Shape & Tone Your Booty in 10 Moves
Built a toned booty before summer with these at-home moves. (GIFs by Demand Media)
The backside is one of the most challenging areas to tone and sculpt, but never fear – we’ve got a booty-firming workout you can implement at home, the gym, a park or just about anywhere. Some of these may call for working with a partner for safety or spotting. And if you do all of the exercises listed, you’ll want to start with the lower number of suggested reps. But watch and learn, then try these – you’re sure to feel your booty burn!
Donkey Kicks
The donkey kick is an excellent booty and hamstring activator and a great finishing exercise (though it can be done any time during a workout). HOW TO DO THEM: Come onto all fours with your toes curled under and feet flexed. Line up your knees directly under your hips and your shoulders directly over your wrists. Keep the legs about hip-distance apart. Activate all of the muscles in your trunk, and while keeping the 90-degree bend in the right leg, slowly kick the right heel back and up toward the ceiling, foot flexed.
Lift the leg as high as you can go without arching your lower back or hunching your shoulders. Keep your abdominals strong to hold your hips steady throughout. Don’t allow the grounded leg or thigh to lean away from the lifted leg. Return the right knee to the mat and repeat for 10 to 30 reps on each side.
Pretzel
The pretzel is one of those subtle exercises that offers solid engagement in one of those hard-to-reach areas: the outer glutes. Pay attention to form to ensure the outer glutes are activating properly and adjust your feet and legs to fit your range of flexibility.
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HOW TO DO IT: Sit on the floor or mat with your left leg bent back behind you and your heel reaching toward the left glute. Your right leg should be bent in the same direction with the heel touching the top of the left quad. With your chest and arms squared over your right leg, keep both sit bones grounded to the floor. Gently lift the left knee off the ground, keeping your left foot down on the ground. Return the knee back to ground. Repeat for 30 reps before switching sides.
Pistol Squats
The appropriate prop can make challenging pistol squats accessible to just about anyone. They’ll work the quads, glutes and calves and are sure to provide noticeable results. HOW TO DO THEM: Holding a rope, TRX attachment or other prop without elasticity as an anchor, stand on one leg. Extend the opposite leg out in front of you as high up as you can comfortably manage. Contract the abdominal muscles, roll the shoulders down and back and come down into a single-leg squat. Keep the bent knee directly over the ankle.
As you lower, keep your free leg from touching the floor so that when your glutes touch the floor (or come close), your free leg is hovering parallel just a couple of inches above the floor. Slowly rise up, driving through the heel of the bent leg, keeping the knee and shin from coming too far forward. Repeat for 10 to 15 reps on each side and feel the burn.
Stance Jacks
The process of moving from a standing position to a twisted crouched position not only works your glutes, it engages your oblique muscles. HOW TO DO THEM: Start standing with your legs together and hands at your sides. Engage your core and jump your feet out to the sides. At the same time, crouch down into a twisted squat and touch the right hand down to the floor near your left foot. Jump back up to an upright stance and repeat, switching hands and sides. Do 10 to 20 reps.
Speed Skaters
This exercise is another excellent exercise for engaging multiple muscle groups. It works the glutes, arms, outer thighs and obliques. Plus, it’ll get your heart rate up. HOW TO DO THEM: Stand on one end of a mat and jump the left foot out wide to the left as you swing the right foot back behind the grounded leg. At the same time, swing your arms so they are opposite to the feet. So if your left foot is grounded, your right arm swings forward toward that foot, and vice versa. Do 10 to 20 reps.
Pelvic Tilt
Pelvic tilts are an excellent exercise for firming the tush as well as waking up the pelvic floor muscles. They may also help prevent prolapse in women as they age. But this isn’t a rapid-fire pelvic tilt. In order to engage and strengthen your booty, you’ll need to make this move much more subtle to avoid firing up the quads and hip flexors.
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HOW TO DO IT: Start lying on your back and come into a low bridge with the glutes and lower back off the floor (your upper back remains on the floor) with feet hip-width apart. Slowly tilt your pelvis so that your tailbone tilts up to the ceiling without allowing the lower back to come down to the floor. Return to a neutral pelvis and repeat for 10 to 30 reps.
Barbell Hip Raises
You’ll need a workout bench or step and a barbell with weight plates ranging from 15 to 25 pounds each (depending on your ability). Barbell hip raises isolate the glutes and engage the entire leg. And because of the position of the barbell, you’ll feel this in your abdominals, too.
HOW TO DO THEM: With the area just beneath your shoulder blades propped up on the bench, hold the barbell across the top of your hips (feel free to use a towel to pad the hip bones). With an overhand grip on the barbell, start with your tush hovering an inch off the floor. Engage your core and drive through the heels to lift your hips to just above knee height (if possible). Then slowly lower the glutes back to their hovering position and repeat. Do 10 to 30 reps depending on your ability.
Diamond Jumps
Named for the diamond shape both your arms and legs make during this exercise, this booty burner will also open your hips. HOW TO DO THEM: Start with feet shoulder-distance apart and your arms by your sides. Engage your core (it may not come naturally in this move, but it’s vital to preventing injury), then swing your arms up into air as you jump straight up. Your palms should face each other overhead, and your arms should be bent at the elbows with fingertips touching (diamond shape).
Your knees are turned outward and bent with the soles of your feet touching to make the diamond shape with your legs. Land with feet facing forward at hip width and repeat. Do about 10 to 30 reps and you’ll definitely feel your muscles and booty working.
Dumbbell Sumo Squats
Dumbbell sumo squats are basically a modified goblet squat. Rather than one large dumbbell held at the center of your chest as with goblet squats, you’ll use two dumbbells (one in each hand). These tone and shape your booty, giving you the rock-hard glutes you desire, and they’ll work your quads and hamstrings too.
HOW TO DO THEM: Stand with your feet slightly turned out and about two to three feet apart. Hold the dumbbells at one end with each hand so they dangle. Engage your core and slowly squat down, taking your seat as low as you can without shifting your weight forward. Keep the weight focused in the heels of your feet. Come all the way down until the ends of the dumbbells tap the ground, then drive through your heels to return to standing. Repeat 10 to 20 times.
Fire Hydrant
The fire hydrant is a fantastic abduction exercise that activates the outer glutes and hamstrings. It also opens up the hips and stretches out the inner thighs. HOW TO DO IT: Come onto all fours with your knees directly under your hips and your shoulders directly over your wrists. Keep the legs about hip-distance apart. Activate all of the muscles in your trunk and while keeping the 90-degree bend in the right leg, slowly lift and open that bent leg up to the side and out. Keep the angle of the leg consistent throughout and lift it until the leg is out to about hip height (or as high as you can go without leaning the opposite way). Keep your abdominals strong to hold your hips steady throughout.
Don’t hunch your shoulders, keep the neck long and the jaw away from either side of the shoulders. Keep the grounded leg vertical at all times and further engage your abdominals to help keep it in position. Repeat for 10 to 30 reps on each leg.
The original article “17 Exercises to Shape and Tone Your Booty“ appeared on LIVESTRONG.COM.
By Lisa Jey Davis
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