How To Get An Aesthetic Tiny Waist

When it comes to getting a tiny waist, there are a few things to consider.

First off, genetics will dictate the width of your literal bones, so if you have wide hips, there is nothing you can do about that.

However, there are things you can do to make your waist appear VERY tiny still, even if it might not necessarily be.

Objectively, it will appear tiny if you develop your physique to a certain level, and focus on some key aspects.

Start Priority Training Your Back And Shoulders

This means that if your current efforts are resulting in lackluster back or shoulder development, start training your back and shoulders twice a week, or hitting them with a higher priority over other body parts.

Anytime a body part I have starts to blatantly lag behind in progression, the only logical thing to do is to give it more attention than the other body parts that are surpassing it in development.

If you have a lagging back and train 5x per week with 2 rest days for example, a solid approach would be to do a heavy back session on Wednesday, and then wait until Saturday or Sunday, which would normally be rest days, and hit it again.

This time, hitting it with higher reps with lighter weights to really drive blood into the muscles.

If you can’t handle doing 2 entire back workouts each week, then start doing mini-touchups on it.

An example of this would be to wait until your arm workout, and then to do 1 or 2 back exercises before you start hitting your biceps.

Or simply adding 1 back exercise to the end of every second workout.

It will take some experimentation, but essentially what you need to do is start forcing your back to grow by working it harder than you have been up to now if it has plateaued.

By priority training your back and shoulders you can make the top of your torso appear much wider, which relative to your waist, will make your waist appear a lot smaller.

By developing a crazy V Taper, you can effectively create an illusion that makes it appear as though you have a VERY small waist, even though that might not be the case at all.

Take me for example, my shoulders and back are my two best body parts, and I’m not blessed with a 30 inch waist or anything crazy, but if you look at me, you would probably think my waist measurement was much tinier than it is due to the blatant V Taper I have developed.

Do LOTS Of Lat Pull Downs, Rows, And Deadlifts

I attribute most of my back development to these 3 exercises.

I always start my back workouts off with some sort of lat work, and my favorite exercise is a simple lat pull down.

I make sure by my fourth set there is a decent amount of blood in there, my back is fully warmed up, and then I hit a fifth drop set right after my fourth set where I decrease the weight by 50% and crank out as many reps as I can.

By driving tons of blood into the lats and using the progressive overload method where you are constantly trying to get stronger, you can start to add width to your lats, which will give your back a more obvious v taper coming down tot your waist.

Rows are fantastic for back thickness and development, and are what I attribute that “cobra back” look to.

And then there are deadlifts, the mother of all exercises.

These not only hit your back VERY well and add muscle everywhere; they stimulate your central nervous system and require exertion from your entire body as a whole.

This is why deadlifts, despite being a back exercise, induce great amounts of growth in every body part, even if they aren’t directly being utilized during the exercise.

Get Leaner

The number 1 way to get a crazy v taper is simply to get leaner.

One of the most common areas people hold fat is in their mid section and waist.

When fat accumulates here, it starts to create a rectangle shape and less of a v taper.

Once you get completely shredded and have no fat sitting on your waist, you will truly see how aesthetic your physique can be, and how much of a v taper you have.

Despite my back being quite a well-developed body part, if I got very fat, you wouldn’t even be able to tell because I would be a walking rectangle.

Once I get down to sub 10% body fat though, it becomes very obvious just how wide my back is, and produces a very aesthetic and attractive physique.

Myths And Misconceptions About Waist Size In Bodybuilding

Do Deadlifts And Squats Increase Your Waist Size?

I’m not saying they don’t at all, but I think it is typically overexaggarated how much these exercises can increase your waist size.

Personally, I have never seen an increase in my waist size from deadlifts or squats, and I know plenty of individuals who haven’t noticed any negative ramifications on their v taper from deadlifts or squats, and there are plenty of top competitors who are famous for their tiny looking waists but deadlift and squat heavy on a regular basis.

Take Chris Bumstead for example, who just placed second at the Classic Physique Mr. Olympia.

He is actually quite well known for his heavy deadlifts and squats, and he performs them on a regular basis.

View this post on Instagram

Haven't deadlifted heavy in quite some, no excuses just been being a pansy. Decided to man up last night and move some real weight. @strongliftwear Hoodie transition into the tank for the heavy set? #3Weeks

A post shared by Chris Bumstead (@cbum) on Apr 17, 2017 at 7:48am PDT

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It ain't quittin time yet. Tired late night workouts are still no excuse to skip the hard compound movements??Unless your just not in the mood for squats… I guess that's a fair excuse so long as your happy with chicken legs ??‍♀️ @reachyourmhp

A post shared by Chris Bumstead (@cbum) on Aug 17, 2017 at 2:39pm PDT

The Truth Behind The Waist Size Of Top Bodybuilders

The truth is, when you gain more muscle, you gain more muscle EVERYWHERE, this includes your obliques and overall waist size.

You will NEVER see a 260 pound shredded bodybuilder with a 30-inch waist, it simply isn’t possible.

The reason for this is that when you gain muscle, even though you could be completely shredded, your waist size will still increase as your muscle mass level increases.

Yes there are 260-pound top bodybuilders with small looking waists, but if you physically took a tape measure and measured their waist, you would find that they are all much larger than they appear. It is the huge back and shoulders that create a v taper illusion of a tiny little waist.

Just for your reference, when I’m at my absolute leanest my waist is about 31 inches or so.

The Real Reason Why Blown Out Waists Occur In Bodybuilding

Despite what kind of misconceptions circulate in the community, the real reason why blown out waists and guts are so prominent in the pro circuit nowadays is a combination of insulin abuse, overeating, eating a ton of processed foods and/or carbs, and predetermined genetic structure.

I could go have a cheat day and binge on pizza and chips and ice cream all day and make my waist and gut look absolutely disgusting, but give me a few days after that to diet on low carbs in a calorie deficit drinking lots of water and I could transform my physique seemingly overnight.