Love handle and bum exercise help needed

ladyconstancexo

I'm gonna come straight out and say it, I've been trying to lose weight ever since I was 14 and I have succeeded. Constant cardio sessions and work outs over the past 4 years have helped me reach my goal weight (8 and a half stone) but I have never been to a gym or had any feedback from my workouts, so I actually have no idea what I'm doing!

It seems like forever that I've had a problem with my love handles (obliques) It doesn't matter how much I focus on my mid-section and other areas around there I just can't seem to make my bum proportioned to them. So basically, my hips look wider than my bum and I have a very male figure from behind.

I'm reaching out to ask for other people who have had/have the same problem as me and if there are any work out moves that will tone my hip section? And my bum other than squats?

Thank you!

trigden1991

Lift weights, eat sufficient protein and have a caloric deficit. Love handles are excess fat and will only go by reducing your body fat. If you are at your goal weight but still have them then your body composition is not quite what you are after.

canadianlbs

it sounds like you're saying you don't have much of a waist. is that right?

i do regular and side planks, and the basic compound lifts - deadlift, squat, bench, overhead press, pendlay rows. i definitely have obliques, but i have noticed myself looking a little bit stocky that way. assume it's because there's very little in what i do that ever asks them to lengthen themselves past a neutral kind of position. almost all compound lifting asks you to keep a 'neutral' spine, so that means the muscles that control your spinal position operate mostly in 'neutral' positioning too. after all, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and your waist is exactly that: a line of muscle between the two 'points' of pelvis and ribs.


so if i cared about it i think i'd probably look for anything that lengthened those muscles as well as strengthening them.

jemhh

If your natural build is one that doesn't have a very noticeable waist (e.g., you are more ruler-ish shaped than pear or hourglass shaped) chances are you will not be able to add much in the way of width at your hips. To do so would mean adding more fat, which is also going to go to your waist so the overall waist to hip ratio isn't going to change the way you want it to.

That's not to say that you should give up. If you were to eat at maintenance or slightly higher while doing a glute-focused program like the ones in Strong Curves (book) you would be able to build more of a butt on your backside (meaning you'd see more of a bubble butt in a side view than you do now.)

A good glute-focused program is going to have you doing exercises like hip thrusts, glute bridges, squat variations, and deadlift variations, as well as some abductor work (often done with bands.) I'd suggest checking out Bret Contreras's Strong Curves. He has a website as well.

mgalovic01

Try these: http://www.metabolicbootcamp.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/sl-hip-raise-300x300.jpg
Put additional weight on your torso as your bum gets stronger.

peaceout_aly

trigden1991 wrote: »

Lift weights, eat sufficient protein and have a caloric deficit. Love handles are excess fat and will only go by reducing your body fat. If you are at your goal weight but still have them then your body composition is not quite what you are after.

This. So much THIS.

Try hip thrusts, squat variations (split, wide stance, front stance, etc.), deadlifts and abductions for the booty. As for obliques? Try side planks and incline oblique twists. You have to recompose your body. Just doing cardio and cutting calories won't do that. Eat a ton of protein, work out hard, lift heavy.