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If you are looking for ways to burn fat and get toned muscles, especially around the hip area, the right combination of exercise and diet can offer the desired results.
As you can’t spot-reduce hip fat through exercise or diets, it's important to work on eliminating overall body fat. Once you start losing weight, you can focus on exercises that can help sculpt and tone your hips.
Having strong and well-defined hips not only looks appealing but can also assist you in performing daily activities more easily, reducing chances of injury and eliminating knee pain. Therefore, it's important to perform exercises to strengthen the hips and the surrounding muscles.
Exercises to Get Strong and Toned Hip Muscles
Here’s a look at the six most effective exercises to sculpt and strengthen the hips:
1) Squat
No hip-strengthening workout session is complete without a squat. Squats are a versatile movement that works on several muscles in the lower body, including the hips, glutes, legs, etc. You can do this exercise with or without weights.
To do a squat:
- Take an upright standing position with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width and arms extended out in the front.
- Engaging your abs, keep your back stable, spine in a neutral position, and lower yourself towards the floor till the thighs are parallel with the ground.
- At the bottom position, hold with your knees over, and stand back up.
- Repeat.
2) Wall Sit
Wall sits are an easy lower body strengthening exercise that targets the hips and lower abs as well as the thighs. It's a great exercise to develop core strength and endurance and for losing hip fat.
To perform wall sit:
- Stand tall with your back against a wall and your legs a few inches away from the wall.
- Slowly slide down the wall till you get into a sitting position with your legs at a 90-degree angle and your hamstrings parallel to the ground.
- Hold the position for up to a minute, and slowly rise back up to the start.
- Repeat.
3) Fire Hydrant
This exercise targets the hips and glutes and also engages the core muscles for balance.
To do this exercise:
- Take a tabletop position on a mat with your feet and knees at hip distance and both palms flat on the floor.
- Keeping your gaze ahead and down and engaging the core muscles, raise your left knee off the mat, and rotate it out to your side and up.
- Make sure the knee is bent throughout this movement.
- Pause for a few seconds at the top position, and slowly lower your leg to the start.
- Perform 10-15 reps with your left leg before repeating with your right.
4) Squat Jump
Squat jumps are a challenging plyo exercise that combines a standard squat and a jump.
To do squat jumps:
- Take a standard squat position with your knees bent and feet shoulder-distance apart. Shift your weight onto your heels and squat down slowly till your thighs get parallel to the floor.
- From there, jump explosively, and come back down to the squatting position.
- Make sure you land softly with the balls of your feet touching the floor first.
- Repeat the exercise for 20 seconds, or perform 10-15 reps.
5) Side-lying Leg Raise
Side-lying leg raises are a great isolation exercise that reduces hip fat and tones the muscles. The key is to perform each movement accurately.
To perform this exercise:
- Lie on your right side on an exercise mat, and lift your left leg as high as possible. Make sure to keep your toes pointed in the front.
- At the top position, pause for a second, and slowly lower your leg down to the starting position. Keep your pelvis stable and abs engaged at all times.
- Repeat the exercise ten times before switching sides.
6) Step-up
Step-ups are another great exercise that targets the thighs and glutes as well as the hips, and works on stability and balance too.
To perform this exercise:
- Stand tall with your feet hip-distance apart in front of an elevated step, box, or bench. You can hold dumbbells in each hand if you want to make the exercise more challenging.
- Step onto the box with your left foot, and take your right knee up while keeping the dumbbells stable at your side.
- Lower your right leg, step back off the box, and complete 15 reps leading with your left leg.
- Switch sides, and perform the same number of reps leading with your right leg.
- Complete at least three sets on each side.
Takeaway
While the aforementioned exercises can help reduce fat and develop lean muscle mass, it's equally important to consider a few lifestyle changes too.
That includes having a healthy diet, focusing on clean and whole foods, avoiding sugary drinks, and limiting portion sizes. Apart from that, it's also important to get the right amount of sleep each night and keep stress level in check.
