The Hourglass Programme
Every training programme has a north star metric. For most bodybuilders it’s total mass, or a stage weight, or a lift number. Mine is waist-to-hip ratio.
Current ratio is 0.87. Target is 0.83. That sounds like a small number. It’s not. It means holding the waist where it is while growing the hips by another 6cm — on a 6’3” frame that’s been training since 2013, that’s a fundamental reshaping.
I started this because I wanted to look better in clothes styled for women. Women’s clothing is cut for a ratio around 0.75. Mine was 0.91 when I started. A size up or a different brand doesn’t fix that. The shape has to change.
So the programme is selective. Standard bodybuilding programmes build outward everywhere — wider back, bigger arms, thicker core. This one builds where I need volume: hips, glutes, thighs, chest. And it strips where I need narrowness.
Lower body carries the bulk of weekly volume. Heavy squats for thigh sweep. Hip thrusts and glute-focused compounds for width across the pelvis. Cable abductors for the outer hip line that gives a skirt something to hang from.
Waist work is mostly about what I don’t do. No heavy oblique work — it thickens the waist. No loaded side bends, no Russian twists. Instead: vacuum training, transverse abdominis activation, and staying lean year-round. No bulk/cut cycles. The waist reduction is as much about bodyfat discipline as it is about muscle selection.
The programme is called The Hourglass Programme. Every decision in it comes back to one question: does this move the ratio?
