5 Exercises For Great Bums, Tums and Thighs

Don’t you find that if you haven’t been exercising for a while the areas where you first notice the “damage” are your backside, stomach and thighs?

For many people these areas are the body’s natural fat storage centres. It’s hard to rearrange your biological hardware for a permanently slim bum and tum but there are exercises you can do to make your system run more smoothly and efficiently.

Whilst “bums and tums” classes have become enormously popular they tend to consist of exercises which focus on working one particular body part with small constricted movements such as crunches. The notion that you can “spot reduce” fat from a particular area of your body is a false one. Your body will shed the fat as it sees fit when you burn more calories than you consume.

My five exercises are “big bang” exercises which burn lots of calories in a relatively short period of time e.g. your lunch period. And they can be performed in the gym as well as the comfort of your own home.

1. Supine Lateral Ball Roll

Keep your hips up throughout the exercise. Move to the right so that your head and left shoulder are balancing on the stability ball. Hold for three seconds. Come back to the middle and then repeat on the left side. Remember to suck your belly button in. Your hips and thighs should be parallel to the floor. Only your head and shoulders should be balancing on the ball.

2. Wood Chop

Stand with a wide stance, bend your knees slightly and grip a dumbbell in both hands in front of you. Transfer 70% of your weight onto one leg and at the same time lower the dumbbell down past the outside of your knee. Then as you transfer your weight back onto your other leg raise the dumbbell up and across your chest and past your shoulder. Keep your arms straight to work your abs. Switch and do the same starting with the other leg.

3. Stability Ball Balance

Climb onto the stability ball on all fours and try to balance on it for as long as you can. Remember to suck your belly button in to activate your core. It’s best to do this in an open space, preferably on some gym mats. If this is easy for you, then alternate lifting each limb off the ball at right angles.

4. Forward Lunge

Keep a good posture as you lunge forward. Take a good stride forward. Your core gets a good workout as it tries to keep your body stable and so do you your legs and backside.

5. Squat

Stand with a good strong stance. Suck in your belly button and keep a small arch in your lower back as you squat down. Perform these squats slowly and feel the burn in your backside and thighs!

These exercises are a little more taxing than those you would find in a pilates class. If you’d like to make these exercises more aerobic you might like to create a mini circuit and perform 15 reps on each exercise without a break. Either way the calories will start to burn off!