Reduce Hips by Yoga

Practicing yoga regularly can help you lose weight and fat, including reducing the size of your hips. Certain asanas, or poses, can help shape and define the muscles near your hips for a more toned and slim look. By pairing regular yoga practice with other healthy habits such as diet and exercise, you can help minimize your hips and enjoy other benefits of yoga including increased endurance and peace of mind.

Steps

Reducing Hips with Asana Practice

1. Target your hips with a well-balanced asana sequence. Combining asanas that make up a well-balanced yoga practice, or sequencing, is a difficult aspect of practicing yoga. Set a different asana sequence for each session that targets your hips, thighs and lower back and is based on the four types of poses. This can challenge your muscles and help you reduce your hips.
   • You can begin your sequence with a short meditation or chanting to focus your thoughts.
   • Your sequence should comprise the following pattern: warm up of sun salutations, standing poses, inversions, backbends, forward bends, and closing poses.
2. Add various hip-reducing asanas. You do not have to be able to do every yoga asana in existence to reduce your hips. Mixing up different poses that can target and open the hips can strengthen your muscles, help keep your body from adapting to a routine, and assist in weight loss and reducing your hips.
   • Practice easier asanas first and challenge yourself with more difficult poses after you master basic ones.
   • Do asanas from each type of pose in the following order: standing poses, inversions, backbends, and forward bends. You can add a twisting asana to soothe your spine between backbends and forward bends if you like.
   • Consider varying how long you stay in each asana. You could flow through poses one day while holding them for 8-10 breaths on other days. This can help challenge your muscles.
3. Warm up with sun salutation.. It is important to warm up your body before you start doing yoga that is targeted towards your hips. Doing a few rounds of sun salutations, or Surya Namaskar, can lubricate your joints and begin engaging the muscles around your hips.
   • There are three different variations of sun salutations. Do 2-3 rounds of Surya Namaskar A, B, and C to warm up. These different sun salutations can engage and condition your muscles, may help ensure a safe and more pliable practice, and could minimize your overall body fat.
   • Surya Namaskar B is a good choice for reducing hips because it incorporates chair pose (uttkatasana), which can really target the muscles around your hips.
   • Try practicing a sun salutation between different asanas to challenge your muscles and build endurance.
4. Combine hip strengthening and opening asanas. You do not have to be able to do every yoga asana in existence to have an effective daily practice or to build muscle and lose fat. Integrating and mastering asanas that strengthen and open your hip area can help you put together a practice that can challenge your muscles and may help you minimize your hips.
   • Make sure to start with easier asanas and move on to more difficult poses as you master basic ones.
5. Execute standing asanas. After you’ve warmed up with sun salutations, do one or two standing asanas, or postures, to start. From mountain pose to the warrior series, these asanas build strength, stamina and flexibility in your lower back, thigh, and hip area.
   • Always begin any yoga practice in tadasana, or mountain pose.
   • Add other standing poses such as vrksasna (tree pose), uttkatasana (chair pose), and utthan pristhasana (lizard pose) to help open your hips from improved flexibility.
   • The Warrior Series, which is known as Virabhadrasana I, II, and III, and anjaneyasana (low lunge) can help strengthen the muscles of your legs, butt, and hip area.
   • As you progress, you can incorporate other standing poses such as Utthita Trikonasana (Extended Triangle Pose) can both strengthen and open your hips.
6. Perform inversions. Inversions are sometimes difficult, but they can help reduce your hips. From handstand to headstand, these asanas engage your lower back, butt, and leg muscles, and can also calm your circulation and stimulate your nervous system.
   • If you’re concerned about falling, ask for the help of a professional. This can help ensure that you enter the postures properly and don’t injure yourself.
   • You can practice mukha vrksasana (handstand) on a wall until you have enough strength to hold yourself up.
   • Gradually add forearm balance and salamba sirsasana (headstand) and pincha mayurasana (feathered peacock pose) as your practice improves.
   • Never jump into any inversion. Too much momentum can lead to injury.
7. Practice backbends. Together with inversions, backbends comprise the most intense portion of any asana practice. From cobra pose to full wheel, backbends will strengthen and stretch the muscles surrounding the hips.
   • Try simple backbends such as aalabhasana (locust pose), bhujangasana (cobra pose), or setu bandha sarvangasana (bridge pose) before working up to dhanurasana (bow pose) and urdhva dhanurasana (full wheel or upward bow).
8. Neutralize with a twist. If your back needs soothing following backbends, neutralize your back with a twist. These asanas relieve tension and can aid flexibility in the hip area.
   • Ardha matsyendrasana (half lord of the fishes pose) or Parivrtta Trikonasana (Revolved Triangle Pose) are an excellent twisting asanas that open up your hips.
9. Add forward bends. You should always practice forward bends towards the end of a yoga session because they calm the mind and the nerves. From pigeon pose to star pose, forward bends will stretch and strengthen the muscles of the hips while and preparing you for closing postures and final relaxation.
   • Try paschimottanasana (seated forward bend), janu sirsasana (heat of the knee pose), gomukhasana (cow face pose), or tarasana (star pose). These asanas can stretch out the hips and help strengthen them. You may want to hold them each for 8-10 balanced breaths.
10. Finish your practice with closing postures. Closing postures will end your active asana practice. From supported shoulder stand to corpse pose, these poses will quiet your mind and relax your body.
    • A good sequence to follow for closing postures is holding salamba sarvangasana (supported shoulderstand) and then immediately entering matsyasana (fish pose). These asanas will require you to engage your core and the muscles around your hips.
    • If you cannot do salamba sarvangasana, try viparita karani (legs up the wall pose).
11. End in corpse pose. You’ve successfully finished your active asana practice and now it’s time to relax. End your practice in savasana (corpse pose) and enjoy the benefits of your yoga session.

Deepening Hip Reduction Moves

1. Do vinyasas between poses. Cycle through vinyasas between poses for added hip reduction. This is more difficult than simply holding asanas, but has the benefit of more strength training and stretching.
   • Starting in whichever asana you choose, lower your body or thrust your legs until you land in a four point staff pose, which is called chatturanga dandasana in Sanskrit. Your elbows should be close to your body and bent at a 90 degree angle. Make sure to keep the abs and back side of the body engaged. This is a difficult position and keeping these muscles working will make it much easier.
   • From chatturanga dandasana, roll over your toes to an upward facing dog position, or urdhva mukha savasana. This will make it easier to transition to the next and your final position, downward facing dog.
   • Use your flexed toes to roll over on to the backs of your feet. Keep your thighs engaged and off of the floor as you push your chest through your arms. Gently arch your back and look up at the ceiling.
   • End in downward facing dog. You’ve reached the final pose and a well-earned rest, so exhale and roll back over your toes so that your body ends up in an inverted “V” shape, which is downward facing dog or adho mukha savasana. This position should feel calming and allow you to rest as you get deeper into the asana, or pose. Keep your palms pressing flat against the floor, your sitting bones lifted towards the ceiling, and your abs engaged.
   • Inhale and exhale steadily for as many breaths as you like.
2. Lengthen the time of your practice. Try extending the duration of your practice by holding each pose a bit longer, adding additional asanas and flowing seamlessly between the poses. Add new and more challenging poses as you are able.
   • Many yoga classes are between 60 and 90 minutes, so you could set your practice around that length or attend a class at a studio.
3. Intensify your practice. You may want to increase the intensity of your practice to help build strength and flexibility, burn calories and reduce fat around your hips. This can be done easily by holding each asana for varying times and by challenging yourself with more difficult asanas.
   • For example, poses that involve lunges or squats can be taken a bit lower.
   • You can increase the speed of transitions between asanas to create more intensity. Adding a sun salutation or vinyasa between asanas can help torch calories and fat.
   • You can also integrate more challenging poses. For example, you may want to try tripod headstand (sirsasana II) instead of regular headstand.
4. Increase the frequency of your practice. One of the best ways to deepen your yoga practice and burn calories and fat is to increase the number of days you practice. You can safely build up to 5-7 days per week.
   • Consider making yoga part of your daily routine or mix it up with other types of exercise for maximum benefit.

Combining Yoga with Diet and Exercise

1. Mix various types of exercise. Try combining different types of exercise with yoga. This may help you most effectively reduce your overall body fat.
   • Cardiovascular exercise can help you lose fat when combined with yoga. Beyond walking, consider running, swimming, rowing, or biking.
2. Strength train. In addition to cardiovascular exercise, strength training can help you reduce fat. It builds calorie-burning muscle while promoting your overall health and may also help improve you yoga practice.
   • Before you begin any strength training program, consult with your doctor and maybe even with a certified trainer, who will create the best plan for your abilities and needs.
   • Aim to do strength training moves such as leg presses that will help enhance the yoga moves you are doing to reduce your hips.
3. Eat healthy, regular meals. Eating healthy, balanced, and regular meals can help you lose any weight and burn fat. Foods that have moderate fat, complex carbohydrates, and are high in nutrients, for example, are best for your general health.
   • Stick to a diet of about 1,500-2,000 nutrient-rich calories a day, depending on how active you are.
   • Eat lean proteins such as chicken, ground sirloin, or edamame with most meals, which will give your metabolism a slight boost and help you burn more calories. This will also help you burn any fat that may be contributing to excess weight.
   • Eat whole grains such as whole wheat, oatmeal, and quinoa instead of starchy counterparts like bread.
4. Avoid unhealthy foods. If you’re trying to reduce fat, it’s a good idea to avoid unhealthy or junk foods, many of which are loaded with fat and calories. Potato chips, nachos, pizza, burgers, cake, and ice cream will not help you lose weight, or excess water and sodium.
   • Stay away from starchy, refined carbs such as bread, crackers, pasta, rice, cereal, and baked goods. Eliminating these foods can also help you lose weight overall.

Tips

• Reducing hips by yoga poses is most effective when combined with a healthy diet and other forms of exercise.

Warnings

• Consult with your physician before starting any exercise program.

Things You'll Need

• Yoga mat
• Yoga block
• Exercise clothes or comfortable clothes

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Sources and Citations

• Videos provided by PsycheTruth

See also

• Do Yoga at Your Computer
• Take a Yoga Break at Work
• Do Office Yoga
• Do Chair Yoga for Beginners
• Do a Chair Pose in Yoga
• Exercise Yoga Breathing
• Become a Prenatal Yoga Teacher
• Do the Standard Forward Bend in Yoga
• Kneel Comfortably
• Do Five Pointed Star Pose in Yoga

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