Best exercise for hips?

What is the best exercise for trimming some fat off of the hips toward the back?  I'm 5'3 and weigh about 107, have 25 inch waist, but I cannot stand my hips; to me, they are not proportionate to the rest of me.  I feel like I have a "shelf" as my hips.  I can't run for a while, but what would be the best thing to do???

you cannot spot burn.

You sound a perfect weight for your height. Don't be too picky is my comment! No-one's perfect, you just have to focus on all the things you love about your body not the little bits you don't. 

any exercise that focuses on your hips would build and strengthen your hip tensors, quads, glutes and maybe lats depending on what moves you did. as amethystgirl says, you cannot spot burn fat away.

i have no idea why in this day and age people still think that.

 

 

Bicep curls, with dumbells NO HEAVIER THAN 2 LBS, otherwise your hips will get all bulky, also the dumbells should be pink.

Believe it or noT, they've done studies on spot reducing, and it is possible to a certain extent.  There was an article on this in a recent edition of Muscle and Fitness magazine.  They had a group of subjects do leg lifts on one side only and kept track of the fat burned on both sides.  The subjects did lost more fat on the side that was exercised.  I believe the subjects also did cardiovascular exercise.  So, it's not easy, but it apparently does work somewhat.  I just wanted to know what was the best exercise to focus on that area.  I am happy for the most part with the way I look.  I'm 41 and had 3 kids in the past 8 years.  I'm just always trying to improve so that I won't fall victim to sagging parts in older age. Thanks for the replies1!

Two thoughts...you may want to consider doing more upper body conditioning to help even you out. But it is hard to reduce fat in certain spots. Your body is made a certain way and thats that. I'm about the same size and I don't like my thighs at all. I've tried in the past to spot fix, but it doesn't work. I just make sure to get a well rounded exercise in and cardio and they're slowly getting better.

A mini stepper from argos at £35 is good for hips thighs and abs I have reduced my waist size from 38 to 36 in 6 weeks but more important i lost 17lbs. I also have bad osteo arthritis in my hips and i feel much better now

Yes, I've read the original study about selective substrate utilization in journal of sports medicine - it's possible, to a very limited extend and kinda sorta, but the effect is so vanishingly small that it's only theoretically interesting.

 In practice you're better off not focusing on the limited potential for selective lipolysis since there's a definite limit to the rate of fatty acid mobilization that can take place from any one fat deposit, and the effect is depressingly small - about one-tenth the effect of what a similar time spent jogging would do for you.

 So IMHO the effect is more theoretically interesting that practically useful - and Muscle&Fitness is the male equivalent of Shape or Oxygen, so full of BS designed to sell you diet supplements and magic pills and lotions that I feel less intelligent every time I even look at it. There's some good info lurking in there sometimes, but the drain on my IQ that M&F represents isn't worth it to my mind ;)

Check out this thread: http://www.calorie-count.com/forums/post/8069 5.html

And get the 10 years younger in 10hrs dvd. That will be your best bet. And pilates for the hips/behind

hips or love handles?

using a resistance band aroud your ankes and always keeping the tension tight do some side stepping. it works your abductors and I do them all the time and have definitly lost inches on my hips. I do a couple sets of 20 or so leading with each leg

Squats and dead lifts, Squats get the gluts and quads, dead lifts strengthen the entire posterior chain, maybe though in some stiff legged dead lifts.

It sounds like it's just your body type; embrace it! Last I knew women with hips are considered hott! :) So yea, I'd just learn to love it. Everyone has something about themselves that they don't like, and can't change no matter how much weight they lose because it's their body type.