If you’ve spent any time scrolling through fitness Instagram or TikTok lately, you’ve probably seen some creator promising to "delete" their hip dips with a specific glute workout. They’re usually doing some variation of a fire hydrant or a side-lying leg lift. It’s everywhere. This obsession with a tiny inward curve on the side of the pelvis has turned a basic anatomical feature into a full-blown "flaw." But let’s get one thing straight right away: Are hip dips bad? Not at all. Not even a little bit.
In fact, calling them "bad" is like saying it’s bad to have a specific height or a certain shape of earlobe. It’s just how you’re built.
Hip dips—known technically as trochanteric depressions—are those indentations that occur where the hip bone meets the top of the thigh. For some people, they are barely visible. For others, they look like a distinct inward "dip" between the ilium (your hip bone) and the greater trochanter of the femur (your thigh bone). If you have them, you aren't doing anything wrong. You aren't "missing" muscle. You aren't "carrying too much fat." You just have a skeleton.
The Anatomy of a "Dip"
Why do some people have them while others have a perfectly rounded, "shelf-like" hip? It mostly comes down to your pelvis.
Biology doesn't care about your aesthetic goals. Your skeletal structure is the primary driver here. People with wider hip bones or a larger vertical distance between the ilium and the hip socket are significantly more likely to have visible hip dips. If your pelvis sits higher up and your femur (thigh bone) attaches a bit lower, there is naturally going to be a gap. That gap is the dip.
Fat distribution plays a secondary role, too. We all store fat differently. If you happen to store more volume on your iliac crest (the top of your hip) and more on your thighs, the space in between is going to look deeper. Ironically, having a lower body fat percentage often makes hip dips more prominent, not less, because there’s less soft tissue to "fill in" the skeletal gap. This is why you’ll see world-class athletes and fitness models with very noticeable dips.
It’s just space. That’s it.
The Great Fitness Lie: Can You Train Them Away?
Let’s talk about the "Hip Dip Workout" industry. It’s a scam.
Search for the keyword on YouTube and you’ll find videos with millions of views claiming that three sets of clamshells will "round out" your hips. Here is the cold, hard truth: you cannot grow muscle in a place where there is no muscle. The area where a hip dip occurs is mostly occupied by tendons and the attachment points of the gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. While you can certainly strengthen these muscles—and you should for hip stability—they are relatively small. They aren't going to "fill" a skeletal indentation the way a bicep fills out a shirt sleeve.
Take a look at any reputable anatomy chart. The gluteus maximus is the big, meaty muscle that gives the butt its shape, but it’s located mostly in the back. The muscles on the side (the medius and minimus) are flatter and sit underneath other tissues. No amount of lifting is going to change the width of your pelvic bone or the length of your femoral neck.
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Even if you gained a significant amount of muscle mass in your lower body, the dip would likely still be there because the muscle would grow around the structure, not change the structure itself.
Why the Internet Became Obsessed
In the mid-2010s, "thigh gaps" were the toxic body trend. Then, as the "BBL era" took over, the focus shifted to a hyper-rounded, hourglass silhouette. Any deviation from a perfect, continuous curve from the waist to the knee became a "problem" to be solved.
Social media is a lie of angles. Many influencers who appear to have zero hip dips are actually just posing in a way that masks them. By shifting the weight to one leg or tilting the pelvis forward, you can effectively hide the trochanteric depression. Lighting plays a huge role too. High-contrast gym lighting creates shadows that make dips look deeper, while front-on, flat lighting washes them out.
We’ve reached a point where people are actually seeking out cosmetic surgery, like fat grafting or "hip dip fillers," to fix something that was never broken. Surgeons like Dr. Terry Dubrow or Dr. Miami have spoken about the rise in requests for fat transfers to this specific area. But even surgery has limits. Fat doesn't always "take" in that area because there isn't much blood flow compared to the center of the glutes.
Health vs. Aesthetics
If you're worried about whether hip dips are "bad" for your health, the answer is a resounding no. There is zero medical evidence linking the presence of hip dips to pelvic instability, back pain, or any functional deficit.
However, there is a flip side. Sometimes, what people think are hip dips are actually just signs of weak hip abductors. While the "dent" is skeletal, the strength of the muscles around it matters for how you move. If your hips "drop" when you walk (Trendelenburg gait), that’s an actual issue. But that’s a functional problem, not a visual one. You can have a perfectly strong, functional, athletic body and still have deep hip dips.
Stop Trying to "Fix" Your Skeleton
It’s honestly exhausting watching people try to fight their own bones.
If you want to feel better about your hips, stop doing "hip dip workouts" and start training for general lower-body strength. Squats, lunges, and deadlifts will make your legs and glutes stronger, which helps with posture and mobility. If the dips are still there afterward? Cool. That just means you have a high-functioning human body.
We need to stop treating body types like fashion trends. Low-rise jeans come in and out of style, but your pelvis is permanent.
Real Talk: Actionable Steps for Body Neutrality
If you’re struggling with how your hips look, here is a reality check and a plan:
Check your inputs. If your "Explore" page is full of airbrushed fitness models with impossible proportions, hit the "Not Interested" button. Your brain is being trained to think a rare or surgically enhanced body type is the "default." It isn't.
Learn your anatomy. Look at a medical diagram of the human pelvis. See that gap between the iliac crest and the greater trochanter? That’s where the dip is. It’s supposed to be there. You are seeing your own skeleton. That's actually kind of metal.
Focus on "The Big Three." Instead of doing 100 repetitions of useless side-leg raises, focus on movements that actually build metabolic health and bone density:
- Weighted Squats: For overall leg and glute power.
- Deadlifts: For posterior chain strength.
- Lateral Lunges: For hip mobility and functional stability.
Understand the "Pump" and the "Pose." If you see someone at the gym who looks like they have no hip dips, they might just have a "pump" (temporary blood flow to the muscle) or they are standing in a way that hides the depression. Comparison is a thief, but it's also usually comparing your "behind the scenes" to someone else’s "highlight reel."
Accept the "Dip." It’s a permanent part of your frame. Like the color of your eyes or the shape of your feet. Once you realize it's just bone and attachment points, the power it has over your self-esteem tends to evaporate. You can’t "fitness" your way out of having a pelvis.
The bottom line? Hip dips are a sign that you are a human with a functioning skeletal system. They aren't a flaw, they aren't an "area for improvement," and they certainly aren't "bad." They are just a part of the landscape of your body.
Train for strength. Eat for energy. Move because it feels good. Let your bones be bones.