You’re standing in front of the mirror, maybe right after a shower or a heavy leg day, and you notice it. There is a weird little indentation right between your hip bone and your upper thigh. It looks like someone took a small ice cream scoop to the side of your leg. If you’ve spent any time on fitness forums, you know these are called hip dips on men, and honestly, they can be a massive source of frustration for guys trying to build a "perfect" physique.
Most guys think they’re doing something wrong. They assume it’s a lack of muscle or maybe some stubborn fat that just won't budge. But here is the reality: hip dips are mostly just about how you are built. It is bone. It is anatomy. It is the gap where your femur meets your pelvis. You can't out-train your skeleton.
That doesn't mean you're stuck with a look you don't like, but it does mean you need to stop falling for the fitness influencers who promise a "30-day hip dip cure." Most of that is marketing fluff. If we are being real, understanding the "why" behind those inward curves is the only way to actually improve the aesthetic of your lower body without losing your mind in the gym.
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The Anatomy of the Dip: It’s Not Just Fat
When we talk about hip dips, or "trochanteric depressions" if you want to get medical about it, we are talking about the space between the ilium (the top of your hip bone) and the greater trochanter of the femur.
Think of your skeleton for a second.
If your pelvis is wide and your femur head is set a bit lower, you’re going to have a gap. It’s a literal hole in the silhouette of your body. In men, this is often less talked about than in women, but it is just as common. Because men tend to carry less fat on their hips naturally, the indentation can actually look more pronounced and "bony."
Is it a flaw? No. It’s a byproduct of having a high pelvis.
According to various anatomical studies, the prominence of these dips is determined by the width of your hips relative to the width of your femoral neck. If those two points are far apart, the skin and muscle have to "bridge" that gap, and they naturally sink inward. No amount of side-leg raises is going to move your hip bone two inches to the left.
Can You Muscle Your Way Out of It?
Kind of. But not really.
There is a big misconception that the gluteus medius—that muscle on the side of your butt—can "fill in" the hip dip. While the gluteus medius and the gluteus minimus sit right under that area, they aren't shaped like a bowl of Jell-O that you can just pour into a crack. Muscles have specific insertion points.
If you hammer your glute medius with heavy weights, the muscle will grow, but it grows under the dip or above it. Sometimes, making the muscle bigger actually makes the dip look deeper because the muscle around it is more defined. It’s a bit of a catch-22.
What Actually Happens When You Bulk the Hips
When you focus on the gluteus medius, you are adding "shelf" to the top of the hip. This is great for that powerful, athletic look. However, if your goal is a perfectly straight line from your waist to your knee, you might be disappointed.
Real strength training for hip dips on men should focus on the entire posterior chain:
- The Gluteus Maximus: Building the "meat" of the backside to create overall volume.
- The Medius/Minimus: For stability and lateral strength.
- The Quads and Hamstrings: To fill out the "frame" around the hip.
The Role of Body Fat (The Great Deceiver)
Body fat is a weird variable here. For some men, losing fat makes the hip dips more obvious because there is less padding to hide the bone structure. For others, the "dip" is actually accentuated by "love handles" sitting right above it.
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If you have a lot of adipose tissue (fat) on the iliac crest (the top of the hip), it creates a "muffin top" effect. This makes the natural indentation below it look like a canyon. In this specific case, leaning down will actually make the hip dips look less dramatic because you’re smoothing out the "bulge" above the "dip."
But let’s be honest: if you are already at 10-12% body fat and you still see them, that’s just your frame. That is you. It’s the same as having a wide ribcage or long arms.
Celebrities and Athletes With This Build
You aren't alone in this. Look at high-level swimmers or MMA fighters. These are men with incredibly low body fat and massive amounts of functional muscle. You will see hip dips on almost all of them.
Take a look at prime-era Georges St-Pierre or many Olympic sprinters. Their hips aren't round; they are angular. The "dip" is often a sign of a very lean, very muscular physique where the muscle separation is visible. In the bodybuilding world, some judges actually look for that separation because it shows "dryness" and low body fat.
Why do we hate it on ourselves when we admire the "ripped" look on athletes? It’s usually just a weird trick of the brain and social media filters.
Exercises That Actually Matter (And Why)
If you want to improve the look of your hips, stop doing those 5-pound resistance band "abductions" while watching TV. Those aren't doing anything for a man's hormone profile or muscle hypertrophy. You need load. You need tension.
1. Heavy Bulgarian Split Squats
These are miserable. Everyone hates them. But they are the king of unilateral hip development. Because you are balancing on one leg, your glute medius has to fire like crazy just to keep you from falling over. It forces the hip stabilizers to thicken up.
2. Weighted Side Lunges
Most guys only move in one plane: forward and back. We squat, we deadlift, we walk. We rarely move side-to-side. Side lunges with a kettlebell or dumbbell force the lateral muscles of the leg to actually do some work.
3. The Medius Kickback
Instead of kicking straight back, kick at a 45-degree angle. This hits the upper fibers of the glute. It won't "fill" the bone gap, but it builds a "shelf" that makes the hips look more masculine and powerful rather than just bony.
4. Farmers Walks
Simple. Pick up the heaviest weights you can hold and walk. The sheer effort of stabilizing your pelvis while carrying 100+ lbs in each hand builds a type of hip density that isolation moves just can't touch.
Dressing for Your Shape
If the dips really bother you, your clothing choice makes a 10x bigger difference than any workout ever will.
- Avoid: Super thin, "stretchy" skinny jeans. They cling to the indentations and highlight every curve of the bone.
- Try: Heavier denim or "athletic fit" chinos. These fabrics have enough structure to bridge the gap of the hip dip, creating a straighter silhouette from the waist down.
- The Rise Matters: Low-rise pants usually cut right across the dip, making it look more prominent. Mid-rise pants that sit on the actual hip bone tend to mask the area better.
The Mental Game: Is It Body Dysmorphia?
We live in an era where we see photoshopped "perfection" every three seconds on Instagram. A lot of the "smooth" hips you see on fitness models are either the result of perfect lighting, specific posing (turning the leg inward to hide the dip), or literal digital liquify tools.
If you are healthy, strong, and your hips don't hurt when you move, then your hip dips are not a medical problem. They are a "you" feature.
I’ve seen guys get obsessed with this to the point of considering "hip implants" or "fat grafting." While those surgeries exist, they are often risky and can look "uncanny" on a male frame. A man's body is supposed to have angles. It’s supposed to look a bit rugged. A perfectly round, smooth hip is actually quite rare in the natural male anatomy.
Summary of Actionable Steps
Instead of stressing, follow this blueprint to optimize what you have:
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- Check your body fat: If you have significant love handles, focus on a slight caloric deficit. Removing the "bulge" above the dip is the fastest way to make the hip line look straighter.
- Shift your training: Incorporate heavy unilateral movements like Bulgarian split squats and 45-degree cable kickbacks twice a week. Focus on the 8-12 rep range for hypertrophy.
- Build the "Caps": Focus on your side deltoids (shoulders). Broadening your upper frame creates a "V-taper" that draws the eye upward and makes any hip irregularities look like a non-issue.
- Audit your wardrobe: Swap out thin, flimsy fabrics for structured denim and workwear-style trousers that don't "drape" into the depressions of the hip.
- Accept the bone: Touch your hip. Feel the bone. Realize that no supplement or "hack" can change your skeletal structure. Focus on being the strongest version of the frame you were born with.
Building a great physique is a marathon. It’s about the total package—the back width, the quad sweep, the posture—not a two-inch indentation on your side. Focus on the big lifts and the "dips" will eventually just look like part of a powerful, lean machine.