The perfect hourglass shape minus the waist trainer? Let me show you how!

To get a lean, sculpted shape that holds beautiful curves in the form of the all elusive “hour glass”, it takes a total body workout and the correct nutrition.
While genetics largely determine the basic structure (bones) of a person’s body shape, fortunately, there are specific things that we can do to enhance attributes of the body which help it look more tight and curvy.

In order to achieve the perfect hourglass shape, we need to target the shoulders and back, the waist and then of course, build the booty.

Let’s get started shall we…

NUTRITION

What many people fail to understand about the waist, is that diet is absolutely paramount when it comes to a having lean core and tight midsection. Abs, and your waist are built in the kitchen more so than the gym. There is no way around it unfortunately; nutrition is the fundamental key to success. It fuels your sessions, feeds your muscles, aids in recovery and will also be the difference between having a small, tight core, or not.

In order to create a small waist, we need to ensure your diet is in check. Too often women mistake this for the notion that they just shouldn’t eat or eat as little as possible. How wrong they are. The key is to simply eat the correct macros for your goal. Being relatively lean is essential for a tight waist so for most women this may mean being in a slight caloric deficit at first until they are able to maintain a physique there happy with.

Key points:

• Eat to your macros and be consistent.
• Prioritise protein.
• Eat predominately whole foods.
• Beat the bloat; if you are bloated your waist will look thicker so try to avoid consuming foods you know cause your stomach discomfort or cause distension.
• Hydration, sleep and keeping stress at bay are also key.

BUILD YOUR BACK, SCULPT YOUR SHOULDERS

By training your back and shoulders, this will give them a beautifully strong, structured shape which will naturally create width across the top of your body. This causes a tapered down triangle shape down to our waists. This width across the top of our body creates a lovely illusion of an even smaller waist.

WAIST TRAINING OR WAIST TRAINERS?

Let’s skip the waist trainer’s girls and train the waist instead. Once we have created some width in our shoulders, we need to ensure our waist and core is nice and tight so that it appears small. In order to do this, we need to strength our core and oblique muscles. My favourite exercises for this are vacuums, planks and plank rocks.

Try not to load the obliques with too much weight when you train them, as this can cause a slightly thicker waist for some women. Try to keep all abdominal work to body weight or lightly weighted movements if your goal is to keep everything tight.

As mentioned above, nutrition key in ensuring that you’re working on reducing body fat to show your hard work. HIIT training is perfect for accelerating fat loss.

BUILD THE BOOTY

Now our upper bodies are covered, in order to not look like an inverted Dorito chip, we need to create some curves. By targeting the glutes and thighs we are able to design them in all the right places.

You should focus your effort toward glute-dominant lower-body work. This is going to give you the rounded backside you look for without too much quad development, which would increase the overall width of the thighs.

Start with good glute-oriented exercises: abductor movements, walking and stationary lunges, sumo deadlifts split squats, step-ups and thrusts. When performing each of these exercises, squeeze your glutes to help move through the movement pattern. If you let other muscles come into play and do too much of the work, your glutes will receive little stimulation.

Once you have a specific physique goal, it is easy to create a plan and undertake steps to get there. It just requires planning and diligence. If you apply the steps illustrated above to your training and nutrition regime, the J Lo, Beyoncé and Kim K hourglass figure can be yours.

Ready to start on your own transformation? Work with me to achieve your fitness goals throughout my next 6 Week Fit Queen Challenge. We’re in the final week of sign ups, and limited places remain. CLICK HERE to register your place now!