• Work your hips for an hourglass figure.girl`s hips image by Dmitri MIkitenko from Fotolia.com
  
  Your hips are muscles that are often neglected because they are your lower body; many weightlifters like to focus on the "beach" muscles--arms, back and chest but ignore their legs and hips. This is foolish because hips are definitely a beach muscle--they are, after all, the muscle that affects the size and shape of your bum. What's more, strong hips balance your body and make you less prone to injury.
  
  

Compound Freeweights

• Perform regular compound exercises with freeweights. The two major ones that do this are the squat and the dead lift, both of which exercise your entire body but focus on your legs and hips.
  
  To squat, take a weighted bar and hold it across your shoulders. Bend your knees, then push your hips backwards in a seating motion until the tops of your thighs are parallel with the floor. Push back up on your heels. You should feel it in your hips.
  
  To dead lift, put a weighted bar on the floor. Bend down in front of it, keeping your back straight. Push with your feet as you lift the bar up, and return it back to the ground in a controlled motion. Your arms and back must be straight.
  
  Start both of these with an empty bar, then gradually add weight once your form is flawless.
  
  

Machines

• You can focus on your hips exclusively with a machine like a hip abductor. To use a hip abductor, sit in the seat and set the pads to a comfortable level. Then squeeze your hips and bring the pads together. Start with a small weight and build up until you are consistently doing 8-12 reps.
  
  

Bodyweight

• A number of hip exercises only utilize your body weight. One of these is the squat, which is exactly like the squat mentioned above except that there is no weight on your shoulders.
  
  Step-ups also build hip muscle. Step onto a step, then back, then back up repeatedly. This is lower-stress exercise that gradually builds the hip muscle.
  
  See the resources for more exercises.