Top Five Exercises for Hips, Thighs and Butt

Top Five Exercises for Hips, Thighs and Butt by Lt. Col. Bob Weinstein, USAR-Ret.
Here are five great exercises to tone and firm up the hips, thighs and butt. Most of these exercises can even be performed within the confines of a work cubicle. Imagine calling a brief time out in your cubicle “jungle” with all heads popping up and then performing a squat or some other exercise together. This may very well be as entertaining as Meerkat Manor on Animal Planet. Add some music and MTV will be calling. What a way to combine team building, having fun and it will certainly loosen up the atmosphere and reduce stress. By getting that blood flowing from all that sedentary work, it will even promote increased performance.

SQUATS

Your feet are shoulder width apart with your arms on your hips or hands together with elbows bent and your head up and upper body in a natural upright position – not the bending over forward ski position. Bend your knees to a 90-degree break making sure that your knee does not go past your big toe. Then bring your body back up to the upright position. That is one repetition.

WALKING LUNGES

Pretend you are carrying two full buckets of water to emphasize good posture of your upper body in the upright position. What I want you to do is step forward with your right foot to the point where your knees are bent at 90 degrees. Your knee of the forward leg should not go past your big toe. Pause briefly and then step all the way through with your left leg. Pause briefly. Now continue this exercise. In fact, why not just go for a walk like this? Who knows? You may strike up some interesting conversation along the way.

DIRTY DOGS
Get down on all fours with your head facing forward. You will need your visualization skills for this. Imagine it is time to take Fido around the block for those customary stops along the way. You now move up to the first tree and Fido stops and raises his leg smartly to take care of business. This is a great opportunity to mark your territory. When taking on any project or task in life, it is essential that you take ownership (= mark your territory). Now raise your right leg with the knee bent just like Fido and lower it again. That is one rep. For example, do twenty reps with the right leg, switch off, and do twenty with the left. Now here is a test question for you. Why do you want to perform the same number of reps for both legs? Hint: How would a lopsided butt look? Spare me the thought!

LEG THRUSTS
Get down on all fours facing forward. Take your right leg and thrust it straight back while holding it parallel to the ground with the toes pointed downward, then thrust the leg back to the position where you attempt to touch your chest with your knee. That is one rep. Count the rep with the straight leg position. Switch legs to work the other side. For example, do twenty reps with the right leg, then do twenty with the left. As with many of those body weight exercises there are many variations that can be performed. This is just one of them.

ALTE
ATING SIDE LEG RAISES (4-COUNT EXERCISE)
Stand with feet shoulder width apart and with bent elbows and hands together just about chest high. Now squat down to the point where your legs are at a 90-degree angle. Make sure your knee does not go past your big toe. Here’s the 4-count: ONE, squat to 90 degrees; TWO, lift (not kick) your left leg out to about hip height to the extended position with knees locked; THREE, back to the squat position; FOUR, lift (not kick) your right leg to about hip height while keeping it straight. That is one rep. 10 reps are a good number per set.

Article by Lt. Col. Bob Weinstein, USAR-Ret.
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