Hip dips are a normal indentation between the hip and upper thigh. You cannot exercise them away because their basic outline comes largely from bone structure and how muscle and fat sit around it.
You can still build stronger glutes and change the muscle around your hips. Run the two workouts below each week for 8 to 12 weeks, add reps or weight gradually, and judge progress from strength, measurements, and photos—not a promise to “fill” one exact line.
What a Hip Dips Workout Can and Cannot Do
| A workout can | A workout cannot |
|---|---|
| Build your glute max, glute medius, legs, and hips | Change the shape of your pelvis or upper thigh bone |
| Improve hip strength, balance, and control | Spot-reduce fat from the dip, waist, or thighs |
| Add muscle around your current frame over time | Guarantee that the indentation disappears |
| Change your visible proportions gradually | Control exactly where your body stores or loses fat |
Body shape is a useful visual starting point, never a diagnosis or destiny. Hip dips do not mean anything is wrong with your body, and they do not reveal your health, hormones, metabolism, or fitness level.
Training cannot change bone structure or spot-reduce fat. The realistic goal is stronger glutes and legs, more muscle around your current frame, and a routine you can keep progressing.
If you want the broader explanation first, read Can You Change Your Body Shape?. If you are unsure whether you should track proportions or body-fat and muscle trends, compare Body Shape vs Body Composition.
Do This Hip Dips Workout Twice Per Week
Leave at least two days between the sessions. Monday and Thursday or Tuesday and Friday both work.
Use weights that leave one to three good reps in reserve. The last reps should feel hard, but your range of motion and control should stay clean.
Day 1: Glute strength and hip abduction
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---:|---:|
| Hip thrust or loaded glute bridge | 4 | 8-12 |
| Romanian deadlift | 3 | 8-12 |
| Step-up | 3 | 8-10 per side |
| Cable or machine hip abduction | 3 | 12-20 per side |
| Side plank | 2 | 20-40 seconds per side |
Day 2: Single-leg strength and glute volume
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---:|---:|
| Squat or leg press | 3 | 8-12 |
| Bulgarian split squat | 3 | 8-10 per side |
| Single-leg hip thrust | 3 | 10-15 per side |
| Cable kickback | 3 | 12-15 per side |
| Lateral band walk | 2 | 10-15 steps each way |
Warm up with five minutes of easy movement and one or two lighter practice sets for the first two lifts. Rest two to three minutes after hip thrusts, Romanian deadlifts, squats, and split squats. Rest 60 to 90 seconds after abductions, kickbacks, and band walks.
Do not add daily “hip dip challenges” between these sessions. Muscle grows when hard training is followed by enough food and recovery.
Use Each Exercise for a Clear Job
Hip thrusts build the main glute muscle
Keep your ribs down, drive through your feet, and finish each rep by squeezing your glutes rather than arching your lower back. Pause briefly at the top.
Start with a glute bridge if a bench setup feels awkward. Move to hip thrusts when you can control the full range and add load safely.
Romanian deadlifts train the lengthened glutes and hamstrings
Keep a small bend in your knees and push your hips back. Stop when you feel a strong glute and hamstring stretch without losing a neutral spine.
The dumbbells or bar should stay close to your legs. If you mainly feel your lower back, reduce the weight and shorten the range.
Step-ups and split squats build one side at a time
These exercises help you train each leg without the stronger side doing all the work. Use a box height and stride length you can control.
Push through the working foot and keep the knee tracking in the same direction as your toes. Add weight only when both sides look steady.
Abductions train the side glutes
Cable abductions, machine abductions, and lateral band walks train the muscles that move and stabilize the leg out to the side. They can build side-glute muscle, but they cannot reshape the bones underneath the hip dip.
Use slow reps and a range you can control. Swinging a heavy stack turns a targeted exercise into momentum.
For more setup cues, use Cable Glute Exercises. If you need a short warm-up before the main lifts, use Glute Activation Exercises.
Progress the Workout for 8 to 12 Weeks
Use double progression instead of changing exercises every week:
- Choose a weight you can lift at the bottom of the rep range.
- Keep that weight until every set reaches the top of the range.
- Add the smallest available weight increase.
- Return to the bottom of the range and repeat.
Example: build your hip thrust from 10, 9, 8, 8 reps to four sets of 12. Then add weight and start again near eight reps.
Log every working set. If your lifts are improving and you recover before the next session, keep the plan unchanged. If strength falls for two weeks or soreness lasts into the next workout, remove two or three accessory sets before adding anything.
If this is your first strength program, read Strength Training for Women Beginners for weight selection and gym setup. If you want a complete glute-focused week rather than this two-day add-on, use the Glute Workout Plan for Women.
Match Nutrition to Your Actual Goal
Do not crash diet and expect your glutes to grow quickly. Choose one direction for the next 8 to 12 weeks:
- For muscle gain, eat around maintenance or in a small calorie surplus and keep protein consistent.
- For fat loss, use a modest calorie deficit, keep lifting, and accept that fat comes off according to your individual pattern—not from the hip dip first.
- For beginner body recomposition, train consistently, eat enough protein, and stay near maintenance or a small deficit.
Build three or four meals around a useful protein source. Keep calories and daily movement consistent enough that you can read the trend. No “hip dip diet” can change where your bones sit or choose where fat comes off.
Use Body Recomposition for Women if you want to lose fat while building or keeping muscle.
Measure Progress Without Chasing a Perfect Outline
Check progress every four weeks under similar conditions:
- record the weights and reps for hip thrusts, Romanian deadlifts, and split squats
- take front, side, and back photos in similar clothes and lighting
- measure hips or glutes at the same tape position
- note how the exercises feel and whether both sides stay controlled
Strength should improve before a major visual change appears. Keep the plan if your lifts are rising and recovery is manageable.
Do not use one photo to decide the workout failed. Pose, lighting, clothing, body-fat changes, and menstrual-cycle shifts can all change how the area looks. Compare a four-week trend, then adjust one variable at a time.
Start This Week
Schedule the two sessions, choose conservative starting weights, and record every set. Run the same exercises for eight weeks before deciding what changed.
The win is not erasing a normal feature. It is building stronger glutes, improving your lifts, and using realistic training and nutrition long enough to see what your body can do.
Soma keeps the plan, weights, reps, RPE, calories, protein, and progress in one place so you can make decisions from evidence instead of a body-shape promise. Download Soma free on the App Store.