Getting rid of excess fat around the hips and thighs is often challenging. When reducing body fat anywhere on your body, proper nutrition is essential. With a clean and healthy meal plan filled with vegetables, fruits, lean proteins and good fats, the body will become an efficient fat-burning furnace.
In addition to a proper diet and cardio training, specific lower-body strengthening exercises will help you tighten and tone your hips and thighs.
Lateral Lunges
With the use of dumbbells or a medicine ball for added resistance, the lateral lunge can be a super-effective exercise for training your quads and glutes. Your inner and outer thighs also have to work to balance and stabilize your body as you lunge to the side.
Start with your feet together. Take a big step out to the right side with your right leg and sink your hips down and back as you lower sideways into the lunge. Using your thigh muscles, press back up to the starting position. Complete the desired number of repetitions and then perform the exercise to the other side.
It is important to choose a weight that allows you to maintain proper form, balance and knee alignment throughout the exercise.
Resisted Side Steps and Lateral Shuffling
Resistance band and tubing make for an effective tool to work the outer thighs. Using band or tubing formed in a small loop that can be placed around your ankles is ideal.
Place the band around your ankles so that you feel a small amount of resistance with your feet shoulder width apart. Take a big step out to the side, pulling with the muscles of your outer thigh and keeping your hips level. Repeat for desired number of steps or distance, and then repeat in the opposite direction.
This exercise can also be performed more dynamically with a lateral shuffling motion that is similar to shuffling while playing defense in basketball. Keep your hips square while stepping out to one side with your outside foot. Follow with your other foot and avoid crossing your feet to stay balanced. This dynamic form of shuffling will also add to the intensity of the exercise.
Single-Leg Squats
Performing a single-leg squat requires a large amount of stability and strength. If you are able to perform these in good form, your inner and outer thighs will benefit, as they have to work hard to stabilize and balance your leg.
Squats should be performed for a number of weeks to progress to the single-leg version. The single-leg squat exercise can be performed with added resistance if necessary, but according to San Diego strength coach Steve Cotter, author of “Pistol Power: Mastering the One-Legged Squat,” you should start with just your body weight.
Start by balancing on one leg while the opposite leg is out straight in front of your body and elevated off the floor. Lower your hips down and back to the desired depth as you bend your knee. Activate your hip and thigh muscles as you control the depth of the movement and then drive back up to starting position.
Hip Abduction Exercises
Hip exercises moving one or both legs away from the midline of the body will kick in the outer thigh muscles. Most gyms have specific machines to perform this exercise and isolate the outer thigh. These machines normally involve starting in a seated position with pads on the outside of each of your thighs. You choose a certain amount of resistance on the weight stack and then perform the exercise by pushing the pads outward using your outer thigh muscles.
