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A number of fit women have something similar to "love handles" (not sure how to call it; see the pictures) in front of the torso near the underarms. They are visible when strapless dresses are worn.

What muscle should one work on to make them tighter? (could you give the exact name of the muscle(s) that are around this area, if possible?) What would be the best exercise(s) to do so?

Edit: this happens to fairly skinny women with no "love handles" around the tummy whatsoever, so I presume it's not the excess weight problem.

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Yulia V
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It's certainly not an excess weight problem, but a fat distribution problem. Each body distributes fat in different places. Many women accumulate fat on the breasts.

There is some relatively recent research that indicates that you might be able to lose more fat in specific places under specific conditions - but you still need to be losing fat overall. So if you are at a good overall fat level, but accumulate fat there, then it is really complicated to lose that without surgery.

You can strengthen the underlying muscles (with chest exercises in this case), but that won't make the fat to be "more solid".

  • Could you give the exact name of the muscle(s) that are around this area, if possible? – Yulia V Aug 06 '21 at 10:48
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    See a body map: https://www.healthline.com/human-body-maps/muscular-system#1 Pectoralis major, and Serratus anterior behind –  Aug 06 '21 at 10:53
  • BTW why do you think it's fat? The basic method of measuring the fat thickness - the pinch test - gives the same "thickness" of fat in the area I am inquiting about and in the other, "tight fitting" areas, in my case at least. My BMI is 20.1, so I don't think the excess fat is amongst my problems, and so are for the ladies on the photos :) – Yulia V Aug 06 '21 at 11:13
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    Because it's either the skin (dermis/epidermis) or the subcutaneous adipose tissue, which is fat and connective tissue. Below that there is either muscle or organs and visceral fat with some small exceptions (like the sexual organs, for example) https://www.healthline.com/health/subcutaneous-tissue#vs-subcutaneous-fat https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28128075/

    And, as I said in the answer, it's not necessarily EXCESS fat, it's just fat where you don't like it. And that's a really tough problem to solve. Just exercising the underlying muscle won't make that specific fat go away or solidify

     –  Aug 06 '21 at 19:54
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    And as a side note, I personally see nothing wrong with how that looks, and I think those ladies in the pictures agree with me or they would have used a different dress. Many times it's how we feel about something that's the problem, not the thing in itself. –  Aug 07 '21 at 08:33