Hip Bumps and Squeezing Glutes

Note: In "Dear Shira", city names and other details are changed to protect the privacy of the people involved.

Dear Shira:

I recently purchased a video of Middle Eastern dancing, and when I am supposed to squeeze my right glut, then my left glut, I am not able to get that down. I feel like this is important because I don't want to learn the moves a wrong way, I feel like it will be harder in the long run if I do the movements but they are wrong. I feel like I am using my calf or my back thigh to lift my rear, and not my actual glut. When I try to not move anything and practice squeezing one glut and the other, it seems like I barely move at all. I think it is because I must have no developed glut muscles. I go to the gym during the week and I was wondering if there were any specific excercises I could do that would address my problem.

--Gluteus Minimus

Dear Minimus:

I don't know which movement the video is trying to teach you, but I do know that I use the "squeezing the buttocks" technique to teach a move called "hip bumps". In my "hip bump" move, the hips move from side to side with a bit of a snap, not up and down.

Sometimes it's easier to isolate your "gluteus maximus" muscles when sitting down. As you read this, clench your right butt cheek, then relax it. Now, clench your left butt cheek, then relax it. Do this 8 times on each side. Make it a small clench. Try to keep the thigh and lower leg relaxed. You won't find your body "rising" on the clenched side, but that's okay. The point is to feel the action of the muscle and learn to control it. Practice this exercise until you can isolate the gluteus with confidence.

Now, let's try it standing.

The first thing you'll want to check is your posture. The wrong posture can make it difficult to do a move properly. This is the checklist I use when describing correct posture to my own students - I build it from the feet up:

Place your feet about 10 inches apart.
Your toes should point straight forward.
Your knees should be relaxed, not straight. You may need to bend them slightly if you have trouble relaxing them.
Your pelvis should be above your feet.
Your pelvis should not be tilted back. Many women, in their everyday lives, tilt their pelvises to the rear and their chests forward, because this is the posture that makes it easier to balance on high-heeled shoes. Unfortunately, this position can cause lower back pain, and if you belly dance with the pelvis tilted to the back it can lead to injury of your sciatic nerve. To correct this common error, I ask my students to make one good pelvic thrust as far forward as possible, then relax the pelvis slightly but still remaining tucked as compared to what they may be used to. I then ask them to feel a lengthening of their lower back muscles, and try to push their tailbone toward the floor without bending the knees.
Pretend there is a puppet string on the breastbone, just above the top of your cleavage, and pull straight upward with it. Feel the separation in your waist as you raise your rib cage with this upward movement.
Do an upside-down U with your shoulders to move them from a forward position to a back position. Do not try to squeeze your shoulder blades together, just place the shoulders themselves in a farther-back position through using this U-shaped movement.

Follow the above steps to check your posture, with special attention to the underlined points. Foot placement, relaxed knees, and pelvis tuck are all important items for you in particular to consider, because all of those are important to being able to do hip moves correctly. If you pay close attention to these details, you may find that your problem is solved!

Now, it's time to get used to the clenching while standing up.

I hesitate to use imagery related to bodily functions, but sometimes it's the best way to help my students understand which muscles I want them to use to produce a move. So be warned, we're about to talk about an unpleasant bodily function. Pretend you have a mild case of diarrhea, and your body is signaling that it wants to go to the bathroom. Clench both your butt cheeks together, in an attempt to ask your body to wait until a more convenient time. Squeeze those gluteus maximus muscles to tighten your anus. Now relax. Squeeze again. Relax. Repeat a few more times. This imagery of holding back the diarrhea urge can help you isolate the move to just the glutes.

Now that you have practiced squeezing both butt cheeks at the same time, your next step is to do just one at a time. By now, it should be easy to isolate the gluteus maximus from other muscles. Review your posture, paying special attention to the underlined points above. Now, squeeze just the right butt cheek, and you should feel the right hip move outward to the side. Relax and let your pelvis return to its centered position. Now, squeeze just the left butt cheek, and let the lift hip move out toward the left side. Relax and let your pelvis return to center. Repeat right, left, right, left several times, until you feel confident with the move.

Once you can do the above with confidence, try doing doubles. Do squeeze, relax, squeeze, relax on the right hip, then do the same on the left.

I hope this helps!

--Shira