How to Get Rid of Hip Dips With 10 Simple Exercises

Hey Folks!

Hips are such a body part, that most people find attractive. People try to judge each other by the shape and size of each other’s buttocks. We, as humans pay attention to our hips a lot when we dress up for certain occasions.

A person’s buttocks are normally called ‘hips’ in general, but the meaning of hips in actual scientific language is something different. The Hip joint is one of the biggest joints in the human body. It is located under the sacrum bone (the last bone of the vertebra) of the vertebral column. It mostly makes up for the pelvis region.

The hip joint consists of various parts which are the hip bone, femur bone, femoral neck, femoral head, acetabulum, bursa, labrum, femoral vein and sciatic nerve. For the free movement of our lower body, it becomes really important for the hips to play their functions properly.

Our general day-to-day movements depend upon the range of motion of our hip joint¹. The more mobile it is, the better will be our ability to move. The kind of movements, the hip joint performs are:

1. Flexion
2. Relaxation
3. Abduction
4. Adduction
5. Extension
6. Circumduction
7. Rotation

What are hip-dips?

One of the biggest and most concerning issues or insecurity that people face, especially women is the problem of hip dips. Hip dips are the depressive side indents that appear on both sides of your lower body (hip region) which give off the impression of the deeper part of the thigh bone.

Hip dips are also called violin hips, because of how our body shape looks when we have hip dips. Hip dips are a completely normal phenomenon and almost everyone has them. Even though the percentage of your body fat percentage matters in the case of hip dips, it occurs in people of all shapes and sizes.

The major cause of hip dips is a person’s genetics. Though a lot of people think they are not aesthetically pleasing, it is completely normal to have them. But even after knowing the real reason behind having hip dips, people look up to it as their biggest insecurity.

Though it is not a problem to have hip dips, it is essential to keep your hips strong and healthy. Strengthening the hips and pelvic floor is the most neglected yet one of the most important things to do. The hip joint consists of the pelvic area, which is responsible for protecting a woman’s reproductive organs.

Strengthening your pelvic floor is just as important because a weaker pelvis might lead to unnecessary strain on a woman’s reproductive organs. Hence, it is essential to strengthen our pelvis area along with our weak hips. Hip health goes hand in hand with pelvic health, hence, working our hips benefits the pelvic muscles too.

Some benefits derived from strong hips are as follows:

1. Enables free movement.
2. Gets rid of unnecessary pain in the body, especially the lower body.
3. Improves athletic performance.
4. Reduces the risk of injuries.
5. Reverses the effects of prolonged sitting.
6. Provides support for the entire back.
7. Supports core stability.
8. Helps in a good posture.
9. Helps in better sexual intercourse.
10. Improves the body’s balance.

To strengthen the hip area, one can perform a variety of hip-strengthening exercises. These exercises can be performed using a lot of things like free weights such as dumbbells, weighted plates and ankle weights, resistance bands, specific machines, stretching as well as body weight exercises.

It is important to properly warm your body up, especially the hip region, before performing any of these exercises.

How To Get Rid of Hip Dips: 10 Best Exercises to Try

1. Body Weight Exercises:

i. Side Lying Leg Raises:

• Lie down on the floor on one side of your body.
• While keeping both of your legs straight, lift one leg towards the sky as much as you can.
• Repeat for as many repetitions as possible and feel the strain in your side leg or side of the hip.
• You can use a resistance band around your thighs for added endurance.

This is a hip abduction exercise and works to make the condition of your hip dips normal.

ii. Glute Bridges:

Glute bridges are one of the most effective hip exercises ever.

• The starting position for this exercise is to lie on the ground while keeping your body straight and looking straight toward the sky.
• Now, with your knees bent, lift your hip upwards while engaging your core muscles and glute muscles².
• You can either hold this position for as long as possible or do simultaneous repetitions.

It is beneficial both ways and will also help the muscle mass in your glutes to grow.

iii. Butterfly Pose:

• Start by sitting on the ground with your legs crossed.
• Now, start to flutter both your legs in the same crossed-legged position.
• This will help to develop a range of motion in your buttock muscles.
• You can also hold this position to further stretch the hip region.

iv. Donkey Kicks:

• This is a hip isolation exercise, meaning it works one butt cheek at a time.
• Start in a dog-like position with all four of your limbs touching the ground.
• With one of your legs bent at 90 degrees, kick the other leg toward the ceiling while keeping it bent.
• Lift it in such a way that it is in the same line as your back.
• Perform as many reps as possible and then repeat on the other leg.

v. Bulgarian Split Squats:

This exercise can be performed both with and without weights and is an isolation exercise.

• To perform it, start by standing in a neutral position, with one of your legs up on a surface at the back.
• The height of the surface should be comfortable for you and help you maintain your body’s balance.
• With one of your legs on the ground with your knee bent, lunge down.
• Hold the position for a few moments and stand back up again.
• Repeat for as many reps as possible.

2. Exercises With Weights:

vi. Weighted Good Mornings:

• This workout is done by standing in a neutral position with your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Hold a barbell or dumbbell over your shoulders, engage your glutes and bend down from your hips till your back is in a 90-degree position.
• Do this with your knees slightly bent.
• Hold the position for a bit and return to the original position.
• Perform multiple reps.

This exercise not only works our glutes but also our hamstrings and lower back.

vii. Hip Thrusts:

This exercise is quite similar to glute bridges.

• The starting position is to sit down in front of a bench or similar support and rest a part of your back on that bench.
• Straighten your legs in front of you and form a similar position as doing a glute bridge.
• Keep a barbell or a dumbbell on your pelvic bone and trust upwards while engaging your glutes.
• This is one of those exercises, in which you can lift as heavy as possible.
• So, go heavier and perform as many reps as possible.

This exercise majorly helps to strengthen our gluteus medius muscles and build muscle mass.

The increase in muscle gives your buttocks, a perkier and round look and also reduces the appearance of noticeable hip dips.

viii. Sumo Deadlift:

• Start with your legs a bit wide apart than each other with your toes pointing outwards.
• Place a barbell on the ground in front of you.
• Bend your knees.
• Now, with your hands pointing straight downwards, shoulder width apart, tighten a firm grip on the barbell.
• With your chest pulled up and your back straight, keep your head steady with your eyes looking at a point that is parallel with the eye level.
• Engage your glutes and abdominal muscles, and Pull the barbell up until your body comes into a neutral standing position.
• Hold at the top for some moments and come back to the squatting position.
• Repeat for a few more reps and go as heavy as possible.

The targets a lot of muscles including the glutes, back, upper thighs and inner thighs. Maximum resistance derived from lifting heavier weights helps in shedding excess body fat. This also helps to minimize hip dips.

ix. The Traditional Barbell Squat:

This is the most popular leg/glutes exercise ever. The traditional squat has been practiced for several years with a variety of weights but now, the barbell squat has become the epitome of fitness.

• The starting position for this exercise is to have a barbell resting on some elevated surface with the desired weighted plates on both sides of it.
• You need to stand below the barbell and place it on your shoulders, especially on the trap muscles.
• Now lift the barbell entirely with your traps and wrap your bombs at a comfortable distance from each other, around either side of the bar.
• Like this, stand in a position with your feet slightly wider apart that makes sure you’re comfortable squatting in.
• With your head, chest and back straight, squat down as low as possible, hold the position for a second and come back up.
• Go heavier and repeat for as many reps as possible.

x. Cossack Squat:

This is one of the unilateral lower body exercises and it is one of the most efficient hip dip exercises.

• Start by standing in a neutral position and take out your left leg or right leg wide to the side.
• Squat deep down on the opposite side of the leg away from the body.
• Once you’ve gone enough lower, lift your body and squat on the other side using the other leg.
• Keep repeating and feel the burn in the side of your thighs.

So…

These are some of the weighted and non-weighted glute exercises that help strengthen the hip muscles and joints and composite the more noticeable hip dips. They can also work as hip openers, which further stretch the much-required muscles and tissues.

Along with this, general and everyday body exercises such as jogging, running, cycling, walking, and yoga, can also prove to be hugely beneficial in enhancing our overall physique as well.

Exercising and strengthening glute muscles benefits athletes immensely as glute exercises ³constitute power into one’s body. This increases a person’s running speed. Also, the ability to perform easy day-to-day tasks becomes flexible and easier due to this too.

Other remedies:

As a person’s body structure matters, factors like body fat are the principal deciders for the appearance of that inward curve at the side of the hips. Though you can never get rid of hip dips completely, there are a few ways that can help with their appearance:

1. Lowering Your Body Fat Percentage:

Our body stores fat in different areas and forms curves all over the body which can also lead to certain health conditions.

As we grow older, our age and also certain other factors can cause the loosening of skin in certain areas of the body. This loose skin can appear as dripping skin from the side hip bones.

This may cause the skin to go further into the gap between the bones, which causes the hip dips to appear even more. Therefore, lowering your body fat percentage can help get rid of excess body fat from different areas of the body proportionately, which can also reduce the fat from the side of the hips.

Lesser body fat can make your body appear straight with lesser curves.

2. Diet:

Diet is still the most underrated area of fitness and yet it is the most important one. It is said that to get fit or fulfill the desired results, exercise and diet play the part 30% and 70% respectively.

Many people have the misconception that eating anything and doing high intense workout routine will keep them fit and in shape. But this is only the half-truth.

What we fuel and nourish her bodies with is more important than exercising. Along with a proper diet, exercise helps to further enhance our results, improving our cardiovascular health, muscle mass and endurance, overall strength and mobility.

Having a proportionately balanced diet with the right amount of water, macros and micronutrients can help you achieve your dream body.

3. Surgical Correction:

Plastic surgery has been a new trend in the world and is one of the parts of globalization. This is the fastest way of modifying one’s body, the way one wants to.

Plastic surgery is the process of reconstructing one’s body parts for necessary surgical or even leisure cosmetic purposes. Cosmetic surgeries are the most common in East Asia as almost every person attempts them to enhance their physical appearance.

Plastic surgery can help you to get rid of hip dips easily without prolonged pain. Many people opt for this option nowadays as it is the easiest way out of feeling insecure about their physique.

4. Widening Your Lower Body:

Explained in the above context are some of those exercises, that help to work several muscle groups in the lower body and help us gain muscle.

The increase in muscle mass helps our muscles to look bigger and fuller. Growing the glute muscles by working the bottom, upper and side muscles help the muscles there to grow, resulting in giving them a bigger look.

A fuller butt helps to lose hip dips to a certain extent.

5. Enhancing Artificially Using Accessories:

The side indents of hip dips can be concealed using certain accessories temporarily. These accessories can include hip pads, cotton, loose clothes, and body shaper.

In this way, there are multiple ways to help you get rid of hip dips or at least enhance or conceal their appearance. Even though everyone can make use of all these ways, the best way for you to live is by excepting accepting hips as a part of your body that is completely normal.

The shape of our hips is determined by factors that are not in our control. Hence, self-confidence and self-acceptance are the best ways to get rid of the idea that your hips are abnormal.

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1. Charbonnier, Caecilia, et al. “Motion study of the hip joint in extreme postures.” The Visual Computer 25 (2009): 873-882. ↩︎
2. Distefano, Lindsay J., et al. “Gluteal muscle activation during common therapeutic exercises.” Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy 39.7 (2009): 532-540. ↩︎
3. Reiman, Michael P., Lori A. Bolgla, and Janice K. Loudon. “A literature review of studies evaluating gluteus maximus and gluteus medius activation during rehabilitation exercises.” Physiotherapy theory and practice 28.4 (2012): 257-268. ↩︎

Last Updated on July 29, 2024 by Sathi Chakraborty, MSc Biology