You’ve probably spent way too much time in front of a mirror poking at those little inward curves between your hip bone and your thigh. You aren't alone. Everyone seems to be obsessed with "fixing" them. But here is the thing: hip dips are basically just part of your skeleton. It's the space where your femur meets your pelvis. If you have a wider pelvis or a certain femoral neck angle, you’re going to have them. It’s just anatomy.
Can you fill them out? Sorta. But not in the way those 5-minute YouTube "hip dip workout" videos promise. You can't just spot-reduce fat or magically grow muscle in a spot where there isn't much muscle to begin with.
Most people are chasing a silhouette that requires a specific bone structure or, frankly, a very specific amount of body fat. If you want to change how they look, you have to understand the interplay between the gluteus medius, your body fat percentage, and your actual skeletal width.
The Brutal Reality of How to Fill Out Hip Dips
Let's get real for a second. The internet has lied to you. You've likely seen influencers claiming that doing 100 fire hydrants a day will give you perfectly round "shelf" hips. It won't. The area we call a hip dip is technically known as the trochanteric depression.
Think about your skeleton. Your ilium (the top of your hip bone) and your greater trochanter (the top of your thigh bone) are the two "peaks." The dip is just the valley in between. If those two bones are far apart, the dip is more pronounced. No amount of squats is going to move your bones closer together.
That doesn't mean you're stuck, though. It just means your expectations need to shift from "removing" a gap to "building" the surrounding landscape.
Muscle vs. Fat: The Great Balancing Act
The gluteus medius is the muscle that sits right above the dip. When people talk about how to fill out hip dips, they’re usually talking about hypertrophy in this specific area. If you grow the glute medius and the glute minimus, you can create a more "filled" look at the top of the hip.
🔗 Read more: Ingestion of hydrogen peroxide: Why a common household hack is actually dangerous
But there’s a catch.
Muscle is dense. Fat is fluffy. Sometimes, having a very low body fat percentage actually makes hip dips look more prominent because there’s no subcutaneous fat to cushion the "valley" between the bones. Conversely, carrying a lot of weight in the "love handle" area can create a visual illusion where the dip looks deeper by comparison. It's all about proportions.
Exercises That Actually Target the Right Areas
If you’re going to spend time in the gym, stop doing high-rep, low-resistance floor exercises. They aren't enough to cause the muscle tears necessary for growth. You need load. You need tension.
1. Heavy Lateral Work
The glute medius is responsible for abduction—moving your leg away from your body. To grow it, you need to challenge that movement. Weighted cable hip abductions are the gold standard here. Don't just swing your leg. Control it. Feel the burn right in that upper side-butt area.
2. The Power of the Curtsy Lunge
Standard lunges are great for the gluteus maximus (the big part of your butt), but curtsy lunges add a lateral strain that forces the side stabilizers to kick in. When you step back and across, you’re putting a unique stretch on the hip stabilizers.
3. Clamshells with a Purpose
Most people do clamshells wrong. They mindlessly flap their knees open and shut while scrolling on their phones. If you want to see a difference, use a heavy resistance band. Slow down. Hold the contraction at the top for three seconds. Your glutes should feel like they are on fire after twelve reps. If they don’t, you aren't working hard enough.
💡 You might also like: Why the EMS 20/20 Podcast is the Best Training You’re Not Getting in School
4. Side-Lying Leg Raises
This one feels old school, but it works—if you add weight. Use ankle weights or hold a dumbbell against your outer thigh. The key is to keep your toe pointed slightly down or neutral. If you point your toe up, you’re using your hip flexors, which defeats the whole purpose of trying to fill out that lateral hip area.
Why Diet Matters More Than You Think
You cannot build muscle in a calorie deficit. Period. If you are eating 1,200 calories a day and wondering why your hip dips aren't "filling out," it’s because your body doesn’t have the raw materials to build new tissue.
To change your shape, you likely need a recomposition phase. This means eating at maintenance or a slight surplus while hitting high protein targets—usually around 0.8 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. Without protein, those weighted abductions are just making you tired, not making you curvier.
Also, let's talk about "hip fat." You cannot spot-reduce fat. If you have "love handles" (fat stored above the iliac crest), it can make the dip look more extreme. The only way to reduce that is a systemic calorie deficit, but again, that might make the dip look more "bony." It's a delicate dance. Most experts, like those at the American Council on Exercise (ACE), will tell you that body fat distribution is almost entirely genetic. You can’t tell your body where to put fat, but you can choose where to put muscle.
Medical and Cosmetic "Shortcuts"
Sometimes, exercise isn't enough to satisfy what someone wants. It's okay to acknowledge that. If the goal is a perfectly smooth, rounded line from waist to mid-thigh, surgery is often the only way to get there for people with specific bone structures.
- Fat Grafting (The Brazilian Butt Lift): Surgeons can take fat from your stomach or back and inject it directly into the trochanteric depression. This is the most "permanent" way to fill the gap. However, it's a major surgery with significant risks.
- Dermal Fillers: Some people opt for Sculptra injections. Sculptra isn't a traditional filler; it’s a poly-L-lactic acid that stimulates your own body’s collagen production. It takes months to see results, it’s expensive, and you need a lot of it for the hip area.
- Implants: Silicone hip implants exist, but they are much less common and carry a higher risk of shifting or infection compared to breast or butt implants.
Most people don't need these. Honestly, once you start lifting heavy and eating right, the "dip" becomes less of a "flaw" and more of a mark of an athletic, strong lower body.
📖 Related: High Protein in a Blood Test: What Most People Get Wrong
Dressing for Your Shape
While you're waiting for those glute gains to kick in, your wardrobe choices can change everything. This isn't about hiding; it's about flattering the lines you have.
- High-waisted bottoms: These usually cut across the narrowest part of your waist and skim over the hips.
- Structured fabrics: Thin, clingy leggings show everything. Thicker, compression-style fabrics or heavy denim can smooth out the silhouette.
- A-line skirts: These flare out right where the hip dip starts, completely bypassing the area.
- Avoid low-rise jeans: They tend to cut right into the dip, emphasizing the "inward" curve.
The Psychological Shift
We have to talk about why we care about this. Ten years ago, nobody even knew what a "hip dip" was. It wasn't a "problem" until social media decided it was. Influencers use lighting, posing (sticking one hip out and tilting the pelvis), and sometimes even padding to create an artificial look.
If you stand with your feet together and your pelvis tucked, your hip dips will look deeper. If you stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and a slight anterior pelvic tilt, they might disappear. Lighting from above creates shadows in the dips. Side lighting flattens them.
Don't let a trend make you hate your skeleton.
Actionable Next Steps
If you are serious about changing your hip silhouette, stop the random floor workouts. Start a structured program that prioritizes progressive overload.
- Calculate your protein needs. Aim for at least 120-150g a day if you're active.
- Add a "Side Glute" day. Incorporate heavy cable abductions, weighted curtsy lunges, and Bulgarian split squats.
- Track your progress with measurements, not just the scale. Muscle is heavier than fat but takes up less space. Your weight might stay the same while your shape changes.
- Check your posture. Strengthening your core and correcting a posterior pelvic tilt can sometimes "pop" the hips out naturally.
- Give it six months. Muscle growth is a slow, boring process. You won't see a change in three weeks.
The goal should be a strong, functional body. If you build a massive set of glutes, the "dip" becomes a tiny detail in a much more impressive overall picture. Focus on the strength, and the aesthetics usually follow in their own way.