so many people find large hips and small waists in women, so, both in themselves and in others. They are naturally attracted to these signs of health, youth and athletics.

Of course, this also has a great impact on the appeal. The research has been hitting a loud drum saying that sensuality is simply conspicuous health. The more obvious your health is, the sexier you will become. (We have written extensively about this in our controversial Bombshell Aesthetics article.) Of course, all this happens on a subconscious and intuitive level, and most people do not realize that they are intuitively attracted to health markers.

This intuition is amazingly universal. Devendra Singh, a researcher and former professor of psychology at the University of Texas, said that these judgments about health and attractiveness are found in both men and women, with an age range of 18 to 85 years, and covering the different ethnic origins studied (African-American, Mexican-American, Euro-American) (study). It extends through different periods of history as well. Researchers have studied sculptures made in ancient India, Africa, Egypt and Greece that reflect the understanding that women had a much lower waist-to-hip ratio than men.

Some research has even found similar findings by looking back and studying Miss Pageant’s competition after 1921, as well as Playboy’s problems. Leaving aside my own opinions on Pageantry and Playboy, there are some lessons we can learn from the research on them. For example, the lowest waist-hip ratio found in Playboy was 0.529, the highest was 0.844 and the average is 0.677 (study). This is perfectly aligned with what the World Health Organization considers healthy.

And in another study, researchers discovered that women “suck” their stomachs when they try to look more attractive (study). This suggests that women intuitively understand that their waist-hip relationship affects how well they look.

Do not play the system

Having wide hips next to a small waist is very desirable because it is very healthy. Yes, you can try to control the system by focusing on surface-level solutions, such as getting gluteal implants, but people have a great intuition when it comes to these health indicators. According to an online survey, more than half of the women surveyed edited their photos before publishing them on social networks like Instagram (link and link).

But do not do it! Something will often look “off” if you try to fix it on a surface level instead of on a deeper level. There is much more to a healthy female form than the waist / hip ratio (study), and people can tell when something is out and often prefer the natural body. Therefore, it is best to do it in the genuine way: focusing on exercise, diet and sleep.

The best waist-hip relationship

Now that we have covered why it is so desirable to have large hips that contrast well with your waist, we can talk about what are the best proportions.

With regard to health, there is much evidence that a ratio of 0.7 is the most coveted (study) and it seems healthier and more attractive for both men and women (study). And in 2010, the first study was published that shows that a waist-hip ratio of 0.7 activates the neuronal reward center of men in their brains (study).

Unfortunately, a ratio of 0.7 is not the definitive answer. It’s a little more complicated than that.

But first, two things are more or less agreed:

The healthiest body composition is the sexiest body composition.

A remarkably low waist-hip ratio is surprisingly attractive. (study)

But this is where things get complicated: not all women have the same bone structure. Some women have a wider bone structure, others have a thinner bone structure. Some women develop a clock figure during puberty due to their bone structure or body fat storage patterns … but many do not. The hourglass figures look stereotypically feminine, but in reality they are one of the rarest body types. Most women with hourglass figures had to deliberately develop those curves with exercise and diet.

This means that it is possible to be totally healthy, with a good balance of muscle mass and body fat, but have a bone structure that makes it difficult to obtain the ideal RHR. For example, here is a thin, strong and healthy woman who has a structurally wider waist:

It is also possible to have the ideal ratio when you are underweight or medically overweight. For example, here is a woman with low weight, with a very small amount of muscle mass and strength, but still has the ideal waist-to-hip ratio:

So, if all this is about health, are genuinely healthy people the most attractive? Or are they people who simply have genetically more curvilinear proportions?

Some studies show that proportions are more important, regardless of whether that person is healthy or not (study). Other studies show that it is more attractive to have a healthy weight and a relatively thin waist, regardless of the waist-hip ratio that results. (Study).

Based on the evidence, we would argue that you should aspire to get the best of both worlds. If you have naturally smaller hips, they build additional muscle to round them and get more curvilinear proportions. You will also get the additional benefit of that muscle, and the muscle is one of the most underestimated health markers at this time (study). Having a bottom that is “too” strong or “too” athletic or “too much” is not a real thing. A strong butt is excellent for your health, reduces pain in the lower back, reduces the risk of injury, increases your athletic ability and will be excellent for your appearance.

But how do you do that?

Bad news first: we cannot change the bone structure of our hips

If you have not guessed yet, we cannot change our bone structure. The bone structure is almost totally determined by its genetics. And once your hips have finished growing, that’s it. Because its potential lies in its genetics, female pelvic forms are already beginning to expand compared to males from 26 weeks of gestation (study)!

Interestingly, it seems that the shape of your hips can be modestly adapted to the activity and stress you put on them when you were a child. According to this study, women who are more active in growth are more likely to develop the heart-shaped hip structure that is more common in men. 24% of women had that hip in the form of a heart, while most women had a more rounded hip shape (study).

Some rare women have been blessed with remarkable genetics, with wide hip bones and a smaller waist. Women with genetics like these will not need to accumulate so much muscle in their hips to increase their attractiveness.

Vegan-Protein-World-Renee-Somerfield-controversial-wide-hips

An example of this is the vegan model Renee Somerfield, who was part of a recent advertising campaign that was criticized for embarrassing the body because those critics considered her natural body shape to be “unrealistic.” Despite the irony of embarrassing someone, they say it is body – shaming others, has a healthy body weight in terms of BMI and said that they exercise 4 to 5 times a week.

Now the good news: how you can improve your waist-hip relationship

The good news is that all women can improve their proportions by forming the muscles around their hips while maintaining a slim waistline.

Take a look at Aomi, who kindly allowed us to share her transformation. She gained 3 “on her hips while doing our Bony to Bombshell program, which made her proportion even better than the 0.7 goal.

0.7 Hip proportion: the weight training and weight gain program for thin women.

How to get a better waist-hip ratio

Get a bigger butt and keep your waist thin

Many women with great genetics and who eat well store their fat in their hips. They can also be more naturally muscular. But on our site, we are committed to helping naturally thin “ectomorphic” women develop muscle. So, if it’s you, you’ll most likely have to concentrate on developing more muscle, not just cutting out additional abdominal fat.

How To get a bigger butt

The 4 principle muscle growth pyos

Scientific research has revealed a lot about muscle building. We know that to build muscle, you must encourage your muscles to strengthen by stressing them out (lifting weights is the most effective method), you need to eat enough protein (approximately 1 gram per pound of body weight per day is ideal), and in order to increase Weight, and you need to eat enough calories above and beyond what you normally eat (about 250 extra calories per day will produce approximately 0.5 pounds of weight gain each week). You also need sufficient quality of sleep to allow your body to recover and grow.

Building bigger hips has to do with balancing those four principles of muscle building. You could be doing the best glute workout in the world, but if you do not eat enough protein and calories, your body will not have the additional building blocks it needs to grow.

And vice versa. If you eat the best diet to build muscles, but you are not stressing your muscles enough, you will simply gain fat. Or if you are stressing your muscles enough but not in the right places, you will end up growing only in those specific areas.

Do you want to grow your but? Then train as if

No amount of cardio will help you build bigger hips. This is because cardio is designed to help you develop a better cardiovascular condition, not to build muscle in your hips.

The best way to improve on a specific thing is to train on that specific thing. This is called training specificity, and it is something that beginners often do not consider. If you want to run faster, all the bench press in the world will not help you, you will progress better if you practice running. Similarly, if you want to build a killer butt, all the yoga in the world will not help with that: the best adaptation of yoga is better diaphragmatic control.

Anyway, when it comes to building bigger hips, we’re talking about building bigger muscles. You should be doing a bodybuilding program, that is, a program specifically designed to help you build a bigger and stronger body. And that bodybuilding program should be one that puts more emphasis on your hips, since that’s where you want to grow the most.

Most exercise programs do not have that goal in mind. Although the construction of large hips is universally attractive, many women in today’s society see this from the other angle: they naturally have large hips and already have enough muscle. … but they need to work hard to reduce their waists.

Even most weight-lifting programs focus on strength (Strong Strength, Initial Strength, etc.) or physical form (CrossFit, P90X, Sweat, Madness, Turn, Body Bomb) instead of size muscular. And then they are not for your hips. While it is possible that you get some gluteal gains, they will be mediocre because you are leaving many opportunities at the table.

So, what training programs are good for building bigger hips?

For the best general development of muscle size, you want a program that focuses more on bodybuilding. Ironically, due to recent research developments, the best “bodybuilding” programs are actually a combination of strength training and strength training, which has been dubbed “empowerment”.

Then you want a program designed specifically for women (for example, the correct exercises, it has higher repetition ranges, more overall volume, shorter resting times and less depends on the strength of the upper body). Then, that woman’s program should put a special emphasis on your hips, which is very likely, since you’re reading this article, what you’re most interested in developing. Our Bony to Bombshell program is an example of a weight-building program in power building for women with a strong emphasis on the hips and butt, as you can see with Ioulia:

The best weight gain program for naturally thin women / ectomorphs / bananas

Your buttocks should be strong and athletic so they are bigger and rounder

To get the roundest, most complete and most aesthetic stop, there are no shortcuts. You will need to build really strong and athletic hips.

Strong hips are not just to show, and your training needs to reflect that. In addition to being more attractive, strong and athletic hips are also versatile. To obtain the optimal shape, size and roundness, you must work the hip muscles through a wide range of motion and use a wide variety of exercises that affect all the different muscles and all the various fibers in those muscles.

Understanding your glutes: Maximus, Medius and Minimus

The Maximus:

This is the largest and strongest of the buttocks and has the greatest potential to grow. The main job is to help move the hips forward. This is the gluteus that would work the most when doing squats / deadlifts and you are pushing your hips forward to get up again. The maximus can also help rotate the thigh and move the leg away from the body.

Because the maximus is too large, for the best form it is best to try to use a variety of exercises to hit both the upper and lower fiber.

The Medius and the Minimus:

These 2 muscles mainly help to move the leg away from your body, but they can also help to rotate the leg (think of Elvis Presley).

The 3 muscles together contribute to these 4 fundamental movements:

Movement # 1: Hip extension

It looks like: swing the leg behind you

Exercise example: Bird Dog

Movement # 2: External rotation of the hip

It looks like: Turning your hips out.

Exercise example: Clamshell

Movement # 3: Transversal Hip Abduction

It looks like: Lift your leg away from your body.

Example of exercise: Lift the lateral leg

Movement # 4: Posterior pelvic tilt

It looks like this: your coccyx descends when your hips move forward like a push movement

Example of exercise: hip thrust

Now you can see the problem by simply doing squats or deadlifts for a big butt. Those exercises do not incorporate and build strength in every movement that the butt is capable of doing.

Why is range of motion (ROM) and form important when it comes to growth?

Let’s say you’re a beginner and you want to try to do the hip thrust. You watch a Youtube video and your hips go down quite low at the bottom of the movement. So you try to do that too. But to get that extra range of motion, you let the pelvis disconnect from your ribs to lower it.

On the surface, it looks like a great range of motion, but the range came from your lower back, not from your hips.

The range of movement did not come only from the hips, but from the back. Apart from preparing for back pain, that means that your hip was not stimulated as much as it could have done, so your backside will not be full or develop so strongly.

A good solution for this would be to keep the solid form at all times, even if that means that at the beginning it does not go that low. Then, add some warm-up and mobility exercises that help you gradually improve the range of motion in your hips. Week after week, as your butt grows, you will gain more range at the hips, which will improve the shape of your butt.

Why is the position of the pelvis important when it comes to building your glutes?

If your pelvis turns forward and externally, this is called anterior pelvic tilt (we call it affectionately ecto-belly). This can make it more difficult for your

The forward pelvis, rotated externally, causes the larger and larger buttocks to “turn off” since they cannot be used in that position. Not only that, but the forward position of the pelvis also changes the way your body moves from side to side. So you will use muscles like your TFL and quads (front of the thighs) to move from side to side instead of the glutes. This compensation pattern could lead to hip tilt (described later). The front pelvis also compromises the way the legs rotate, which leads to less activation of the gluteus with rotation in exercises such as the shell.

How do you fix this?

Well, you’ll need your pelvis to return to the position it should be in. This is called neutral pelvis. If you are interested in this type of advanced topics, Marco guides you through a key exercise, the 90/90 hip lift with knee compression and how it works here:

The best exercises To get a bigger butt

Well, then, what exercises should we do to hit the 3 buttocks properly?

You will want to include a variety of movements. Vertical movements such as deadlifts / squats, horizontal movements such as the bridge of the buttocks and the thrust of the hip, and rotational movements such as casings and external rotations.

Dr. Contreras, the most prominent researcher in this field, considers that these are the best muscle building exercises for the gluteals. He admits that much more research is still needed to determine which exercises are really the best, but looking for the best exercise is not really the best approach anyway. It is better to focus on a variety of elevations that have proven effective than to focus on finding the “best” exercise.

Buttocks

Hip thrust

Single leg hip thrust

Romanian deadlift

Cable through

High pass

Back extension

Make sure you do not climb too high and make sure you really feel it in your buttocks, not in your back.

AVE dog

Clamshells

Lunges

Reverse Hypers

Donkey kick

External rotation band standing

Mini Band Walk

Frog pump

Details of glute training you need to know

What weight should I lift?

The muscles respond well to both the heavy ones (5 or fewer repetitions before the muscles are exhausted) and the lighter weights (20 or more repetitions before the muscles are exhausted). Your glutes are no exception. You should use a combination of heavy compound lifts, lighter composite lifts, and additional insulation work to help your butt grow optimally.

How often can you train your glutes?

We recommend training them 3x every week. You can also train all your other muscles during those same workouts. There is no need to do only gluteal exercises. For most of your training session, you must have 1 day with fewer repetitions (2-5) so you can go really heavy, 1 medium day and 1 day lighter with many more repetitions. Then that can be followed with additional isolation work.

What about the squats?

The squats are not so good to build a remarkable rear. This does not mean that you should not be squatting. Absolutely should be. Squats are great for developing your overall strength and athletic ability, it’s just that they’re not the best when it comes to specifically building wider hips, especially if your hips are naturally smaller to begin with. They will help you in other ways, so it is essential to include them in your program, but you should not rely on them to help you build bigger buttocks.

However, a suggestion that you can use to make your squats hit your butt a little more is to stand a little wider with the toes pointing outwards, always making sure that the knees do not collapse inward and that they remain on the second toe when you fall. in the squat position. Even then, the squatting position will still point primarily to the fronts of your thighs (quads).

A better whole body strength exercise to build bigger buttocks is the conventional deadlift or the Romanian deadlift, since you will make a deeper and more complete hip movement. The rest of the posterior chain will also work (spinal erectors, back, hamstrings, etc.)

The takeaway message here is that your program should include squats and deadlifts, but that you should also include other elevators specifically designed to focus on building a bigger butt and wider hips.

Buttock bridges against hip thrusts. Which one wins?

best gluteal exercise against the gluteus against the bridge of the buttocks

When it comes to adding elevators to build wider hips, the buttock bridge and the hip thrust will be your favorite exercises.

According to studies, hip thrusts activate more of your buttocks compared to a bridge of glutes. So someone might ask, “Why would you make a bridge of buttocks? It’s inferior to gluteal activation.” They might also add: “Also, you just talked about this range of motion, and the buttock bridge has a range of motion less than that of the hip.”

Even so, we include the glute bridge in our own program for several reasons. Why?

Progression

The first reason is the progression. Many women do not have the central control to do the hip thrust without disconnecting their ribs from the pelvis. That means they will probably feel a lot of pain in the back instead of a burn in the buttocks. This increases the risk of pain and does not adequately stimulate the buttocks.

Then we teach a simpler progression first: The Glute Bridge. This allows someone to roll the weight on their hips, get in position and simply push. Simple. And over time their shape will close more, which will allow them to progress towards the hip thrust.

Load heavier

The second reason that glute bridges can be useful is that because the exercise uses a smaller range of motion, you can load them with a much greater weight. This means that you can make a bridge of glute much more weight than you can push the hip. This can be an excellent way to complement your training with an ultra heavy and safe lifting. Weightlifters use this trick all the time doing partial squats, pulling shelves, etc.

More isolated

The third reason is that even in comparison with the hip thrusts, the buttock bridges are much better for removing the thighs (quadriceps and hamstrings) of the image. So, although I could activate less buttocks objectively by repetition compared to hip thrusts, it also insulates the glutes better. Since building wider hips has to do with proportions, it is useful to have an exercise that makes the hips grow and only the hips, which allows you to increase that aspect of your proportions.

The key point here is that there is a place for butt bridges and hip thrusts in your training program, be it a beginner or an advanced lifter (or somewhere in between).

Summary:

Phew! We know for sure that you have more than enough information about what it takes to build bigger hips that not only make you healthier, but also look super remarkable. If you ever want a proven system to start putting this into action, check out our Bony to Bombshell program here.

Here is the summary of the main points of the article.

Big hips and a lean waist = healthy.

Take the measurement of your waist and hip and divide them to get your waist-hip ratio

Points to 0.7 for a healthy and attractive reference.

You cannot change your bone structure, but you can change your proportion by building a bigger butt or shrinking your waist, or both

To get a bigger butt, you must build new muscle.

Eat enough protein and calories to support muscle development

Make gluteos of specific training to obtain optimal results.

Train each movement

Extension of the hip

External rotation of the hip

Hip Cross Abduction

Posterior pelvic tilt

Work on expanding your range of motion for the best way

The textbook form will allow you to hit the right muscles in the right way

Place your pelvis in a neutral position so that your workouts are effective

Use a variety of exercises that use your glutes in vertical, horizontal and rotational movements

Do compound and isolation exercises.

Lift heavy for fewer repetitions

Lift the light with more repetitions.

Use both hip thrusts and glute bridges

Train your glutes 3 times a week so they are always growing.

Problem solving bonus

Do you want even more help to build your hips? Register below and get our mini butt and hip problem resolution guide immediately, our free gift to you. The guide also includes a reference sheet of this article so that you can consult the main points quickly.

And if you are very serious about losing weight, you must start now, nothing to lose, and all the world to gain.