The Amazing Stickie and Side Kick

The Amazing Stickie has amazing hips and strong glutes.  One reason for this is that she loves to do the Pilates exercise side kick.

She begins lying on her side with her legs stacked on top of each other.  Ensuring that her pelvis does not tilt forward or backward, she lifts her top leg with her foot flexed and lowers it.  She does a set of ten and then does the other side.

 

There are (at least) two more variations of this exercise that Stickie is not demonstrating.  Both begin in the same position and the hips remain neutral throughout.

 

For the first variation, Stickie lifts her top leg a few inches and then kicks it forward and back.  It is particularly challenging to keep the pelvis still while kicking to the back, but Stickie uses her strong core muscles to achieve greatness.  This exercise can be done with the foot pointed or flexed, or changing from pointed to flexed.  Stickie likes to experiment.

 

The second variation is called developpé, so Stickie’s friends who take ballet will have an idea of what to do.  Stickie begins by externally rotating (aka turning out) her top leg from the hip socket.  She points her toe and draws the toe up her calf to her knee, which means her top knee bends.  Her legs look like a lying-down letter P, more or less.  But she is not done!  Without changing the angle of her thigh, Stickie extends her knee so that her toe is pointing out into space (like a lying-down letter V).  Then she lowers her straight leg back down to the starting position.

 

For all of these exercises, sets of eight to ten are good; then do the other side.