Char­maine Dais­ley

As women we share a sis­ter-hood of priv­i­leges that in­cludes a wicked­ly at­trac­tive anato­my, height­ened in­sight, and the po­ten­tial for moth­er­hood.Un­for­tu­nate­ly, we al­so share a few down­sides – one be­ing the pre­dis­po­si­tion to stor­ing high lev­els of fat in cer­tain ar­eas of our bod­ies. Of­ten, this ex­cess fat that is de­posit­ed in these ar­eas finds it­self press­ing through the lay­ers of the con­nec­tive tis­sue around it, caus­ing the skin to ap­pear dim­pled.In the 1970's the cel­e­brat­ed VOGUE mag­a­zine la­beled this un­sight­ly, fat-in­duced, dim­pled skin "Cel­lulite". While it might be cool to give this phe­nom­e­non a vogue name, it does noth­ing for im­prov­ing the way most women feel about what is con­sid­ered a rogue body im­age sit­u­a­tion.As an in­ter­na­tion­al fit­ness pro­fes­sion­al/pre­sen­ter for the past fif­teen years, Ken­neth Wafe, Di­rec­tor of Mus­cle Movers Fit­ness Lim­it­ed, Trinidad, bears wit­ness to the fact that women are the main sol­diers in the bat­tle to over­come Cel­lulite."Both males and fe­males can have cel­lulite but it is more com­mon in fe­males," he ex­plained.

Wafe, an I.S.C.A mas­ter train­er ex­plained that this "beast" called cel­lulite is ac­tu­al­ly fat cells called adipocytes."There are two types of adipocytes - the di­a­mond and cylin­dri­cal," said Wafe. ."These cells ac­cu­mu­late en­er­gy in the form of lipids, which they re­lease back to the body on de­mand. It shows it­self as dim­ples or de­pres­sions main­ly in the skin of the but­tocks, hips, ham­strings, knees, arms and quads."Wafe al­so lent in­sight in­to the caus­es of cel­lulite, stat­ing that there are a num­ber of fac­tors that con­tribute to its oc­cur­rence in­clud­ing ge­net­ics, hor­mon­al changes, di­et, and lifestyle.The fit­ness ex­pert stressed that while it is not pos­si­ble to erase cel­lulite es­pe­cial­ly from the thighs and butt nat­u­ral­ly, its ap­pear­ance how­ev­er can be min­imised by di­et, ex­er­cise, and lifestyle changes."Ex­er­cise, par­tic­u­lar­ly strength and flex­i­bil­i­ty train­ing, will help with this process, as the build­ing of mus­cle will help min­imise body fat," he said.

Help fight cel­lulite with these­cel­lulite-bust­ing moves.

Be sure to check your doc­tor be­fore you at­tempt these ex­er­cis­es.

Lunges

Lunges work the glutes, quadri­ceps and ham­strings while you keep your abs en­gaged to main­tain a straight back, mak­ing them ef­fec­tive at com­bat­ing cel­lulite. While stand­ing with your feet to­geth­er, take a long step for­ward with your left foot, low­er your­self by bend­ing your knees, and then bring your foot back to the start­ing point. Re­peat with your right leg and con­tin­ue to al­ter­nate back and forth. To in­crease the re­sis­tance, hold a med­i­cine ball against your chest and hold dumb­bells by your sides.When lung­ing, do not let your front knee go past your toes. For a more in­tense vari­a­tion, place your feet in a lunge po­si­tion, low­er your­self down and jump in the air. Af­ter do­ing a set of reps, switch your lead leg and re­peat.

Prone Leg Lifts

Prone leg lifts tar­get the glutes and ham­strings on the back of the thighs. While ly­ing on your bel­ly, lift your right leg in the air as high as pos­si­ble and force­ful­ly squeeze your glutes and ham­strings. Slow­ly low­er your leg and re­peat with your oth­er leg. Al­ter­nate back and forth in a steady mo­tion. To in­crease the re­sis­tance, strap on a pair of an­kle weights.

Squat Thrust with Twist

A squat thrust with twist works your glutes, hips, thighs and abs at the same time. Stand with your feet shoul­der-width apart and clasp your hands out in front of your chest.Slow­ly low­er your­self down un­til your thighs par­al­lel the floor, and as you do so, twist your tor­so to your right side. Stand back up, low­er your­self again and twist to your left.Al­ter­nate back and forth with every squat.

Squat Thrusts

Squat thrusts force you to con­tract your abs while you si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly work your glutes, ham­strings and quadri­ceps. While stand­ing with your feet to­geth­er, bend down and place your hands on the floor ap­prox­i­mate­ly shoul­der-width apart and in front of your feet.Steadi­ly kick your legs straight be­hind your body and form a straight line from your shoul­ders to your heels. Quick­ly kick your feet back for­ward and con­tin­ue go­ing back and forth in a steady mo­tion. For a vari­a­tion, al­ter­nate kick­ing one leg at a time be­hind you.

In­fo for ex­er­cis­es­from Live­strong.com.