Pear-Shaped Body Exercises & Diet: Transform Your Shape | Legion

Most guides to the best pear body shape exercises recommend prioritizing movements that specifically train your hips, thighs, and butt, like glute kickbacks, leg extensions, and cable abductions.

The thinking is that these exercises will burn fat in those areas, helping you achieve a more balanced physique.

To maximize the fat-burning and muscle-building effects of strength training, focus on the following:

You can use many exercises to reshape a pear-shaped body, but the following seven will get the job done quickest.

These exercises work so well because they train multiple muscle groups simultaneously, allow you to lift heavy weights, and make getting stronger straightforward, all of which makes them ideal for building full-body muscle and burning calories—vital components for pear-shaped body weight loss. 

Add the following exercises to your routine, and watch your pear shape change. 

Why: The squat is the king of compound exercises. It trains several major muscle groups throughout the body, including the quads, hamstrings, glutes, core, and back, lets you train with heavy weights safely, and makes progressing simple. And that’s why every good workout for a pear-shaped body should include the squat.

How:

1. Position a barbell in a squat rack at about the height of your nipples. 
2. Step under the bar, pinch your shoulder blades together, and rest the bar above the bony ridges on the bottom of your shoulder blades. 
3. Lift the bar out of the rack, take 1-to-2 steps backward, and place your feet a little wider than shoulder-width apart with your toes pointing slightly outward. 
4. Keeping your back straight, sit down and push your knees out in the same direction as your toes.
5. Stand up and return to the starting position.

Why: Walking lunges not only train your entire lower body but also engage your core and abs, as these muscles have to work hard to stabilize your body with each step. The dynamic nature of the exercises also increases calorie burn, making walking lunges an excellent exercise for promoting pear-shaped body weight loss.

How: 

1. Holding a dumbbell in each hand, stand with your feet hip-width apart.
2. Take a long step forward with your right foot—about 2-to-3 feet. Bend both knees until your left knee touches the floor. 
3. Push through your right foot to stand back up, bringing your left foot forward alongside your right foot.
4. Repeat the movement, stepping forward with your left foot.

Why: The deadlift is another top-tier pear-shaped body exercise because it trains every muscle on the back of your body (and many others besides) and lets you lift the heaviest weights of any movement. This makes it ideal for gaining strength, building muscle, and torching fat.

How: 

1. Stand with your feet about hip-width apart with your toes pointed slightly out. 
2. Move a loaded barbell over your midfoot, so it’s about an inch from your shins.
3. Take a deep breath into your belly, then place your hands on the bar just outside your shins with your palms facing you.
4. Flatten your back and drive your body upward and slightly back until you’re standing up straight.
5. Reverse the movement and return to the starting position.

Why: The Romanian deadlift trains the same muscles as the regular deadlift but is less taxing on your body, so you can do it in another workout a few days after performing the regular deadlift. Deadlifting twice weekly is beneficial because it likely increases muscle growth, strength gain, and fat loss, so it’s an effective way to boost weight loss. 

How: 

1. Stand up straight holding a loaded barbell with a shoulder-width, overhand grip (palms facing you).
2. Flatten your back and lower the weights toward the floor in a straight line while keeping your legs mostly straight, allowing your butt to move backward as you descend. 
3. Once you feel a stretch in your hamstrings, bend your knees slightly more and continue lowering the weights until your lower back begins to round. 
4. Reverse the movement and return to the starting position.

Why: The bench press is a key exercise to include in your pear-shaped body workouts because it builds muscle throughout your upper body. Gaining upper body muscle helps balance out a bottom-heavy pear-shaped physique, creating a more proportional look. 

How: 

1. Lie on a flat bench and place your feet flat on the floor. 
2. Pull your shoulder blades together and down, and without lifting your butt or shoulders off the bench, slightly arch your back. 
3. Grab the bar with a slightly wider than shoulder-width grip and unrack the barbell.
4. Lower the barbell to your chest, keeping your elbows tucked 6-to-8 inches from your sides.
5. Press the bar back to the starting position.

Why: The overhead press trains your shoulders, triceps, and upper back while also engaging your core and abs to stabilize your body. This makes it perfect for building balanced upper body muscle, which helps offset a pear-shaped frame and aids weight loss by increasing overall calorie burn.

How: 

1. Set a barbell in a rack at the same height as your upper chest. 
2. Grip the bar with a shoulder-width grip and your palms facing away from you.
3. Unrack the barbell, step backward, and plant your feet just outside of shoulder width.
4. Push the bar toward the ceiling until your arms are straight.
5. Reverse the movement and return to the starting position.

Now that you know the best way to change your pear shape is through weight loss, it’s important to understand the role of diet.

While the exercises above help by building muscle and burning calories, your diet plays an even more critical role in changing your pear shape.

Fortunately, losing weight (and your pear shape) isn’t as tricky as many believe. Here’s a simple three-step process to make it easier:

The best supplements to boost pear-shaped body weight loss are:

The main cause of a pear-shaped body is excess body fat, though hormones and genetics also play a part. If you tend to carry weight around your hips, butt, and thighs, there’s a good chance your genes and hormones direct fat to accumulate there. However, remember that fat gain only happens if you eat more calories than you burn. In other words, while genetics and hormones influence where fat goes, a calorie surplus is what causes fat gain in the first place.

Losing weight as a pear-shaped person isn’t necessarily harder, but shedding fat from your hips, thighs, and butt can be more challenging. Estrogen encourages fat storage in these areas, making them the first place fat sticks and the last to slim down when you lose weight. However, maintaining a calorie deficit through diet and exercise will cause you to lose fat, even in these stubborn spots.