No. Hip dips are created by the shape of your pelvis and your femur, and no amount of training changes bone. What training can change is the muscle and fat sitting over that structure, and the evidence there is far thinner than the internet suggests.
If you have searched this before, you have been told to squat, lunge and do side leg raises. That advice is aimed at one muscle in particular. That muscle has never been shown to grow from any programme that has actually been tested on people.
Below is what has been measured, what has not, and what your training can honestly change about the shape of your butt.
What hip dips actually are
A hip dip is the inward curve on the side of your hip, between the top of your pelvis and the top of your thigh bone. It is a feature of normal skeletal anatomy, not a defect and not a sign that anything has gone wrong.
Two bony landmarks set it. The iliac crest is the ridge you feel when you put your hands on your hips. The greater trochanter is the bump at the top of your femur, lower and further out. Between them there is no bone, only soft tissue. That span is where the dip appears.
How wide that span looks is largely a matter of proportions you were born with. The bones under your butt vary more between people than most of us assume. A CT study of 628 healthy hips measured the relevant numbers directly. Femoral offset, the sideways distance from the centre of the hip joint to the shaft of the femur, averaged 42.9 mm with a standard deviation of 6.8 mm. The neck shaft angle averaged 124.7 degrees, with a standard deviation of 6.2 degrees. Women in that sample had more valgus and more anteverted hips than men [7].
Those spreads matter. They mean two women of the same height, the same body fat and the same butt size can have visibly different hip outlines, for reasons that were settled before either of them touched a barbell.
On top of the bone sit gluteus medius and gluteus minimus, then a layer of fat, then skin that tethers down over the trochanter. Every one of those layers affects how deep the dip reads. Only two of them respond to anything you do in a gym.
This article is about the side profile. If you came here about the shape you see from directly behind, that is a different question with different evidence, and we covered it in the piece on rear glute shape.
Key takeaway
Hip dips are set by where your pelvis and femur sit relative to each other. That spacing is skeletal. Nothing you do in the gym changes it.
Why the standard advice exists
The advice to squat and do side leg raises exists because the muscle covering a hip dip is gluteus medius, and building up a muscle that sits over a gap sounds like it should fill the gap. If you want a rounder butt on the side view, build the muscle on the side view. It is a reasonable idea. Reasonable is not the same as tested.
Gluteus medius is the largest hip abductor, roughly 60 percent of the total cross sectional area of the abductor group, and it is one of 21 muscles that cross the hip [4]. It sits high and to the outside, exactly where the dip is. So far the anatomy supports the theory.
Where it stops supporting the theory is the leap from location to result. A muscle being in the right place tells you nothing about whether a given exercise will make it bigger, and nothing about whether making it bigger would change the outline of your butt from the side. Those are separate claims, and each one needs its own evidence.
The myth
Squats, lunges and side leg raises fill in hip dips. Repeated everywhere, tested nowhere. The mechanism sounds right, which is exactly why it spread without anyone checking it.
The anatomy itself is also less settled than it looks. A systematic review of gluteus medius, minimus and tensor fascia lata found real diversity between people and not enough data to say whether these muscles have distinct compartments at all [8]. The muscle everyone tells you to target has not been fully described.
What has actually been measured
Three training studies have measured gluteus medius and minimus size directly with MRI scans. None of them found the growth the standard advice promises, and none of them tested loaded hip abduction, the one pattern that actually loads the muscle through its main job.
Nine weeks of squats or hip thrusts, 34 untrained adults
Participants were randomised to barbell back squat or barbell hip thrust, 18 in one group and 16 in the other, and trained under supervision for nine weeks. Muscle cross sectional area was measured by MRI at the start and at the end [1].
Gluteus maximus grew. Upper, middle and lower regions all increased, and the two exercises produced similar results. For gluteus medius and minimus, the authors wrote that the muscles demonstrated little to no growth.
That is the headline finding, and it is the authors’ own wording, not a summary of ours.
The science, honestly
Two limitations belong next to that finding. Gluteus medius and minimus were measured at a single transverse slice, taken at the level of the upper gluteus maximus, and the two muscles were grouped together because their borders were poorly delineated. A single slice through a fan shaped muscle is a limited measure. There was also no untrained control group. Both arms trained.
This is why the honest reading is not that the muscle cannot grow. It is that nobody has measured it properly, using an exercise built to load it.
Twelve weeks of targeted gluteal training, 27 people with hip osteoarthritis
This trial compared a targeted gluteal resistance programme against a sham programme, with MRI at both ends. Gluteus minimus volume increased in the targeted group, by a pooled mean difference of 0.06 cubic centimetres per kilogram, 95 percent confidence interval 0.01 to 0.11. Gluteus medius, gluteus maximus and tensor fascia lata did not change significantly [2].
Two things to hold onto. The participants had radiologically confirmed mild to moderate hip osteoarthritis, so they were patients, not healthy trainees, and muscle behaves differently in a joint that hurts. And hip strength improved in both groups, including the sham group, which is a useful reminder that feeling stronger is not proof a muscle got bigger.
Nine months of Pilates, 12 inactive women
Twelve inactive women, average age about 36, trained twice a week for 36 weeks. MRI at the start and end found no significant change in the volume of gluteus maximus, gluteus medius or gluteus minimus [3].
The sample is small and Pilates is not heavy loading, so this does not close the question. It does show that low load work over a very long period did not move these muscles.
What is missing
Put those three together and the picture is not that gluteus medius refuses to grow. It is that the exercise everybody recommends has never been tested.
Here is where the evidence runs out
No trial has tested loaded hip abduction for gluteus medius growth in a healthy population. That is a gap in the literature, not proof that the muscle cannot respond. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Anyone who tells you abduction work definitely fills hip dips, and anyone who tells you gluteus medius definitely cannot grow, is going further than the data allows.
So does abduction work fill them in?
Nobody knows, because it has not been tested. Loaded hip abduction is the only common training pattern that loads gluteus medius through its main action, which makes it the most reasonable bet available. A reasonable bet is not a result, and we are not going to sell it to you as one.
The mechanical case is decent. Gluteus medius abducts the hip. Squats, lunges and hip thrusts are hip extension movements, so they load gluteus maximus heavily and ask little of the abductors. Side leg raises do use abduction, but against the weight of one leg, which does not go up over time.
Imaging work on living people adds a little. Using diffusion tensor imaging, researchers found that within gluteus maximus itself, capacity for hip abduction appeared to be greatest in the upper region, while capacity for extension and external rotation tended to be greatest in the lower region [5]. The authors hedged deliberately, using appeared and tended, and we are keeping their hedging. One striking detail: the lower outer region actually produced a negative abduction value, meaning those fibres pull toward adduction.
There is also decent evidence that muscles can grow unevenly along their length, and that where they grow follows where they were worked. In a 12 week study of the elbow extensors, the regions that were most activated in the training session were the regions that grew most [11]. That supports the principle that loading a muscle in its own action matters. It was measured in the triceps of 12 young men, not in anyone’s butt, and it does not transfer automatically.
If you want to load abduction properly, the machine is the only common tool that lets you add weight week after week. We wrote up how to set that machine up separately.
Coach’s tip
Train abduction because it is an under trained movement pattern with real function behind it, and because progressive load is available on the machine. Train it on those grounds. Do not train it as a hip dip cure, because no study has shown it is one.
What training reliably does change
Gluteus maximus grows from resistance training, reliably and measurably. That changes the shape of your butt and the contour above and behind the dip. It does not fill the dip.
A 2025 systematic review and meta analysis pooled 11 studies and found a moderate effect of resistance training on gluteus maximus growth, with a standardised mean difference of 0.71, 95 percent confidence interval 0.50 to 0.91 [6]. That is a real, repeatable finding, and it is the single most solid number in this article.
It is also a gluteus maximus finding, full stop. It does not extend to gluteus medius or minimus, and anyone quoting it as though it does is misreading it.
There is one useful detail buried in the nine week squat and hip thrust trial. The upper region of gluteus maximus was measured separately, and it grew [1]. Upper gluteus maximus sits above and behind the dip rather than in it. So training does change the shape around that area. It changes the contour, not the indentation.
For getting that growth, the movement patterns matter more than the exercise names. We laid out the full case in the guide to training the whole glute, and compared the two most common loaded hip extension options in bridge versus hip thrust.
What about body fat?
Fat over the hips and thighs is metabolically more passive than abdominal fat and functions mainly as long term storage [10]. This pattern is one of the clearest differences between male and female fat distribution [9]. In practice it changes slowly, and it is rarely the first fat to go.
Losing body fat also tends to make bone structure more visible, not less. For a feature created by the space between two bones, getting leaner often makes it read more clearly.
How to judge whether it is working
Judge it by the things that actually move. Load on the bar, reps at a given weight, and how well your hips handle the work. The mirror is the worst available measure for a feature that is set by bone.
Three markers worth tracking:
- Load and reps in your main hip extension lift. This is where gluteus maximus growth comes from, and it is the one outcome with a solid evidence base behind it.
- Load on the abduction machine over months. If gluteus medius does respond to loading, progressive load is the condition it would need. Nobody has proven the result, but this is the input that would matter.
- Whether you can hold a level pelvis on one leg. That is a function test, not a size test, and it is what the abductors do all day.
What is not worth tracking is week to week photographs of your hips looking for the dip to close. There is no evidence that it will, no timeline anyone can honestly give you, and checking daily for a change nobody has demonstrated is a bad way to spend your training life.
The bottom line
You cannot train away a hip dip, because it is bone. You can build a bigger, stronger butt, and the evidence for that is solid. Abduction work is worth doing for its own reasons. Just nobody, including us, can tell you it will fill in the dip, because nobody has tested it.
Frequently asked questions
Can you get rid of hip dips permanently?
No. The dip sits over the space between your pelvis and the top of your thigh bone, and that spacing is skeletal. Training changes the muscle and fat on your butt, not the shape of bone. You can change the contour around it, but the underlying structure stays exactly as it is.
Do squats get rid of hip dips?
No study has shown that they do. In a nine week MRI trial, squats and hip thrusts both grew the gluteus maximus, but the authors described gluteus medius and minimus as showing little to no growth. Squats build your butt. They have not been shown to change hip dips.
What causes hip dips?
The space between the top of your pelvis and the greater trochanter of your femur. How wide that space reads depends on pelvic width, the length and angle of your femoral neck, and how fat and skin sit over the bone. All of it is normal anatomical variation.
Are hip dips a sign of weak glutes?
No. There is no evidence connecting hip dips to gluteal weakness. Strong, well trained lifters have them and untrained people often do not. The feature is skeletal, so your strength tells you about your training, not about the shape of your pelvis.
Will building muscle make my hip dips less visible?
It may change the shape around them. Gluteus maximus grows reliably from resistance training, and a bigger butt changes the contour above and behind the dip. Whether that makes the dip read as less obvious varies between people, and no study has measured it. Nobody can promise you that outcome.
Do hip dips mean I am doing something wrong in the gym?
No. Hip dips are not caused by bad programming, bad technique, or a missing exercise. If you have been adding clamshells and side leg raises hoping to close them, you followed advice that was never tested for that purpose. That is not a mistake you made.
How long does it take to change the look of my hips?
For the dip itself there is no answer, because no study has measured it. For gluteus maximus size, training trials usually run eight to twelve weeks and find measurable growth in that window. Anyone quoting you a timeline for hip dips is guessing.
Does losing body fat get rid of hip dips?
Usually the opposite. Fat over the hips and thighs is long term storage and shifts slowly. Losing body fat tends to make the underlying bone structure more visible rather than less, so for many people the dip becomes more defined as they get leaner, not less.
References
- Plotkin DL, Rodas MA, Vigotsky AD, McIntosh MC, Breeze E, Ubrik R, et al. Hip thrust and back squat training elicit similar gluteus muscle hypertrophy and transfer similarly to the deadlift. Front Physiol. 2023;14:1279170. doi:10.3389/fphys.2023.1279170
- Rostron ZPJ, Zacharias A, Semciw AI, Kingsley M, Pizzari T, Woodley SJ, et al. Effects of a targeted resistance intervention compared to a sham intervention on gluteal muscle hypertrophy, fatty infiltration and strength in people with hip osteoarthritis: analysis of secondary outcomes from a randomised clinical trial. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2022;23(1):944. doi:10.1186/s12891-022-05907-4
- Dorado C, Lopez-Gordillo A, Serrano-Sanchez JA, Calbet JAL, Sanchis-Moysi J. Hypertrophy of lumbopelvic muscles in inactive women: a 36-week Pilates study. Sports Health. 2020;12(6):547-551. doi:10.1177/1941738120918381
- Neumann DA. Kinesiology of the hip: a focus on muscular actions. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2010;40(2):82-94. doi:10.2519/jospt.2010.3025
- Takahashi K, Kawama R, Wakahara T. End-divergent architecture diversifies within-muscle mechanical action in human gluteus maximus in vivo. J Biomech. 2025;179:112488. doi:10.1016/j.jbiomech.2024.112488
- Krause Neto W, Krause TLV, Gama EF. The impact of resistance training on gluteus maximus hypertrophy: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Front Physiol. 2025;16:1542334. doi:10.3389/fphys.2025.1542334
- Carmona M, Tzioupis C, LiArno S, Faizan A, Argenson JN, Ollivier M. Upper femur anatomy depends on age and gender: a three-dimensional computed tomography comparative bone morphometric analysis of 628 healthy patients’ hips. J Arthroplasty. 2019;34(10):2487-2493. doi:10.1016/j.arth.2019.05.036
- Flack NA, Nicholson HD, Woodley SJ. A review of the anatomy of the hip abductor muscles, gluteus medius, gluteus minimus, and tensor fascia lata. Clin Anat. 2012;25(6):697-708. doi:10.1002/ca.22004
- Karastergiou K, Smith SR, Greenberg AS, Fried SK. Sex differences in human adipose tissues: the biology of pear shape. Biol Sex Differ. 2012;3(1):13. doi:10.1186/2042-6410-3-13
- Manolopoulos KN, Karpe F, Frayn KN. Gluteofemoral body fat as a determinant of metabolic health. Int J Obes (Lond). 2010;34(6):949-959. doi:10.1038/ijo.2009.286
- Wakahara T, Fukutani A, Kawakami Y, Yanai T. Nonuniform muscle hypertrophy: its relation to muscle activation in training session. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2013;45(11):2158-2165. doi:10.1249/MSS.0b013e3182995349
