Lindsay: Welcome to the Lifting Lindsay podcast.
Today we are gonna be having i, I can't call it fast fit Tip Friday.
'cause you just don't know with me how short or long this is going to be.
Right.
A lot of times I'm like, oh, this will take me 15 minutes and then
15 minutes later I'm like, man, I really need to wrap this up.
Earlier today I was recording an episode on decision Fatigue and
it was so funny to me because, um.
I thought for sure it'd be like a 15 minute episode, and it wasn't
until my cat walked in and was like whining for attention and meowing and
purring that I had to like wrap it up.
But, um, I do want to talk today about this idea of snatching your waist.
So.
I have this love hate relationship with the new trend that we're seeing.
Well, it's not new.
It's, it's, it's existed for a while, but I feel like everybody
is now seeing how well it does.
And so they're all hopping on board.
Um, and that is this trend of you take somebody's video and
then you give a reaction to it.
Oftentimes what fitness influencers will do is they, or even
fitness educators, they will.
Watch this video of somebody giving really bad advice and then they,
will kind of give a reaction to it.
Now, I have a love-hate relationship with these types of posts because
I think that it can be done well.
I think that it's important for us to talk about misinformation out there.
I also think it's really important that we don't become a part of a toxic environment
that oftentimes these can create.
So oftentimes I will see influencers who, are, in my opinion, rather
childish in their approach.
They're very emotional.
Uh, they bully and they shame people.
So it's no longer about the information.
They discuss the information, but then they start shaming the person.
I can't stand that actually.
It's not my cup of tea.
I feel like.
It's important that we take an opportunity to correct misinformation
but not at the expense of others.
And some people are like, well, they have millions of followers,
they can deal with it, or whatever.
I'm like, you know, maybe it's 'cause I'm a mom.
Maybe it's because, I have like this belief in goodness and kindness,
but I just don't wanna spread that.
I just don't.
So.
Today I'm going to, this is, this is my attempt to kind of counter some of that,
um, and talk about the information and not the person, because I was really
shocked the other day when I looked around Instagram and saw so many women,
uh, talking about this is how you snatch your waist, so snatching your waist.
For those of you who don't know what that is, a snatched waist is when
you have this like really tiny waist.
So it's this idea of giving yourself an hourglass look.
We're gonna actually dive a little bit deeper into this.
I kind of wish it was a YouTube video.
I.
I kind of wish I did YouTube, but it just takes so much time to, and, and I
can't like, dress in my pajamas for that.
So that's usually why I stick to podcasting.
How somebody looks this hourglass waist, there's so many things that.
Need to line up for this and in like a good part of it too is genetics.
And so we're just gonna talk about this.
So if you look up snatching your waist, oftentimes you will get somebody
who has beautiful, this beautiful hourglass look with really low body
fat percentage, and they'll be teaching like, these are the two, three exercises
that quote unquote snatched my waist.
And that's not a thing.
So we know that we can't spot reduce, right?
But a lot of times what they're referring to is deeper than spot reduction.
So.
It's usually they actually believe if I work my abs in such a way, then even when
I'm not consciously contracting them and squeezing them in that I've worked them in
in such this magical fairy dust way that.
My waist will just always be small, even if I haven't lost body fat, even if
I'm not consciously contracting my abs.
So yeah, so that's not a thing.
That is not a thing.
And when people say that either they think that causation, they've
misconstrued causation and correlation.
So a woman decides she wants to snatch her waist.
So she sees these exercises that these other women with quote unquote snatched
waists have, and they say you need to do.
So she simultaneously, because this other account also says, you
know, you need to lose body fat.
So simultaneously she starts into a calorie deficit and at the same
time she starts these new exercises.
Well, at the bottom of her cut, she's like, wow, I have this
quote unquote snatched waist.
Those exercises worked.
Little did she know that it wasn't necessarily those exercises,
it was the calorie deficit that reduced the body fat on her.
So now she can actually, she looks leaner, uh, quote unquote toned more it.
And that was from the reduction that was from the calorie deficit,
the reduction in body fat.
Not from those specific exercises, but if you don't know very
much, you can mis correlate.
You can say, oh, it's because of those exercises.
And then if, if you decide you wanna start an Instagram account,
what are you gonna teach?
You're going, look at what happened to me.
This is how I snatched my waist, and you're gonna really believe it.
So there's those people that really believe it.
Then there are those people who know better.
They know it was the calorie deficit that got 'em there.
They know it wasn't this magical exercise.
But they also know through trial and error that if they post
that it was the calorie deficit.
That's not gonna get as many likes as if they say snatch your waist
in 14 days with this exercise.
I mean, I can tell you from personal experience of spending my time staying
away from those types of trendy and misleading, uh, sales pitches.
You are not going to get as many likes.
You're not gonna get as many views.
Realness usually doesn't.
It's not sexy, it's not fast, it's not easy, but it's real.
Right?
So it, it's just unfortunate.
So then what, what does contribute to this snatched waste?
We talked about body fat percentage, but I do think it's also important
that we talk about the genetics of the individual as well.
Um, some individuals, they have that hourglass figure because they
actually have, um, wider hips too.
And then if you couple that with larger breasts, you are going
to have an hourglass figure.
And when you drop body fat, it's going to be more and more prominent.
But, but there are individuals who their pelvis is far narrower.
Mine is that way.
It's, it's narrow.
I can't just drop body fat and look like I have this hourglass.
, This is where genetics really comes in.
I'm just not gonna have that look to the degree that others who are promising.
I'll get you that.
Look.
Let's just, um, you know, do.
More like lateral leg raises, not understanding that this
isn't a matter of muscle, this is a matter of bone structure.
So they're like, well, you can have that hourglass if you just
do more lateral leg, leg raises.
Plus we'll snatch your waist.
No, that's not a thing.
There's still bone structure, body fat deposit.
Even the, the size of our muscle and there's there, yes, we can control
the size of our muscle to a degree.
We can control how much body fat we lose, but there are things
that are beyond our control.
So this is why two women doing the same exact training program.
Who even if they lose the exact same amount of body fat and put on the same
exact amount of muscle, will still have vastly different looks as far as what that
looks on them and their bone structure.
'cause like I said, we have bone structure and we also have even just
origin and attachment sites, and that can change the way the muscle looks.
So I've talked about this extensively on, uh, Instagram and I give some really,
really good examples of, look, even if I, I can't actually physically get
a 24 inch waist even at my smallest.
Well, I actually think I, my smallest was like a 24 and a half, but next to
somebody with really wide hips and a 24 and a half, or even a 25 or 26 inch
waist, they will still look like they have this hourglass far more than me.
And that has to do with bone structure.
So I, I really wanted to do this episode because I wanna remind you that your
genetics are your own and you literally cannot compare to other people.
I also wanna remind you that for those of you who don't know, educate you, for
those of you do know and need a reminder that you can't snatch your waist.
Okay?
So there really are not these exercises that as soon as you do
them, they just naturally, um.
Change and without any contraction or squeezing your abs, you just
have this now smaller waist.
It, it, it actually doesn't work that way.
Even those, uh, bikini competitors, when they step up on stage, talk to
'em afterwards, they spend extensive amounts of time working on flexing
and posing, and it's exhausting.
It is work up there.
They're not just standing there relaxed, being like, look at me.
They are up there trying to flex and move in a way that keeps everything
flexed and their waist tight, and they are engaging and bringing in
their core as much as they can.
Um, they are not up there just totally fully relaxed.
A lot of times we think that they are and we compare to that or we compare to people
who found just the right gym lighting are.
Not only sucking in their waist, but also engaging their core.
And they have a smile on their face and they're like, oh, look at me.
You can get this too.
And, and they actually look quite different when they relax and
they're not under that same lighting.
Or maybe by the end of the day they've eaten enough and their
waste is now holding more food and doesn't look like that.
And we compare our worst to their photo best.
So today's just a reminder to you that you have your own genetics.
Two people will do the exact same workout and it will turn out different for both
of them, and you cannot snatch your waist.
A lot of these exercises that people are doing on apps.
They will strengthen your abs so that when you flex, you may be able to bring
it in a little bit more when you flex.
Okay?
That's really, really important.
It's not just you walking around, not flexing and, but yet you have like
two inch smaller waist because you did these magic exercises that don't exist.,
Another thing too is let's just talk about ABS for a minute here.
If you really want to build your abs muscles and hypertrophy them, you have
to remember that at one point you will have to start putting them under weight.
So that's why we do things like cable crunches, um, so that we can
start progressing and progressively overloading them, putting more and
more weight on them to build them.
Now.
Hypertrophy is to make bigger.
So if you want to build out your six pack so it looks bigger, keep in mind
that is going to increase waist size.
But some people are like, I don't care about the waist size.
I care just about the look.
I really want the look so.
If you really want to see your six pack, it still comes down to nutrition.
You still have to drop, uh, into a calorie deficit to be able
to see a reduction in body fat.
And your body genetically will just determine what, where it takes
it off from first, whether that's arms, whether it's butt, whether
it's boobs, whether it's abs.
Your body has this genetic map.
That it just decides where it's gonna take from first.
That's important to understand because maybe the level that you want to see of
your abs isn't gonna happen in 12 weeks.
Um, maybe it's after a few rounds, fat loss rounds, and then you can see it.
Also building out your abs will allow you to see them better
at higher body fat percentages.
That's really important to understand is if you don't want to stay as lean
around your stomach, sometimes we can.
Um, and maybe it's a little mix of both.
It's building out the six pack so it's a little bit more predominant
and you can see it at a little bit higher body fat percentage.
Okay.
Maybe it's a know you like the size of your.
Abdominal muscles, and now you just want to see them more than you're
gonna have to drop your body fat.
Okay?
So there's just kind of these different elements that oftentimes aren't
fully discussed on social media.
Instead, people pull you in with great genetics and little information and
falsify information and use words like snatching your waist without
giving the full context of look.
What might give somebody the look they want could actually
be just lowering calories.
What could give somebody else the look they want is no, you
actually have to build and lower.
Uh, so you just have to be more cautious of the people that you follow.
It is a huge red flag when they're saying things like snatching your waist.
Now, I used to believe in, well, I have people that I follow
that they're just like, my goal.
And I have people that I follow, that I get my information from, and I never
get my information from the goal people.
And it got to a point in my life where I just like cut out the
goal people because I realized we don't have the same genetics.
So I'm chasing their body looking at them as a goal.
There.
I didn't realize it until later that I was holding myself to a standard
or kind of holding them up as the standard, but in a way, because they
didn't have the same genetics as me, it was like I was always chasing
something that, and it was fueling this.
You'll never be satisfied until.
And it, it wasn't until I finally let that go and unfollowed him and just focused on
me and my genetics that I felt, honestly, I started having a healthier approach
because I was just focusing on me.
My genetics and what I can do now, if you, if you can do that while
following these people, that's great.
I, I couldn't, I noticed that it was sneaking in and I was holding myself to
a standard that it wasn't healthy for me.
So just, just throwing it out there that, that's something
that you might be aware of.
Anyways, I really hope that this episode has helped, and if you have any questions,
please don't hesitate to send me a dm.
On Instagram, follow me there at Lifting Lindsey.
You can also join me in my community at be Strong dot lifting lindsey.com
where we have training programs, recipes lives with me, um, and I really
do love getting to know you guys and helping you all achieve your goals.
You guys have a wonderful week.