Exercises for a build with wider hips?

[apb1215]

I'm a taller guy (6'3" and about 175 lbs.) with a bony, lanky frame. When untrained I have narrow shoulders, long skinny arms, and very wide hips with curvy, feminine-looking hipbones. Ugh! I hate it. In addition, my legs are naturally much stronger than my upper body. I used to do the 5x5 program and was hitting 300x5 squats and 450x5 deadlift while barely able to bench 185x5! As you can imagine, it makes for a very disproportionate appearance. Worse yet, I store all my fat in my legs, thighs, and butt, so if I let up on cardio and gain any fat, it looks very bad.

Awhile ago I think I reached my best results by cutting out all leg exercises completely (except for lots of running) and focusing very heavily on my upper body. I got to 240x3 bench and 145x3 seated military and my shoulders were wider, making me look more V-shaped when I wore shirts. However without a shirt, I still had pretty curvy, protruding hip bones.

I imagine the ultimate answer is to simply gain tons of mass all over, but more realistically, I'm wondering what the best approach to "straighten up" my body would be. I try to work my lats really hard, but they would have to be pretty enormous to compensate for my size and hip width. Would working obliques help to thicken up my midsection?

Also, I've always wondered whether deadlifts would help or hurt my appearance. I'm not sure if it would add mass right at the hips, making them look larger still, or right above the hips, helping to fill in my upper body. What do you guys suggest?

[Footballmuscle5]

I'm assuming when you say you have curvy hips, it means that its not your actual hips that stick out, you just have excess fat on your hips/glutes that give that appearance. If your hip bone is actually giving that curvy look because they are that wide, then i don't think any exercise could help change your bone structure.

with that said, assuming there's just excess fat on your hips, and you're goal is get bigger, continue to do what you're doing, and work your legs!

[jgrube]

this thread is useless without pics

[apb1215]

I'm assuming when you say you have curvy hips, it means that its not your actual hips that stick out, you just have excess fat on your hips/glutes that give that appearance. If your hip bone is actually giving that curvy look because they are that wide, then i don't think any exercise could help change your bone structure.

with that said, assuming there's just excess fat on your hips, and you're goal is get bigger, continue to do what you're doing, and work your legs!

I'm referring to the bone itself. I just have a really large frame, and curvy hip bones. I'm pretty low in bodyfat. I was just wondering what would be the most effective areas to focus on to improve my shape, such as the lats, or the lower back, etc.

Sorry, I don't have any pics currently. Just wanted some general suggestions if maybe someone had a similar build.

[GuyJin]

Since bodybuilding is a game of illusion, you'll have to maximize back and shoulder width. I also have a wide waist--even when I diet down and lose the fat there, I still look boxy. Sucks, don't it?

To that end, for back, focus on chins/pulldowns and close-grip pulldowns to add "flare" to the upper/outer lats, and cable rows or one-arm rows to accentuate the lower lat/waist tie-in. Keep in mind, that if you're high-latted (as I am, damn my genetics!) then all the cable rows and 1-arm stuff won't do a whole lot if the muscle ain't there to begin with. Just so you know (but I think you already do).

For shoulders, focus on width, and that means doing laterals. Not exclusively, but push yourself on these. Militaries for overall size, and then laterals plus rear laterals to balance it all out. Drop sets work well for laterals and then bent-over laterals, so doing a dropset once every three workouts could work wonders.

Chest: Again, it's a game of illusion. I'd go for low-incline presses to give your chest a "higher" appearance, as well as incline flyes and dips, to accentuate the lower/outer regions.

Hope this helps a bit...

[apb1215]

Thanks GuyJin, that helps a lot. I've actually not done any lateral stuff for my shoulders recently, so I'm definitely going to add that in.

I was able to get some pics. In the back pics, I think I was leaning a little bit to one side, so you can really see how the bone thrusts out. It sucks!

[GuyJin]

Yeah, I took a look at your pics and I understand completely. While I'm shorter than you (just under 5'11") I also have the same kind of problem. As it happens, I also "list" a bit to one side, due to my right leg being 1/2 an inch shorter than my left. And added to that, my right shoulder seems to "list" as well, due to an injury a long time ago (fell down the stairs in my house as a kid and smashed up my right shoulder--never did heal properly).

FWIW, I'd just concentrate on gaining as much overall size if possible--that means a lot of eating--clean, no dirty bulking--and concentrating on the exercises I listed earlier on in your thread. It'll take time to fill out, won't kid you there, but it can be done.