Losing my waist? Preventing "boxy" look

drusilla126

So I seem to be losing my waist. I guess that would be due to working my obliques? I came across this article and am curious if following all his crazy specific recommendations would actually prevent the whole "no waist" thing. I don't want to do all this work to not keep my womanly proportions. http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/sexy_female_training

Plates559

Why are you even isolating your obliques, are you a body builder?

Plates559

welp i'm not waiting around any longer for an answer....

Seriously don't start a topic unless you are going to be here for responses. [/end rant]

Keep reading t-nation they are a legit source of information, read every single article they have. Do what they say.

Tilran

You need to define what you mean by womanly proportions. How is a thinner waist not womanly, I guess I'm confused by that.

Also, when you say you are working obliques, is it solely that? If so...see the post above mine, but if you are doing all the abs muscle groups, you should be fine...might just be the way the weight is deciding to come off.

drusilla126

Wow sorry I was live on the air and couldn't come back immediately sooo sorry. Anywho I don't isolate obliques. I work out at Curves (yeah yeah I know) and they have different machines in the circuit that work different muscle groups but you have to do each one in the circuit. It's not a slim waist I'm concerned about it's the way my sides are starting to look from the front. I have noticed that the difference between my hips and waist is becoming smaller I guess.

There's examples in the article but here's an example of a female wrestler I've noticed that seems to have no nice defined waist in comparison to her hips. http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=sarita+tna&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1024&bih=571&tbm=isch&tbnid=MsnuUfDdAY4syM:&imgrefurl=http://officialfan.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=tna&action=print&thread=415375&docid=_CEfUjP6cmyj5M&imgurl=http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01298/Sarita_1298949a.jpg&w=350&h=475&ei=oCi_T_vrBKz06AHrxazACg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=555&vpy=108&dur=1563&hovh=262&hovw=193&tx=103&ty=167&sig=116149125228300267749&page=1&tbnh=119&tbnw=88&start=0&ndsp=27&ved=1t:429,r:23,s:0,i:118

Plates559

The wrestler in the pic has a waist like this part because

1. you need a strong core for fighting
2. She has a body fat of like 17 - 18 %
3. The shape of her bones (genetics)

Plates559

You aren't going to have a Ronnie Coleman gut from doing a few ab exercises, but if you have a small pelvis and you work on making your abs/obliques bigger then yes you can get a boxy waist.

By the way if you are strength training your core you ARE trying to make those waist muscles bigger. If you are seriously fearing that you are building a boxy waist then stop exercising your waist so much.

tameko2

It looks like you still have about 50 lbs to lose? Your body shape is going to be weird sometimes while you lose (And frankly, nothing you are doing at curves is going to be causing major muscle building so no worries there, even if you COULD build muscle in a deficit.)

Since you were ~100lbs over weight (Im basing this on your ticker) and your body is just going to lose the weight from wherever it wants to, whenever it wants to, sometimes you will be curvy, sometimes you will be boxy, but you can't jump to any conclusions until you get closer to goal.

(Also, how curvy you are is entirely based on body shape, not being fat. when I was fat, I didn't have a trim waist and big hips, I was just fat. Now I'm relatively slim and I still don't have a trim waist and big hips. I just am not built that way.)

tameko2

You aren't going to have a Ronnie Coleman gut from doing a few ab exercises, but if you have a small pelvis and you work on making your abs/obliques bigger then yes you can get a boxy waist.

By the way if you are strength training your core you ARE trying to make those waist muscles bigger. If you are seriously fearing that you are building a boxy waist then stop exercising your waist so much.

Unless she's just pounding out the ab work on the floor, I don't think there's a whole lot at curves that will result in big muscles. I've been to one. They're very gentle and quiet and filled with nice older ladies and stay at home moms and the workout is primarily bouncing around and using some weight free machines to move your body in certain directions over and over. they claim that air pressure lets you increase the resistance by moving faster, but it doesn't really work that way because if you move fast enough you get too much resistance, and then you end up stopping until the resistance fades enough, and then you're doing the same light resistance work.

(OP - if you like it, keep going. The exercise you will do is much better than the exercise you won't do. But if you're willing to go to follow the instructions in a Tnation article you might as well get a real training program at a real gym first, and see how that goes.)

DopeItUp

Wow sorry I was live on the air and couldn't come back immediately sooo sorry. Anywho I don't isolate obliques. I work out at Curves (yeah yeah I know) and they have different machines in the circuit that work different muscle groups but you have to do each one in the circuit. It's not a slim waist I'm concerned about it's the way my sides are starting to look from the front. I have noticed that the difference between my hips and waist is becoming smaller I guess.

There's examples in the article but here's an example of a female wrestler I've noticed that seems to have no nice defined waist in comparison to her hips. http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=sarita+tna&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1024&bih=571&tbm=isch&tbnid=MsnuUfDdAY4syM:&imgrefurl=http://officialfan.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=tna&action=print&thread=415375&docid=_CEfUjP6cmyj5M&imgurl=http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01298/Sarita_1298949a.jpg&w=350&h=475&ei=oCi_T_vrBKz06AHrxazACg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=555&vpy=108&dur=1563&hovh=262&hovw=193&tx=103&ty=167&sig=116149125228300267749&page=1&tbnh=119&tbnw=88&start=0&ndsp=27&ved=1t:429,r:23,s:0,i:118

Why are you doing core/ab exercises if you don't want those muscles to get stronger/bigger then? Your post is confusing, you say it's not a slim waist you're worried about, but in your very next sentence it's clear that it is.

azmarante

I think this is what you are talking about? http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/dont-want-ripped-time-to-shape-hourglass-body.html

wellbert

bodybuilders have big waists because they take growth hormones that engorge their organs and push out their midsection.

Old time body builders (men even, who have smaller hips) have very small waists.

Keep doing what you're doing. It's just the way your fat loss is happening.

Awkward30

I agree with pretty much this whole thread. Curves isn't going to do much of anything for growing any muscles. And in the absence of real growth, you lose weight where you are genetically destined to lose it.

I love your ticker picture! Hilarious!

small_ninja

Yeah, I've noticed my back has gotten fairly big after doing a lot of lifting exercises that target that area. Not sure if that's really the look I'm after. I'd like to focus on my arms a bit more and tone up my stomach. Does any one have any recommendations?

hesn92

I don't think there is any way to lose fat from a specific area on your body... as you lose weight, it will come off of your body where it wants to. You don't get to decide. I think the only way to make your waist smaller is to corset train... which kind of creeps me out.