3 Secrets to a Better Bum!
Find a Conversation
3 Secrets to a Better Bum!
| Wed, 01-31-2007 - 8:53pm |
3 Secrets to a Better Bum
Kim Droze
Flabby... Loose... Tubby... Saggy... Frumpy... Dumpy... Flat...
No, they aren’t Disney's rejected names for the Seven Dwarfs. They are the seven unflattering ways to describe your behind! Perhaps you know the kind we’re talking about. One with a life of its own - you walk one way, it jiggles another.
If you’re under 40, maybe you’ve yet to feel the effects of gravity. Maybe your bum is still tight and toned. Well, it's never too early (and certainly never too late) to concentrate on toning your tush.
It takes more than just a healthy diet to keep your derriere looking dynamite - use it or lose it! After the age of 30, women start to lose muscle mass. Even if the bum doesn’t have much fat, it will sag. That’s why it’s imperative you start a suitable exercise routine.
For women, the glutes are one of the hardest muscle groups to whip into shape. That’s because the bum is generally a storehouse for fat. It isn’t that it's necessarily hard to tone the glutes, but it is harder to see the muscles when they are blanketed by a layer of fat.
That’s where the 1-2-3 punch comes in. To best firm a backside, you must follow a healthy diet, perform regular cardiovascular exercises and do weight training several times a week.
A healthy diet will ensure you are getting the right calories to meet your needs, avoiding weight gain. Cardiovascular exercise will help you burn up excess stored calories and weight training will tone those muscles right up!
And you don’t need a gym membership to get active! While a treadmill or exercise bike may come in handy, there are other things you can do that cost next to nothing. Jogging, skipping, walking up and down stairs or riding a bike all fit the bill. The key element to an effective cardio workout is keeping your heart rate elevated.
Toning exercises should be done a maximum of three days a week with 48 hours rest between each session. You can do cardio and weight training on alternate days, or you can do both workouts on the same day, using the in-between days as a rest.
To get the most out of the workout below, do the proper amount of reps of the first exercise - 8 to 10 using heavy weights, 15 to 20 using light weights. After completing the first exercise, move on to the second and third exercises without resting. When you have completed all three exercises, rest for 30 seconds and repeat the entire set. After the second set, rest 30 seconds and repeat a third and final set.

Unilateral hip extension
Begin by placing your left knee on the bottom of an incline bench. Bend your elbows and place your forearms across the top of the bench so they support your body weight. Slowly raise your right leg as high as comfortably possible, keeping it straight throughout the move. Contract your glutes and then reverse direction, returning back to the starting position. After performing the desired number of repetitions, repeat the process on your left. If you don't have access to a bench, just use a chair for this exercise.

Thanks IG! The butt and thighs is definitely my problem area, and I really have to get in that cardio to burn off the layers (and layers, and layers, LOL) of fat. The classes I'm taking definitely help, as they do a lot of toning for legs and butt.
Last class we used these:
Which were awesome for working the thighs and butt!!! (of course, I'm convinced you could put towels down on a hardwood floor and do the same exercises), but these are the little things that have my butt aching today! LOL
_____________________________________________________
![]()
Actually, they are simply nylon discs. So you stand on them (toes on, heels slightly off) and you would, for example, slide your left leg out to the side as if you were skating, and then pull it back, and do the same with your right. They simply slide along the floor because they are a smooth material, there isn't really any 'hardware' to them.
We also used them for doing pushups