[0:00]There's a common thing going around on the internet that if you want an hourglass that you need to be training back. But the thing is most back exercises actually work your shoulders, which if you are bulking, can make your shoulders wider, which will not help you get an hourglass figure at all.
[0:27]Hi guys, I'm Tamara Leshan and welcome to my YouTube channel if you were watching on YouTube and if you were watching on TikTok, welcome to my page. This video is going to be about how I went from an inverted triangle body shape to more of an hourglass shape. I don't think I'm quite at a complete hourglass yet, but I'm about an inch away from it. So I thought I should make this video for you guys because I've been getting a lot of questions about different things like my routine, eating and just like exercises as well. So we're going to get into all of that in this video. So to start off, I am going to go into what an inverted triangle body shape is. So an inverted triangle body shape is typically where your shoulders are wider than your hips. And so that is naturally how my body was built before I started trying to gain weight and muscle. So inverted triangle body shapes, they have wide shoulders, like a wider back and then a smaller lower body, so it's typically uneven, which can be very noticeable in certain clothing. So that was mostly my reason for wanting to gain weight in general because I didn't like how I looked in certain clothes because I just felt like you could definitely tell that my upper body was bigger than my lower body and it did not look good on me, in my opinion. So that is why I started my weight gain journey and why I also altered my routine to fill out my lower body more so that it could be more even. So these are some pictures of how my body looked before I started and I have been on a weight gain journey like many times because I gain and lose weight pretty easily. But one thing that was common when I did gain weight, I noticed that my body was still uneven because I was working my upper body just as much as my lower body. So we're also going to get into that in this video about how to keep your upper body the same size while also growing your lower body so it can even out. So to get more of an hourglass figure, the first thing you want to do is change how you train your body. Not everyone's body is the same. There is a common thing going around on the internet that if you want an hourglass, that you need to be training back. But the thing is most back exercises actually work your shoulders, which if you are bulking, can make your shoulders wider, which will not help you get an hourglass figure at all. So that is something I had to learn like on my own. I used to do back and shoulders pretty frequently. I did it twice a week and then I did my lower body three times a week. But since I already started off with a bigger upper body, my upper body was growing. And so was my lower body but my upper body was staying bigger because of the fact that I was growing it even more and it was already started off big. So because of that, you want to kind of like switch the logic, basically. So what I do currently is I do not use any type of weight for my upper body. If I do use weight, I stick to the same weight, especially if I'm bulking. Now when I'm in like a cut or a body recomp, I will try to go up in weight because that's good for toning since I am trying to lose fat. And at at that point, but for building muscle, you do not want to progressively overload for your upper body as far as like hypertrophy training. So that is a big no because when you're doing that but you're also doing your lower body, it's going to keep your body uneven. So it's not a bad thing, but if you are trying to go for a certain look, it's not a good idea. So I shifted my focus to lower body training.
[4:03]So I currently and used to have um three lower body days. Right now I have two glute days and one leg day, but that's just because I'm focusing more on my glutes right now. But before I went into the second bulk because I was in two my first one, I had gained about 20 pounds. In the second one, I've gained um about five so far. So my first bulk, I had had two leg days and one glute day. But um this time I wanted to focus more on my glutes because of the fact that I gain weight easily in my thighs. So that's why I have two glute days now and one leg day. But the overall focus is lower body, so that's just what you want to stick to when doing that. So along with focusing on lower body, that includes progressive overloading, which is what I said you don't want to do for upper body. So you basically just want to do the opposite for upper and lower body. So for upper body, you want to stick to the same weight, but for lower body, you want to make sure you increase your weight and reps because that is how you build muscle. So now getting into eating. So to build muscle, you do need to be in some type of calorie surplus. So for a calorie surplus, it can range from about 500 to a 1,000 calories extra. For my first time bulking, I was doing 1,000 calories extra and this time I'm only doing 500. I'm still seeing progress but just like less frequent as I did the first time because I'm not really in a rush this time for my bulking process because winter just started. So um I have time and it's not like I'm not at a shape that I want to be at. I am, I'm just trying to make it a some a little bit of tweaks to it basically, so. Um I would recommend anywhere between 500 to 1,000 extra calories on top of your maintenance calories. If you don't know what your maintenance calories is, I would recommend going on a calorie calculator and putting in your height, weight and age and then I think it also asks for your activity level. So once you put that in, it will tell you what your maintenance calorie is and all you want to do is add on those 500 to 1,000 extra calories and that is what number you should be eating on a daily basis. You can't build or grow muscle without being in at least a maintenance or a slight calorie surplus. So that is a very important thing for transforming your body from inverted to a hourglass. Because you do need to build your lower body. So you can always go back and forth between a bulk and a body recomp, which is what I'm doing. So you can start off with a bulk and build up muscle and you will gain a little bit of fat in that process, but then you can go into a body recomp to lose fat but keep the muscle that you just gained. So, um, let's talk about timeline. So for me personally, I gain and lose weight pretty easily, like I already said, so typically I gain about one pound to like five pounds a week, it just depends on how much I'm eating that week. And same thing with losing weight if I don't eat for like a day or two, I could lose like a couple pounds within those couple days. So, um, but for me personally, it took me about six months to get to a good um shape that I wanted. And that was six months of consistency, like I was eating how I was supposed to be, I was at the gym every day besides the weekend. And I was doing all the things I needed to be doing, basically. So that's all it took for me. I am not that tall, so obviously, for someone taller, it might take you a little bit longer or depending on like your metabolism and things like that. So, but I feel like a good timeline would be six months to a year as far as like seeing real progress and that might seem like a lot of time, but that time is going to pass regardless. So like I always tell like my clients and things like that, um, it's better to do the work now than to like have the time pass and you think about it a year later and be like, dang, I wish I would have went to the gym because I could have had my dream body by now. So, um, put in the work now so you don't have to do it later. For progress tracking, what I typically do is I take my measurements and my weight every Sunday morning, every single time I wake up. I have found that that is the most effective way to track my progress because your weight and measurements can fluctuate throughout the week. So it's best to take it on the same day around the same time. So I wake up pretty much around the same time every day, so that's why I just do it on Sundays. And because Sunday's like typically the beginning of the week before Monday, which is where my split resets. So I would recommend just picking a day, take your measurements and your weight as soon as you wake up. Don't eat anything, don't drink anything, take it as soon as you get up. That's the best time to take it. I would also recommend taking pictures and videos. So I usually take a video and picture honestly every single time before I go work out just because I wear different outfits. I would say to put on an outfit you like and retake a picture and video probably every month in that same outfit. So I recently just did my monthly outfit video today because it's been I think like four weeks almost since I started my bulk, so I redid my video and my pictures and everything. And I was looking at my progress and it was actually like pretty good, so um yeah, definitely take pictures and videos to as well, not just measurements. So I want to talk about the lifestyle changes basically as in how me reshaping my body has affected my life. So I feel like I am definitely more confident when I wear certain things, well not even certain things, just like anything. I'm definitely more confident because I feel like my body like fills out more. I'm not scared to wear like tube tops or anything like that anymore. I usually wouldn't just because I didn't like how my shoulders looked because you could definitely tell wearing a tube top that my shoulders were bigger than like everything else basically. So, but now I feel like it's less very much less noticeable. Wearing clothes, I felt better wearing clothes and then also just going out in general. I used to be like so insecure about going out and just wearing tight things. I was just like, dang, like what if someone's looking at me and just like from the back of me basically, like looking from the back and being like, oh wow, like her back is big or something like that. So, um that used to be like a I wouldn't say small insecurity, it used to be a big one. But now I'm just like looking, I look at my back and I'm like, dang, my back looks good because it looks even with everything else. Um definitely more confident.
[10:29]I feel like working out is not just always for like a health thing, like it definitely can help in other areas of your life like mentally and stuff. So the main things I wanted you guys to get from this video is to train your glutes/lower body at least two to three times a week and then don't skip upper body, but try not to do hypertrophy training for upper body. Like I was saying earlier, just either stick to a low weight or you can even do upper body Pilates. I don't think I mentioned that. So upper body Pilates is good as well. I have some videos that I follow that I just looked up on YouTube. So that is also an option. And then another thing is to be patient and be consistent. You can't see results unless you're consistent. Muscle takes time to grow. And the last thing was to take progress pictures monthly. Um for motivation reasons too. I feel like it helps with my motivation as far as like making me want to keep going to the gym to see more results. That is all I have for you guys for this video. If you have any more topics you want me to go over that are fitness related or lifestyle, just comment them down below. I will also be coming out with more videos about different body shapes, not just my body shape, because I do have information on other body shapes as well, because that is my focus for my training is reshaping any type of body shape to an hourglass shape. I also have workout programs available on my website. If you guys are interested in that, you can just click the link in the description. There is also a discount code, it is DIPSS, dips. And that is in I think you can do it in lowercase or uppercase. But that works on any workout program on my website. So make sure to check out my content on TikTok. I have a lot of short form videos on this topic as well that might be super helpful. But I hope you guys enjoyed this video. If you have any questions, you can always comment them. I will see you guys in the next video. Bye.
