Loosen Your Hips to Lose the Belly

While researching stretching for runners, I learned a crazy fact that some stretches to lose lower belly fat are what we’re already doing in our workouts.

It’s important to note you are not actually LOSING any fat, but you are changing the shape of your body.

It makes it look like you lose lower belly fat by improving your posture because it brings your hips back in to alignment.

We combat the lower belly push out from sitting by correcting our posture, stretching out the hips, and abdominal stretches which also help to fix a protruding stomach.

What is Lordosis?

Lordosis is the medical term to describe the change in our natural posture from all of this sitting.

In plain English it causes your butt to push back and thus your belly to come forward. YES, imagine that a 5 minute stretch is much of what you needed to make your lower abdomen look the way you wanted.

That push forward has become more popular to create the appearance of a Kim Kardashian bootie, but at the expense of your stomach protruding when in fact you really should have a nice flat belly.

Below is an exaggerated version in the posture of many pregnant women, as a natural attempt to try and balance the body.

In fact the tightness in your quads, the low back pain and even your IT band issues could all be from your hips being out of alignment due to the consistent tightness.

Resolving this is two parts: Stretching the tight muscles and strengthening the muscles that have been turned off due to the other muscle tightness.

Can stretching make you slimmer?

YES!!! But not because you’re burning fat.

It’s because you’ll be standing with better posture, which can immediately make you look slimmer. It’s all about why  people know their best “angles” for posting on Instagram.

Just look at the images above and recognize that releasing your tight hips and having better posture is going to bring your belly back in alignment with your hips.

6 Moves to Lose the Lower Belly

Stretching whether through a consistent yoga practice for runners or simply these few stretches will release tight hip flexors which may be causing your belly to protrude.

Here are a few daily stomach stretches that will help to keep those muscles lengthened and strong.

Hold each movement for 60 seconds.
This is not something to rush, but rather to slow down and make part of your evening routine. Super easy to do while seeing who will get the rose this week {or in my case ponder why Gibbs can’t get a better hair cut}.

Kneeling hip flexor stretch

Tuck your hips under and with one leg forward lean in to the stretch. You should feel it along the front of the leg on the ground, meet your hip flexors!

This stretch alone will go a long way towards releasing the tightness caused by sitting.
This is also a good time to check your shoulders, are they back or rounded forward from being on the computer.

Head up, shoulders back, the lean should cause you to feel a stretch and your knee shouldn’t cross over your toes.

Lunge with rotation

Stretching both your lower abs and groin can happen in this position.

Lunge in to the same position as the kneeling hip flexor stretch shown above. With left knee forward, place both hands on the floor inside your left leg and then slowly drop your left knee out to the side. If this is easy, you can press your right foot in to the floor in to a full lunge position.

Deep Squat

Unlike doing a squat for a body weight workout here you want to sink down and settle in to the pose. Work your way up to staying here for at least 1 minute and keeping your heels on the ground throughout the pose.

• This movement alone helps to release the back and improve hip range of motion
• It will also help to improve ankle flexion which is important for good foot strike

This one is by far the hardest for me, but hey hands in prayer position make it a good time for gratitude.
TIPS for the deep squat:

• If you have trouble getting in to or staying in the squat, it’s best to start out by holding on to a bar for stability.
• Roll up a yoga mat and place it under your heels if you cannot initially get in to the squat with your feet flat.
• Keep your head and chest up!
• The goal is to allow your lower back to relax and let go, holding it for up to a couple minutes as you continually get better.

Cat Cow Stretch

In a table top position, you’ll take a big inhale while dropping your stomach to the ground and raising your head up high.

On the exhale, you will round your back pulling your navel towards your spine.

THE KEY is now to really hold that position tight and fully clear alllllllll the air out of your lungs. Work up to holding that static position for 30 seconds and then release back in to cow position.

• This static hold is retraining your deep abdominal muscles
• It will help to better define the waist line
• You can and SHOULD do this movement daily

Cobra Stretch

After time spent bent over slightly looking at phones, we want to fully elongate the core.

• Lie on your stomach, with hands on the floor next to your chest.
• Press hands in to the floor and raise upper body off the floor.
• Initially you may only come a little ways off the floor.
• Remember you should feel this in your core, so no need to overextend or go strength.

There are many more stretches you can do to open your hips like pigeon pose, but these 5 are effective and a great start.

Looking for more on weight loss?

• What I wish I’d Known Before Losing Weight
• Running for Weight Loss Keys
• How to reboot your metabolism

Do you stretch daily?

What’s your favorite hip opener?

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