Exercises to Get Hip Lines

The thought of starting an exercise routine doesn’t excite many people, but the goals that come with sticking with a workout certainly do. If you’ve decided that you want to get those totally hip hip lines, you’ve already taken the first step -- setting a goal. Hitting the gym can certainly help you with this goal, but consult a doctor before making any radical changes to your physical lifestyle.

  1. Unzip Your Hips: It’s All Fat and Muscle

    • When you’ve made the decision to build a workout for some “hip lines,” what you’re really deciding is to expand the size of your hip muscles and cut back on body fat. Both concepts work in tandem: Hip lines only appear when your muscles are big enough to become individually prominent, and hip lines cannot appear when your muscles are buried under a thick layer of body fat. By cutting down on your body fat, you allow your hip muscles to be visible under the skin. By working your hip muscles, you allow them to protrude and give your waist area more shape, creating “hip lines.”

    It’s Hip to be Where? The Gym

    • Both men and women gain muscle in the same way -- putting their muscles under resistance and letting the body rebuild the microfibers torn during the resistance. This requires weight-lifting. Both free weights and machines are suitable tools for this endeavor. But because an exercise with free weights tends to employ more muscles -- due to having to stabilize the weight -- free weights are riskier for an untrained gym-goer. Beginners should start with machines and upgrade to free weights with the help of a guide. Exercises that focus on the hip area include situps, leg raises and crunches. Remember that your body cannot gain muscle unless you rest, so don’t think pushing yourself to your limit is the best way to add muscle in loose areas. Rest at least one day between muscle-building days.

    Fat and You: Not Joined at the Hip

    • You can lose fat safely through cardio. Fat loss occurs throughout the body at a relatively equal rate; spot reduction, targeting only the waist, is technically impossible. But cardio can help you cut down on the fat around your hips via its fat-burning properties. Cardio temporarily modifies the energy-burning mechanism of your body to burn more fat than usual, allowing you to lose fat all over your body. Include cardio exercise in your workout. Cardio exercise is any constant exercise that elevates your heart rate to a significant degree. This degree varies, but you should generally be working at about 60 percent of your max heart rate, something you can check on one of the many cardio machines in your gym, such as the elliptical or treadmill. But your workout need not include such machines. For cardio, choose any physically stimulating activity you enjoy, be it swimming, running or hiking. Low-intensity cardio is safe, and you can do it every day.

    Shoot from the Hip: Starting Your Workout Routine

    • After you know the basics, you can build a workout that suits your individual goals. But know your goals before you hit the gym. If you have just had a child and want to work off baby weight, for example, you’re probably better off focusing on cardio and pushing muscle-building to the background. On the contrary, if you’ve lost much weight recently but feel that you look too thin or untoned, consider filling out the hip area by adding muscle via weight training. In general, shoot for about three days each of weight lifting and cardio for a general workout of fat loss and muscle gain. For weight lifting, schedule a day of rest between successive sessions. Focus on hip exercises such as good mornings, hip abductions and wheel rollouts. For cardio, aim for approximately 45 minutes each session. This is easier when you enjoy the cardio activity, so if you like dancing, dance. If you like jogging, jog. And remember to motivate yourself by tracking your goals: Take pictures of your underwear-clad body every week and see how your hips have been progressing.