- Set up as for Hip Extension Back on Ball. Don’t forget – it is vital to lift through the glutes and not the back. Your bottom should feel noticeably tight throughout this exercise.
- Using a broom handle is useful since the point of this exercise is to keep the shoulders and hips level throughout. If you have 2 broom handles kicking about, then you could lay one across your hips as well as between the hands.
- Keeping your feet still, slide your upper body from side to side. As a hint, to keep the hips level it will be necessary to tighten the buttock ‘off’ the ball. It will also help to squeeze the lats of the arm on the ball to keep the shoulders level.
- Exercises like this are supposed to help walking/running. As we walk/run, on the opposite side to the striding leg, the lat muscle (the big muscle that runs down the back, connecting the arms to the bottom) contracts to help the arm swing.
- However, the best thing about this exercise is it helps tighten up the derriére. Saggy derriéres, apart from not looking so good, are a sign that all is not working well mechanically in the lower body. The reasons are usually tight hip flexors (the muscles that lift the knees), tight ITBs (the tendonous band that runs down the outside of the leg) and/or poor posture when standing. So sorting out why the bottom is blobby not only makes it look good in tight clothes, it also reduces pain and injury.