One way to get a smaller waist is to build muscle in the Glutes. The Glutes are made up of three main muscles, the Gluteus Maximus, Gluteus Medius and Gluteus Minimus. Performing exercises that target all three muscles will help to give the butt a fuller look, and thus give the appearance of a smaller waist.
Doing cardio and targeted strength-training exercises, plus eating a diet with the right nutrients and calories, will help you build a big booty and trim stomach fat. There are two components to trimming your tummy and building your butt: losing fat and gaining muscle.
Contract your glutes at the top — that's crucial. You can do squats without weight to start, and then gradually add weight via dumbbells or barbells. Do three sets of eight to 12 reps. Use a heavy enough weight that your glutes feel fatigued by the last rep of each set.
Hip thrust: All waist-shaping routines for women include the hip thrust. Along with glute bridge movements, it targets the glutes and muscles of your lower back. Do it regularly to improve your curves and make your waist appear smaller.
The obliques are the muscles located along the sides of the abdominal wall. These muscles are responsible for side bending and waist twisting moves. Working the obliques helps to sculpt and cinch the waist, tones the abdominal wall and tightens the midsection.
The best way to get a slimmer waist, aside from maintaining a healthy diet, is by strength training! Cardio workouts may be what you thought would be the bulk of your workout routine, but nope, focus on lifting weights. Strength training helps the body retain and build lean body mass while burning fat.
Glute growth generally takes 6-8 weeks to see noticeable changes, however, some individuals may find it takes 10-12 weeks based on diet, training, and body type. When trying to grow your glutes faster, you should train them multiple times a week (2-3X) and make sure you are eating enough calories to build muscle.
When you eat a diet filled with processed foods, refined carbohydrates, and sugary drinks, it results in stubborn fat on your abdomen, hips, and buttocks. These types of foods lead to insulin resistance, which leads to increased fat storage, ending in fat that's hard to lose.
"The carbs, that's the important thing," says personal trainer Austin Dotson. "For someone wanting to increase the size of their glutes, they must increase their carb intake so they can create mass." Personal trainer Cashawn Sims says her favorite carb for glute growth is a sweet potato.
How often should you train the glutes for maximum results? The short answer is 2-6 times per week. The long answer requires you to read on, as there are variables you will need to adjust in order to optimize your recovery and ability to train effectively at a given frequency.
There isn't necessarily a stopping point that is set in stone at which you should switch from cutting to bulking, but it is often recommended that you first lose fat until you are within the recommended ranges for bulking (10-15% body fat for men and under 23% body fat for women), and then switch to building muscle.
You cannot spot reduce fat from anywhere on the body; it's impossible. With that said, squats are such a good exercise for burning body fat and building lean muscle that if you're doing them regularly, you're highly likely to start dropping body fat all over, including the belly and thighs.
Common reasons for someone to have belly fat even when they're skinny is: Being too sedentary (inactive), which builds visceral fat around the organs and abdominal fat. Eating too many processed foods, which stores at the belly.
Unfortunately, it's pretty difficult to reduce only your waist. Specific waist and belly reducing exercises typically do little to shrink your visceral fat. For best results, you'll need to reduce your overall body fat percentage.
As people gain weight, excess fat tends to be centered around the abdomen, generally starting at the lower abdominal area and working up. This results in a large belly or gut protruding out from the rest of your body.
To eat to grow your glutes, you need to eat more than your maintenance calories daily by 200-300 calories initially. So, in the above example, 2250-2350 is the range. If you're not slowly gaining weight doing that, then you'll need to bump these numbers higher.
Researchers found that those who performed gluteal squeezes increased their hip extension—or glute—strength by 16 percent compared to an 11 percent increase in those who performed glute bridges. Gluteal girth also increased in the group who performed gluteal squeezes.
Gluteus Maximus
A highly underrated and under-targeted muscle group, the glutes are easy to grow through some simple lower body exercises. Squats, lunges, step-ups, glute bridges, and resistance machines such as the leg press are all great for building your glutes.
If you're wondering how many reps of squats you should aim for in a workout, Rodriguez says 10 to 15 reps for three to four rounds is ideal. "You want to focus on volume instead of adding load. This gets you into the hypertrophic range to encourage muscle growth," Rodriguez says.
As a standalone workout, this should take about 20–30 minutes. If you want to add other movements to make it a full-body workout, add them between circuits B and C.
For your best health, your waist should be less than 40 inches around for men, and less than 35 inches for women, although it may vary depending on race or ethnicity. If it's larger than that, you may want to talk with your doctor about what your next steps are, including losing weight.