Tone Hips, Thighs and Glutes

Hi everybody. This week's episode is how to tone your thighs, your glutes, and your buns. So let's get started. Okay, so we're going to get started with working on the back of the thighs, the hamstrings, the glutes, and some inner thigh work as well. So I'm going to have you just start with your knees, uh, parallel pointed to the ceiling and feed her down. And these are just a few selections of each exercise. We're probably going to do two or three repetitions, but my suggested repetition count one might be eight to 10 or you can go up to 15 or 20 depending on how much workout you're going to want in here. So first, just lift your hips. Just going to have you press your hips up. No, you're not going to go too high, say a little bit lower. And I just want you to hold this in. Squeeze your buns, just squeeze and keep that going. There we go. That's a good setup.

Now lift the heels up and lower the heels down. So again, we're showing two or three repetitions of this, but you'll want to do eight to 10 or more. The goal is to keep this set up, this organization while you lift and lower your ankles up and down. And then good. Lower your hips down. Same exercise. Just a slight variation. Stepping with your knees together and ankles together, all the way. This'll emphasize your inner thighs a little bit more. Same thing. Go ahead and just bridge your hips up. Not too high. You're gonna keep those abdominals pulled down and in. And the same thing.

Heels go up and heels come down and heels come up. So each time the heels go up, you're squeezing the back of the thighs. You're keeping your glutes engaged, getting good tone in the back of the body and feeling some work. Also in the inner thighs, we can not forget the inner thigh. How are you doing? Good. Okay. And coming on down.

And then our third variation of this pelvic lift is with the feet a little wider than your hips. Yup. And toes still pointed forward. There she goes. So she's lifting the hips up. Not too high. Keep squeezing through the sit bones and the pelvis. There we go. Same thing heals going up at good and heels coming down. So she's doing a great job of being able to lift the heels up and down and not lose this plank line.

So she's really maximizing the workload all through this area here. Good. And again, eight to 10 or more repetitions would be suggested. Fantastic. And lower your heels and then to come on down. All right, so my second section of exercises taking place from a sideline position and you'll want your bottom arm long and stretched out with your head down. You can use a pillow underneath your head if you need a little more support. Before we begin, just emphasize the length of your body.

I'm going to think about a lot of length through the waistline and the spine. That's going to help stabilize and stack the hips up. And if you put just a little bit of lift underneath your waistline, yeah, the supporting muscles on the side is going to help you be very successful in balancing yourself on your side, which then will maximize the workout in your hips. So First Section, first selection I should say is the, and all I want you to do, again, we're doing two or three repetitions, is feet stay together and just open the top thigh and close the top thigh and being able to do this external rotation of the hip without losing balance on the pelvis here. So she's not falling back. She's staying very upright in her pelvis. And then hold here again you can do up to eight to 10 repetitions.

Next little section is lift your thigh a little higher. So we're going to do internal rotation and external. So I want you to turn your thigh in and touch the other knee with that knee and then lift the fine, turn your knee to the ceiling. So it's almost like a little figure eight going in and rotating the thigh, turning it up. And again, turning in and thigh going up. Maybe show a couple more. And again, that's what it looks like without a teacher holding the pelvis. So your job is to stay vertical in your hips and work to sculpt around the hips and your thighs. There you go. And then go ahead and rest.

So that's what I call the figure eight and then a neck. The next one I want to show you is with your legs straight out in front of you. So can you extend your leg forward and then just start with your toe on the ground for a second. This would be ideal if you can get your leg nine 90 degrees at your hip with this hip right above the other one. If you're not as flexible in the back of your leg, your leg might be a little bit more of a shallow angle. So we'll see.

We'll see how we do. So this is going to be a straight leg lift and lower to once again working through the hip area. Keep your toe down and your heel up and just raise the leg and lower the leg and you wouldn't even need to go that high. Just about the height of your own hip. Emphasize lengthening the leg out as you continue to pull your abdominal muscles back, lengthening through the whole spine, and then hold your leg there. And another layer is to pulse the leg. A little baby pulses. Again, eight to 10 would be recommended and you can pause and add little circles of the leg. One direction would be counterclockwise, pause and counter-clockwise. There we go.

And then lower your leg down. Third Layer in this section. Take your leg behind you. Now into more of a hip extension. We want to open up this line and even the setup you can squeeze through your glutes and get some conditioning and toning there. Pull the rib muscles in. Okay, so very much the same sequencing as when the leg was in the front. Lift the leg and lower the leg and keep the toe down and heal up and lift and lower. One more lift, hold, adding the pulses.

You'd go up and down anybody pulses and hold. And then you'd add in your circles one direction and hold and your other direction. And again, eight to 10 repetitions would be recommended. Fantastic. Great for toning the side of the thighs and hips so you can bend your knees to rest. All right, so another great exercise to tone and work the thighs is called five stretch. So you'll start up on your knees and what I call a high kneeling position.

And just that setup, pull your tailbone under your belly back and your shoulders down your back. So you've got a good setup to begin with. Now, depending on how your knees feel, this may or may not be an exercise choice for you. If your knees are healthy, you can do this. If you're tender, you may want to avoid this one, but it's just a weight shift, considered a weight shift and you'll lean back a little bit off the front of your knee, towards your shin. That's plenty whole and come back to the front. So you're getting a stretch in the front and the fide. We elongate those wonderful muscles there, but you also might feel some workout in the back of the thighs and your butt. So keep squeezing there. Look straight ahead, hold and come back up. A little variation with the arms forward.

Reaching out might be a little more challenging here. Hold and come up two more times. So you're leaning back and hold. Squeeze your buns and come back forward. Good. And one more time. So this is what we know is our thigh stretch.

Fantastic for lengthening the fine muscles here and working out through the back side. Fantastic. And rest. So this might be another option if you have trouble with the thigh stretch down on the floor with your knees. This is a little bit like that you're standing so your knees will be slightly bent pelvis, just an unnatural position. You're not going to start to tucked either way. And this is a continuation of working the thighs, but you're going to start to feel a little bit more around your glutes as well.

So it's a pelvic tilt. So what I want you to do is to pull your navel back, pull your pubic bone forward, and your hip bones back. There you go. And then release that just to a natural position and you can exhale and pull your hip bones back. I'm going to use my hands here. Yeah. And then release your pelvis this way. So it's a tilt. It's a pelvic tilt from a standing position. So you can see again the lengthening of the thigh release.

Good and pelvic tilt and squeeze the glutes. This is all about toning through the back of the hips and the glutes and lengthening the front of the thighs. A little extra variation. You can do it with your heels slightly off the mat, just like raise those heels. So you add a little bit of balance work. Continuing to challenge your glutes and your buns and your thighs. Good.

And one more and rest. And we're going to do our standing. I'm moving squat. So start with your feet side by side, about two or three inches apart, a little squat with your hips and your palms together. And your arms are just going to stay here. This is what I call the moving squat. So if you stand up, squat back down, stand up and step out to the right and you'll squat and stand and back to center and alternate sides.

So she's going to go from side to side and as you change level and get a little higher up and down, and you'll be working more in your thighs, through the glutes, through the hamstrings, your balance will be challenged. There you go. Yeah. And you can speed up your temple if you want a little more of the workout aspect of it or keep it slow for a little bit more of the sculpting aspect. Down, push and center. One more each side. So the moving squat great for all of the muscles in the lower half of the body.