How to get an hourglass figure

Do not believe what anyone says, that you cannot get the body shape that you desire. With exercise, diet and a few other factors you can look exactly how you want to.

Step 1: Access your goal
The first step in adjusting your body to the shape you desire is to access your body shape as it is now.
To do this, take measurements of your hips (put the measuring tape around the widest part of your lower body), waist (the thinnest part of your torso), and chest (around the nipples and upper back without a bra on). Next, calculate your Waist to hip ratio HERE. The typical ideal WHR is .69 in the United States, and anything about .8 is unhealthy. Candice Swanepoel (above) has a WHR of .66, even more extreme than the ideal. Her measurements are 34-23-35. (measurements are listed CHEST-WAIST-HIPS)
Using the measurements you took, calculate your body shape below.

Hourglass: 
The waist is 10 or more inches smaller than the hips and bust. The hips and bust are about the same size. Example measurements: 36-24-36, 33-23-33, 38-29-39, 37-26-36

Ruler:
Measurements of the waist, hips and chest are basically the same or very close. Very little curves. Often times thin. Example measurements: 30-27-30, 28-26-28, 35-30-35, 29-29-29.

Pear: 
Hip measurements are significantly larger than bust measurements, and the waist tends to be thin as well. Example measurements: 32-25-37, 35-27-40, 30-24-35

Apple: Waist tends to carry the most weight, leading to measurements which proportions are similar to ruler but are generally larger as these people are often heavy. Waist is sometimes larger than bust or hips. Thighs and hips are often thin. Example measurements: 35-32-34, 40-37-37, 32-33-34

Inverted Triangle:
These women tend to have thin hips and large busts and shoulders. Example measurements: 35-25-30, 40-24-29, 39-27-32

Based on which type you are, your goal should be to balance your body shape to give it a more curvy, hourglass figure. Below are the ways for each body shape to balance their bodies, using diet, exercise and bodybuilding, hormones, and some other approaches.

Step 2: Figure out your exercise plan


Hourglass & Ruler: If you are an hourglass already then you can use the opportunity to create an even sexier and dramatic look for yourself. If you are a ruler, these exercises will help to build some mass on your upper and lower body while reducing the size of your middle.

Increase the size of your bust and/or hips and decrease the size of your waist to be the super-curvy hourglass

Exercise routine to increase chest and hips/butt-

Day 1: Lower body building. First, warm up the glute muscles with resistance bands targeting the butt. Do 3 sets of 12 reps (almost maximum weight) on 5 machines targeting the glutes and thighs: such as the leg press, glute machine, hip adductor and abductor, leg extension and leg curl machines. Either do uphill sprint sets for 30 minutes, or do cycling for 1 hour.

Day 2: Upper body toning. 4 sets of 15 reps of the following exercises: dumbell incline flys, push-ups with feet on bench, flat dumbell flys. 4 sets of 10 reps of the following exercises: dumbell up back row series, cheer presses, high rope pulls. 30 minutes of hula-hooping, dance, or boxing.

Day 3: 1 hour of jogging/sprinting/walking, dancing or yoga. 3 sets of 5 reps of slider core exercises or swiss ball exercises.

Day 4: BREAK

and then begin again. 

Pear shaped: To create an hourglass shape, exercises must be done to increase the size of the upper body and maintain the size of the hips and waist. This will give your body more balance. 

Day 1: Upper body toning. 4 sets of 15 reps of the following exercises: dumbell incline flys, push-ups with feet on bench, flat dumbell flys. 4 sets of 10 reps of the following exercises: dumbell up back row series, cheer presses, high rope pulls. 30 minutes of interval jogging/sprinting/walking.

Day 2: 1 hour of jogging/sprinting/walking, dancing or yoga. 3 sets of 5 reps of slider core exercises or swiss ball exercises.

Day 3: 1 hour of kickboxing

Apple: To begin, apples should get to the ideal weight for their body type, using interval training and a diet which is low in estrogen reducing foods. Estrogen imbalance is what puts weight onto the stomach. Once an apple body shape lowers their weight, they may often find that they belong to a different category of body shape. Find a form of exercise that you truly enjoy and would want to stick to. Try yoga, martial arts, dance (modern, ballet, latin or local zumba classes are fun), gymnastics, jogging and weight training.


Try these two interval exercises for maximum weight loss: 

1. Interval songs: Play a song that is around 5 minutes long or set your timer for 5 minutes. Rotate doing the following 5 exercises, 10 repetitions. Do this at a high intensity. This will burn fat from the entire body while toning.

10 reps mountain climbers

10 reps jumping jacks

10 reps side lunges

10 reps leg-ups

2. Set your timer for 15 minutes. Begin with walking for 2 minutes, jogging for 2 minutes and then sprinting for 1 minutes. Repeat this until the 15 minutes is up.

Inverted Triangle: Increase the size of your hips and butt by body-building your lower body to match your upper body. Tone and tighten the upper body to give it a smaller appearance.

Day 1: Lower body building. First, warm up the glute muscles with resistance bands targeting the butt. Do 3 sets of 12 reps (almost maximum weight) on 5 machines targeting the glutes and thighs: such as the leg press, glute machine, hip adductor and abductor, leg extension and leg curl machines. Either do uphill sprint sets for 30 minutes, or do cycling for 1 hour.

Day 2: Upper body toning. Do 3 sets of 5 maximum weight pull-ups or assisted pull-ups. 5 reps will not build muscle but tighten muscle. Do 3 sets of 5 dips or assisted dips. Do 10 sets of 5 burpee's. 

Day 3: 1 hour hula hooping, latin dance, or cycling.

Visit this website for further tips on widening your hips.

*Keep in mind that any ab exercises involving sitting up movements or lifting of the legs build the front of the abs and end up increasing the size of the waist and bulking up the stomach. To achieve a tight and tiny looking tummy, do exercises which focus on twisting movements and working of the core as opposed to the abs.

Step 3:Diet: Eat foods which increase estrogen.

Visit this website for a list of foods which increase estrogen. Avoid those which reduce it. 

Drink tea or take supplements which are normally marked for nursing women or women trying to increase their breast size. Make sure what you are taking only contains all natural herbs. These will help you to get a curvy body naturally and to put fat in the right places. 

Also, make sure anything you eat is organic, clean and healthy. Make sure you feel more energy after eating it and treat your body as if it were sacred. Don't ever over eat. 

Make sure you get plenty of protein from healthy sources such as chickpea's, beans, yogurt, cottage cheese or lean meat. Protein will help to build muscle and keep fat off.

Step 4: Massage

Massage of the breasts daily is proven to increase the firmness, size and reduce the risk of cancer. Massage the breasts with olive oil, almond oil, or cocoa butter (if you have stretch marks).

Skin brushing helps to detoxify the body and using skin brushing you can actually move your fat around.  Brush fat from your thighs, butt and stomach to where you'd rather have the fat. For parts of the body which you aren't trying to change, always brush towards the heart. 

For any further questions, leave a comment.