Know your body
High Hip Dips: Why the Dip Right Under Your Waist Is the Trainable Kind
High hip dips are indentations sitting just under the waist, caused by a vertically tall pelvis with a high iliac crest. They're the most training-responsive type: the gluteus medius covers most of that zone, so 8 weeks of targeted work visibly softens them. They also correlate with the long-legged, high-hip silhouette.
Quiz-takers who land on “high-hip dip” get told it’s the most trainable kind. This is the page that explains why — and why the same skeleton giving you the dip is giving you proportions people pay stylists to fake.
The tall-pelvis signature
Run a finger from your lowest rib to your hip bone: short distance = high iliac crest = tall pelvis. That geometry does three things at once — pushes your visible waist up, stretches the span where dips form, and parks the dip high, just under the waistline. Same reading, three outputs. (It’s also the anatomy inside the “hip dips make you taller” meme — the joke is directionally right.)
Why “high” = “trainable”
The gluteus medius is a fan: thick and fleshy near the top of the pelvis, tapering as it descends toward the femur. A high dip sits under the thick part of the fan — so every gram of muscle you add lands precisely where the shadow lives. This is the variant where the honest 8-week arc shows its best-case results, and the reason the Protocol’s realistic-results gallery separates outcomes by dip type.
Styling notes for the high-dip build
Your dip is close to the waist, so waistband placement decides everything: rises that end at the dip crease into it; rises that clear it bridge it. Ultra-high-rise is your friend; mid-rise is the saboteur. Belts sit high naturally on you — use them to declare the waist and let everything below read as intentional curve. Full playbook in the styling guide.
The reframe worth keeping
High hip dips are a tall pelvis wearing a trend-cycle nickname. Same skeleton, two headlines: “flaw” on one app, “model proportions” in every casting office. Train it if you want the softer line — you’ve got the best odds in the club — and either way, keep the second headline.
Real questions, real answers
What causes high hip dips specifically?
A tall pelvis: your iliac crest sits high, lengthening the span between waist and trochanter. The dip lands high in that span, right where the gluteus medius is thickest — which is the lucky part.
Are high hip dips easier to train than low ones?
Generally yes. High dips sit over the meat of the glute med, so added muscle shows up exactly where the shadow was. Low dips near the trochanter sit over thinner coverage — training still helps, but the ceiling is lower.
Do high hip dips mean high hips?
Usually — same skeleton reading. A high iliac crest is what makes the waist look short and the legs look long: the proportions fashion casting has hunted for decades. Your dip and your leg-line have the same cause.
Train it — honestly
The 8-Week Protocol: glute med & side-line training, 3×/week at home. Bones stay bones — muscle rounds the curve. $39, yours forever.
Start the Protocol