Based on your survey results, here’s my recommendations:
Our focus is to maintain and build muscle in the right places to create a fit and curvy frame.
Depending on your starting point, this can take at least three months to start to see real results, but of course all programs should become a lifestyle that you can maintain so you can maintain your new shape as well.
That’s why I created my CURVE BUILDER PROGRAM for slim girls looking to build strong sexy curves!
Read more below to find out some key tips for your body type…
Here are a few main points to get you started to train for your body type.
Your program goal is called: The Curve Builder and here are a few tips from the program that I created just for your body type goal:
1) Eat Enough
As a slim girl, eating enough calories to maintain new muscle is imperative.
Simply put, if you don’t eat enough calories to maintain your gains, they will go away or you may never see them, making you assume that your workout isn’t working.
So, if you’re putting in work at the gym and including heavy lifts and progressive overload to add size and curves, you should be calculating and tracking to ensure that you are consuming the appropriate calories.
How do you do that you might ask?
There are calculators that you can input your stats and it will spit out a number of suggested calories based on your BRM (Basal Metabolic Rate) and activity level.
If this sounds confusing, not to worry, it’s not as fancy or confusing as it sounds, all you need to do is use a BMR calculator and answer a few questions about yourself and it will prompt this for you.
Next you need to track your eating for 30 days.
i) Track What You Eat
The tracking is not just to ensure that you hit a macro count or calories, but to give you a better understanding of what you’re eating in a day.
It’s likely that you could be under-eating for your goals!
This will also help you take time to see things like, are you getting enough protein to support your muscle gains, are you eating greens every day, drinking water, etc.
Sometimes we assume we’re eating really healthy and large quantities, but in actuality, we’re not.
This step will be key to meeting your goals.
How do you do this?
With my programs, I provide some plans that are pre-macroed for you and others that are mix and match where you would use a food tracker like myfitnesspal.
This is a free app that allows you to input your food for the day and even has a handy barcode scanner to enter any food with a barcode such as pickles, mustard or almond milk.
There are many free and paid apps out there that are great trackers. Choose the one that you think will best work in your lifestyle.
ii) Have a Protein Goal 🏆
Many people focus on carbs and fat but they don’t think very much about their protein intake.
I say, look at your protein goal first.
How do you do this?
If you are very active, take in 1-1.2 grams of protein per lb.
If you’re moderately active, take in .8-1 gram of protein per lb.
If you’re sedentary take in .6-.8 grams of protein per lb.
For example, if you’re moderately active, and you weigh 150lbs do the math: 150x.8 = 120grams of protein/day.
Protein has 4 calories per gram so you’d be taking in roughly 480 calories of your day directly from protein.
Next choose your fat grams at approximately 20-30% of your food intake per day and whatever is left is your carbs.
As a slim girl, you’re going to want to be eating at a Caloric surplus – this is super important to ensure you are building muscle!
iii) Eat the Right Fat
I’m sure that you’ve heard that one before, but, just because you should be in a calorie surplus (eating more calories than your daily requirement), it doesn’t mean you can eat garbage.
Eating bad fats can cause inflammation among other negative side effects.
The right fats, on the other hand, can keep you looking lean and tight (which is best to show off your new muscle), can give you shiny hair, stronger nails, better skin and a better functioning brain among many other benefits.
Some of my favorite fat sources include:
- avocado
- Nuts & nut butters (walnuts, brazil, Macadamia, cashew etc)
- Olive oil (extra virgin is best)
- Ground flax seeds
- Ghee or real butter (not margarine)
- Coconut & MCT oil (from coconut)
- Omega 3 oils from wild fish (stick to smaller fish to avoid mercury contamination)
2) Progressive Overload & Exercise Selection
Lift HEAVY, often: Putting on muscle requires some heavy lifting!
While some bodyweight exercises can be very challenging and allow for growth like pull ups and push ups, many exercises will require resistance training (also knowns as weightlifting to see mass added).
To add new curves to your physique, it requires you to add mass to certain areas of the body.
This would consist of: the legs, glutes, back and shoulders.
These are the areas we want to focus on for adding size to create the Hourglass Silhouette.
The chest and arms we want to keep strong and toned without adding too much size for a typical ‘Hourglass Transformation’.
With the abs, the goal is to cinch the waist with Pilates type exercises and breathing, while including typical fitness exercises additionally to chisel the six-pack.
There are also exercises that we stay away from that will square the sides of the waist giving you a boxy look.
We don’t include any of those in the CURVE BUILDER PROGRAM.
When you choose your weight resistance, challenge yourself!
Keep track of the weights you are lifting on each exercise and try to increase it by 5% every couple of weeks.
In my programs, I always give an example of beginner, intermediate and advanced weights so you have an idea of where you are and where you want to slowly get to.
I personally lift heavy during most of my workouts.
Increasing your weights allows your muscles to adapt to the new load, which translates to growth, which translates to curves!
Building muscle focusing on your posterior chain in your lower half, will start to create and shape your booty and hamstrings while strengthening your lower back so you can lift heavier.
Exercises should be specific to shaping an Hourglass lower half and not a football player looking lower half.
I want you to lift very heavy once you perfect your form, but, you must be doing the correct exercises and none of the ones that will make you look blocky.
Here are three of my favorite posterior chain exercises for your body type:
My Favorite 3 Lower Body Exercises for Slim Girls Looking to Put on Muscle and Build Curves.
1) Deadlifts or Sumo Deadlifts
Deadlifts are one of my all-time favorite exercises. Excel for building the glutes and hamstrings while strengthening the lower back.
2) Leg Press
Leg press is a great over-all leg builder.
Go deep, go as heavy as you can safely and ensure that you feel your legs and not your lower back throughout the movement.
3) Reverse Hack Squat
It’s also important to build your upper body so you don’t create a pear shape.
You want to be a balanced Hourglass Shape.
Here’s the trick for your body shape.
Don’t focus on isolated movements for your arms, instead stick to compound movements that will give you the feminine version of the v-shape back, lifted looking chest and shapely shoulders without looking boxy or stocky.
Here are my three favorite moves for your body type:
My Favorite 3 Upper Body Exercises for Slim Girls Looking to Put on Muscle and Build Curves:
1) Elastic Band Pull-ups
2) Seated Shoulder Press
3) Incline Dumbbell Press
3) Cardio
Hard gainers listen up!
So you are hitting the gym, working consistently, lifting heavier weights, getting your sleep and eating enough calories to sustain new muscle… got it all under control.
But what about cardio?
I know the information out there in regards to doing cardio is VERY confusing.
Some trainers are adamant that everyone, young, old skinny or not, should do cardio while others are DISTINCTLY against it.
So which is the way to go?
I personally think the RIGHT type of cardio has its place…. But not for everyone!
What I mean is not everyone NEEDS to do cardio or should.
Here is my advice on cardio for weight gain!
My curve builder girls, you likely are an EctoMorph or an Ectomorph-Mesomorph mix!
Ectomorph
An ectomorph is skinny-fat or just skinny with very little muscle definition and has trouble putting on any muscle mass regardless of following all of the rules of gaining size.
I find that many Asian and South Asians fall into this category, but it is not limited to any part of the world as there are ectomorphs of all heritages and there are Asian and South Asians of all body types as well.
Long duration cardio for this body type will likely eat up all your gains.
If you love long runs and this is your body type, you can continue to do them if you choose, but you would have to understand that it will likely inhibit you for gaining the curves that you desire.
The best form of cardio for this group while training for curves would be:
- muscle exercise based Tabatas – i.e. a push-up Tabata or a clean and press Tabata. This is a good form of cardio for this group as it will get your heart rate up, which is important for everyone for cardiovascular health, but it’s only 4 min long and trains muscular endurance as well.
- An intense squat day! – Use a heart rate monitor and go H.A.M. on squat day to get your heart rate into the fat burning zone (healthy heart zone) for at least 10-20 minutes.
- Go for brisk walks, bike rides (preferably with hills) or rollerblading for leisure to ensure an active life, but potentially up your calories on these ‘activity days’.
Ectomorph/Mesomorph Mix (Ecto-Meso)
A mix of ectomorph and mesomorph is the genetic jackpot for lifting, if this is you, you have no idea how lucky you are.
The majority of insta-fitness-models aka slim-fit girls on Instagram posing in bikinis are ecto-meso types.
Personally, I’m not.
I’m a endo-meso (puts on fat and muscle easily), but examples of ecto-mesos would include the long list of insta-famous IG’ers like Massy Arias aka mankofit, Tammy Herbrow, Paige Hathaway, Jen Selter, and Katya Henry to name a few.
They are naturally slim and need to work to put weight on, but their body also responds to lifting quite well.
So, why is the jackpot for gym going curve builders?
- You can eat a lot to add muscle curves to the right areas without looking fat or heavy
- When adding muscle, if you do it right (using the correct exercises), you’ll be a beautiful mix of muscles and curves and
- You don’t really need much cardio as your metabolism will keep you lean year round. I’m not saying it’s easy an street, but as a trainer of literally thousands of women, I will tell you, you have the best genetic gift to assist you with your goals. Just follow a great plan like the CURVE BUILDER PLAN and put in the work!
Cardio for the ecto-meso will vary depending on goals and how your body reacts to the cardio.
Here are some you can try:
- Sprints 5 everything you got sprints with 1-3 min rest in between each round. This will take 15-20 min to complete including rest and warm up when done properly.
- Tabata – 4 minutes HIIT – 20 seconds work and 10 seconds rest for 8 rounds. Exercises that would work well for the ecto-meso could include: glider running, clean and press, push ups, jump squats, power lunges etc. Basically, choose an exercise that is challenging cardiovascularly but will also work on muscle tone.
- Uphill work and/ or stairs – hit the great outdoors and find a hill. Try uphill sprints, uphill walking lunges, uphill frog leaps and or stair running.
How much cardio should you do?
It’s important to get the heart pumping daily, with brisk walks and or your regular workout/ weight routine.
The above cardio exercises can be added in 1-3 times a week.
If you feel you’re losing too much weight, you can reduce the cardio or keep it and increase your calories.
Everyone is different, so you’ll have to gage what is the exact right amount for you.
Unsure where to start with all this information?
CLICK HERE & start building strong sexy curves!
Click pic above for my full nutrition and workout program!
It has all the information you need to start building those strong sexy curves!
Hope you enjoy!
Xoxo Lyzabeth
