keeping the tiny waist look

[Jenna]

hey all,

ive just had some meaurement taken and were looking at my old ones from about 2 month ago. major changes have been in my waist area have put on about 3cm in the last 2 months.. i have a feeling that this is to do with me having fun on my bulk \:D/ but im also looking alot thicker in the waist area, definitly some new muscle. anyways about 2 months ago is when i started reintroduced deadlifts, and heavy squating. Do you think these are helping with thickening my waist and if im wishing to minimise this i should remove these exercises and go for more isolated quad/glut/hammie and back exercises

any help would be great

Jenna

[vracula]

doubt its muscle ,unless you have been doing side bends.

[thatwaslight]

i was also thinking this jenna but i think it has alot to do with where you store water and fat, i have reasonable development of my obliques and muscle round my waist so when i'm holding a bit more water/fat it seems to really hang off those areas making it look more pronounced than it is.

As others have said they usually find when they diet down that the area around the waist tightens up significantly, but there's only one way to find out i guess! lol

but in the mean time id stay away from box squats as they are an exercise i am aware are 'waist builders'

harry b, androids ect input is probably more valuable

[maassive]

i was also thinking this jenna but i think it has alot to do with where you store water and fat, i have reasonable development of my obliques and muscle round my waist so when i'm holding a bit more water/fat it seems to really hang off those areas making it look more pronounced than it is.

As others have said they usually find when they diet down that the area around the waist tightens up significantly, but there's only one way to find out i guess! lol

but in the mean time id stay away from box squats as they are an exercise i am aware are 'waist builders'

harry b, androids ect input is probably more valuable

WTF - box squats build your waist? Or do you mean arse... Can you elaborate mate

[IamaFish]

lol at Maassive Avi - Sorry for off topic post.

[PeterDolan]

I think he is theorizing that they involve the abdominal group to a larger degree than other groups leading to hypertrophy?

[Android]

i was also thinking this jenna but i think it has alot to do with where you store water and fat, i have reasonable development of my obliques and muscle round my waist so when i'm holding a bit more water/fat it seems to really hang off those areas making it look more pronounced than it is.

As others have said they usually find when they diet down that the area around the waist tightens up significantly, but there's only one way to find out i guess! lol

but in the mean time id stay away from box squats as they are an exercise i am aware are 'waist builders'

harry b, androids ect input is probably more valuable

You're probably right to a degree mate. But we need to do exercises like these for other parts to grow dammit. I'd only be concerned with obliques growing though as abs don't really add alot of visual size do they?

I remember the Nutritionist measuring me each week and some weeks only losing 1/2% but waist dropped 1 inch! He said there's a lot of internal fat that isn't subcataneous (like around organs and such) which also diminishes waist size so it's not just the fat around your belly that will make it smaller...losing fat in general will do it. As TWL said, only one way to find out :-)

Failing that work on building up wider shoulders. Maybe genetically you've got a thick waist? no offence.

I mean let's be honest you don't measure your waist and have a number in mind that is "slim"...do you? You look at it in the mirror as part of your whole "look". So make the shoulders wider and your waist will appear much slimmer for your size and shape.

[HarryB]

i was also thinking this jenna but i think it has alot to do with where you store water and fat, i have reasonable development of my obliques and muscle round my waist so when i'm holding a bit more water/fat it seems to really hang off those areas making it look more pronounced than it is.

As others have said they usually find when they diet down that the area around the waist tightens up significantly, but there's only one way to find out i guess! lol

but in the mean time id stay away from box squats as they are an exercise i am aware are 'waist builders'

harry b, androids ect input is probably more valuable

You're probably right to a degree mate. But we need to do exercises like these for other parts to grow dammit. I'd only be concerned with obliques growing though as abs don't really add alot of visual size do they?

I remember the Nutritionist measuring me each week and some weeks only losing 1/2% but waist dropped 1 inch! He said there's a lot of internal fat that isn't subcataneous (like around organs and such) which also diminishes waist size so it's not just the fat around your belly that will make it smaller...losing fat in general will do it. As TWL said, only one way to find out :-)

Failing that work on building up wider shoulders. Maybe genetically you've got a thick waist? no offence.

I mean let's be honest you don't measure your waist and have a number in mind that is "slim"...do you? You look at it in the mirror as part of your whole "look". So make the shoulders wider and your waist will appear much slimmer for your size and shape.

I have found that my waist as I get leaner gets smaller. I don't think it is as small as it was when I first competed but I have gained a lot of over all size and it's still comparitively small.

I agree with Android, smash those delts and quads, make sure you create the illusion of a small waist that's all that really matters. As for the bloated guts, that's a whole different issue.

Oh I guess I should add I have never really tried to avoid exercises that are supposed to make your waist thicker either. I squat and deadlift decent weights. Sadly I think like so many other things genetics plays a massive role.

[snoopy]

hey all,

ive just had some meaurement taken and were looking at my old ones from about 2 month ago. major changes have been in my waist area have put on about 3cm in the last 2 months.. i have a feeling that this is to do with me having fun on my bulk \:D/ but im also looking alot thicker in the waist area, definitly some new muscle. anyways about 2 months ago is when i started reintroduced deadlifts, and heavy squating. Do you think these are helping with thickening my waist and if im wishing to minimise this i should remove these exercises and go for more isolated quad/glut/hammie and back exercises

any help would be great

Jenna

Your waist is your waist, and genetically it is how it is.

Any extra size would be fat gain, internal or external.

However, if you have a narrow wasp like waist you could still develop a 'gut' but not have the width.

The width is due to wide hips resulting in a naturally wide waist.

Someone with 38 inch hips and a wide waist looks very different to someone with 33 inch hips and saddle bags.

[musclenz]

Heavy DLs & Squats can result in the compression of the lower spine. When the spine is compressed it tends to thicken the abdominal area resulting in a bloated distended look. Typically you will experience a degree of lower back pain. Your posture will be anything but erect & your shoulders are forward & pecs rounded. The head & neck are not in alignment with the natural line of the vertebrae. On consultation with a Bio-mechanical expert that I know, he recommends doing hanging from a cable rack or chin rack & careful movement of the hips & legs to the side position, knees slightly bent & then stretching down to touch the floor with your toes if possible. Also to lean back on a swiss ball & stretch the spine in that way. The results are quite surprising in that your posture will reset, the body lengthens & the pecs flatten out while the torso & abdominals lengthen & reposition. I'm not an anatomical expert so my terminology is not very good but if you try this at least 3 times PW it can make a difference IMO.

[Dubble_D]

Heavy DLs & Squats can result in the compression of the lower spine. When the spine is compressed it tends to thicken the abdominal area resulting in a bloated distended look. Typically you will experience a degree of lower back pain. Your posture will be anything but erect & your shoulders are forward & pecs rounded. The head & neck are not in alignment with the natural line of the vertebrae. On consultation with a Bio-mechanical expert that I know, he recommends doing hanging from a cable rack or chin rack & careful movement of the hips & legs to the side position, knees slightly bent & then stretching down to touch the floor with your toes if possible. Also to lean back on a swiss ball & stretch the spine in that way. The results are quite surprising in that your posture will reset, the body lengthens & the pecs flatten out while the torso & abdominals lengthen & reposition. I'm not an anatomical expert so my terminology is not very good but if you try this at least 3 times PW it can make a difference IMO.

:? trying to mentally picture how to do that correctly is a tad difficult...

[Jenna]

interesting feedback guys, thanks all.

i ran alittle experiement.. doubled my water intake over the last 2 days.. definitly looking abit flatter in the midsection and waist area. so i think i hold water/fat more there like what thatwaslight said.

musclenz wrote:

Heavy DLs & Squats can result in the compression of the lower spine. When the spine is compressed it tends to thicken the abdominal area resulting in a bloated distended look. Typically you will experience a degree of lower back pain. Your posture will be anything but erect & your shoulders are forward & pecs rounded. The head & neck are not in alignment with the natural line of the vertebrae. On consultation with a Bio-mechanical expert that I know, he recommends doing hanging from a cable rack or chin rack & careful movement of the hips & legs to the side position, knees slightly bent & then stretching down to touch the floor with your toes if possible. Also to lean back on a swiss ball & stretch the spine in that way. The results are quite surprising in that your posture will reset, the body lengthens & the pecs flatten out while the torso & abdominals lengthen & reposition. I'm not an anatomical expert so my terminology is not very good but if you try this at least 3 times PW it can make a difference IMO

very INTERESTING.. i have lost about 1.5cm off my height over about a 4 month period..... i dont think i look like what you described lol but maybe i should look at stretching out.. :shock:

and as suggested im tryin to build me some shoulders and quads to make me look even smaller in the waist hehe

[Pseudonym]

Tucked away somewhere in a dusty corner of my brain, I had the idea that strengthening the transverse abdominals could help bring in a bulging tummy. These aren't the visible abs - the transverse abdominals run inside the torso, and they sort of hold everything in.

Vacuum holds and twisting exercises will help strengthen the TVA. And when you think about it, bodybuilders hardly ever do anything that involves twisting. It's all very linear - straight up and down, or forwards and back. And any exercise that might involve rotational stabilisation we counter-balance with a weight on the other side (eg, DB flys). That's one of the reasons I included 1-arm high cable rows in my latest workout routine.

[legacy]

Bus drivers with a 20kg plate, thats a great torso twisting core exercise.