How to Get a Small Waist & Big Shoulders

Refining Your Waist Line

• 1

  Cut your calorie intake. If your waist is big and bulky, it's usually because you're carrying too much fat. Lower your daily calorie intake to burn this fat and streamline your waist. If you're currently maintaining your weight, lower your calories by 500 per day.

• 2

  Avoid lots of heavy abdominal work, particularly for the muscles at your sides -- the obliques. Skip exercises such as dumbbell or kettlebell side bends, or weighted side planks and Russian twists. If these muscles grow, they can make your waist look blocky.

• 3

  Perform stabilization core exercises, such as planks or rollouts, on a stability ball or ab wheel. While they can increase in size, your abdominals are a relatively thin layer of muscle, so don't have the growth potential of other muscles, according to strength coach Craig Ballantyne. Strengthen your core with these exercises to help you hold correct posture and make your waist look slimmer.

• 4

  Take weekly progress pictures to judge how you're getting on. If you hit a plateau and your shape isn't changing, reduce your daily calorie intake by 50 to 100 calories, or add two 20-minute cardio sessions each week. When you think your waist is at the size you want it, it's time to start building some boulder shoulders.

Shocking the Shoulders

• 5

  Increase your calories. You cut calories do burn fat and reduce your waist, so now you need to increase them to build muscle and bulk up your shoulders. Add 500 calories to what you're currently on and aim to gain around half a pound per week. If you gain more than this, reduce your intake by 100, as the added weight gain is likely fat.

• 6

  Train your shoulders as part of an upper-body session three times per week, with 48 hours between workouts.

• 7

  Start each session with an overhead press exercise. This could be done seated or standing and with dumbbells, a barbell or even on a machine if you prefer. Whatever version you choose, start each rep with your hands at neck height and push up forcefully until your arms are completely straight, then lower back down. Complete five sets of eight repetitions.

• 8

  Move to a shoulder superset next. Trainer Eric Broser of "Iron Man Magazine" recommends a pairing of seated lateral raises and barbell upright rows. For the lateral raises, perch on a weight bench with a dumbbell in either hand and arms at your sides. Lift the dumbbells up and out to the sides until they're in line with your shoulders, before lowering again. Use a controlled tempo and complete 12 to 15 reps, then go immediately to upright rows.

• 9

  Stand up and grab a barbell with a slightly wider than shoulder-width grip. Start with your hands at thigh height then lift the barbell up to just above your nipple line, keeping wrists, elbows and shoulders level. Take one second to lift and one second to lower. Complete 10 reps, rest for 60 seconds then go back to lateral raises and perform three more supersets.

• 10

  Add two back exercises into every upper-body session. Wider lat muscles will make your shoulders look much bigger and accentuate your small waist. Coach Chad Howse recommends lat pull-downs, chin-ups and bent over rows variations. Pick two moves and perform each for five sets of eight to 10 reps.

• 11

  Bump up your reps or increase the weights you're lifting each week. Getting bigger requires progressive overload on the muscles. If your shoulders aren't growing, you're either not training hard enough, not eating enough calories, or possibly both.