If you spend any amount of time on Pinterest or Instagram searching women’s fitness, you’ll soon be bombarded with messaging around growing your glutes and slimming your waist. You’ll find extreme physiques (many of which are photoshopped through free apps), in the best lighting, and obviously posed.
But, the question remains…
Can you grow your glutes and slim your waist?
In short, yes, I do think most women can with the right exercise prescription and dietary adjustments. And as with most things in the health and fitness industry, it depends on many factors. Might be a yes for you. Might be a no.
I, and many other colleagues I follow were their strongest at their “fluffiest.” But I also had a pretty nice waist to glute ratio (for my rectangular shape).
Can you grow your glutes while also losing body fat in order to reveal that shredded six-pack?
Like I said, it depends on:
▪️Your genetics (where you easily put on muscle, and where you store fat)
▪️The type of training you’re doing and have done in the past
▪️What you’re putting in your mouth hole
▪️Stress, sleep, hydration etc.
▪️Surgery and your ability to use photoshop 😂…kidding.
There is no magic “ass and abs” program. Your derrière and abs are MUSCLE GROUPS. We can spot TRAIN them or purposely atrophy them, but not “spot fat reduce” them (without surgery).
Growing and bringing more shape to the glutes and the abs happens via hypertrophy (increasing cross sectional area of the muscle fibers). We have the MOST control over THIS with our training.
Diet is what will make these gains more visible or “toned” (visible muscle as rest) due to less fat sitting between the skin and muscle. Again – that will largely depend on how easily you put on muscle and where you store fat. No shame in wanting both.
In body building categories for men and women competitors build their lats out in order to create the appearance of smaller waist as well. Another example of using MUSCLE to change shape vs trying to spot reduce fat.
Muscle growth often requires a caloric SURPLUS, which doesn’t favor fat loss…but at maintenance calories and macros, one could absolutely change body composition over time – building muscle and losing fat.
Either way, I encourage you to prioritize overall strength and function. Tell all your friends.
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