Baby's got thighs; wants more back...

March 18, 2011 9:37 AM

Exercise filter: Ladies, you know how your hips and thighs look smaller from the front when you squeeze your butt? What exercises help to build the musculature to hold that look/posture?

Just to clarify, I do not hate my body shape. I've gotten into a good strength training groove recently, and I want to see what I can do with this area of my body above and beyond the strength I've built with regular squats and lunges. Yes, this is also vanity driven.

posted by kitcat to Health & Fitness (9 answers total)

Deadlifts work the hamstrings and posterior chain. You also might want to look into stretching all the various bits of the hips - part of what happens when you squeeze all that together is that you pull your pelvis all the way down. If you do a lot of sitting and your hip flexors are really tight, your natural posture will be more bent-over and that makes your hips look wider. (At least, it appears to from my posturing in the mirror.)
posted by restless_nomad at 9:41 AM on March 18, 2011

Pilates is all about squeezing your butt and lower abs.
posted by rhapsodie at 9:47 AM on March 18, 2011 [2 favorites]

2nding pilates. It's all about that long-lean look
posted by purpletangerine at 10:10 AM on March 18, 2011

Response by poster: Aha, that bent over posture is part of anterior pelvic tilt, which I found out about here.This comment about is is good, as is the whole thread.
posted by kitcat at 10:25 AM on March 18, 2011

The iPhone Nike Training Club app has great workouts for this. In particular, there's a 15 minute workout called the Butt Buster that has a bunch of exercises (hip lifts, side planks) that focus on toning these muscles. I'm pretty much addicted to this app.
posted by hampanda at 11:06 AM on March 18, 2011

Best answer: Squat heavier than you are, and deadlift heavier than that.
posted by Anatoly Pisarenko at 12:51 PM on March 18, 2011 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Barre-based exercise (Bar Method, Dailey Method, PureBarre, Core Fusion, etc.) will also help with this although they are really, really tough.
posted by gsh at 1:19 PM on March 18, 2011

Response by poster: Great, I thought something balet-related might be the answer given that 'first position' is very close to the pose I had in mind. The two above are marked favorite because they are so specific.
posted by kitcat at 4:01 PM on March 18, 2011

Response by poster: That's ballet...blush...
posted by kitcat at 4:13 PM on March 18, 2011