Ellen DeGeneres
 

Did anyone watch her show today and see the exercising glutes lady?? I just found it really amusing.

She doesn't come on until 4pm here, I'll have to watch it :)

Darn--I saw the add yesterday and forgot to set my DVR. It did look rather, um, interesting!!!

She has a segment on Wednesdays called "ellen's wonderful world of web vidoes" and they have showed a clip of this lady a few times doing these exercising, but today she actually had the lady on..I was laughing so hard! An interesting form of exercise that is for sure, but whatever works right?

Actually, the lady in question is named Suhaila Salimpour. She is one of the most talented Middle Eastern dancers and instructors in the US.

She has a video that has the glute squeezes in them-and it is a specific exercise that you do on the floor, to train you to improve your dancing hipwork when you are standing in dance posture.

Ellen basically aired a clip of the "funny video" in the past, and Suhaila went on the show to basically explain what was going on...

Ellen doesn't come on here until later also. I'll have to catch it today.

If I can elaborate a bit more-it definitely would look "funny" if you just saw the clip of her doing the exercise, and were given no background on what she was doing, and why she was doing it. There have been clips of Suhaila doing this on YouTube and other video sites, and they just have the clip up there with no explanation that it was a couple minute segment in the middle of a dance training dvd.

Middle Eastern dancers are trained in isolations, or basically, moving one body part/controlling one body part-while the rest of the body stays still. The exercise helps with our hip isolations, and makes them stronger, and better defined-because when you do them in the position that she has you do them in, the floor is against you, and gravity is no longer in your favor-so if you can master the movement well in that position-then when you get back into dance posturing, it makes your hipwork even better.

I don't know how else to describe it... :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JejV4-wYlE

This is a clip of another belly dancer who has practiced her glute drills, and has gotten great control! :D

Make sure you watch long enough to see her really get going. :lol: