The 3 Best Butt Exercises
As we’ve debunked, being a “Fit Bottomed Girl” doesn’t have a thing to do with the shape or the size of your booty—it’s all about your mindset and walking the walk! But if you’re looking to get your booty just a little fitter, tighter and rounder, we have three amazing moves to do just that from author of Thinner This Year, Jen Sacheck. An associate professor of nutrition at Tufts University (who did her post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard) she is also a national-level rower (who still competes!), an avid runner and all-around exercise nut, and a mother of two! So when she says that these three moves are the best butt exercises to do when you don’t have a lot of time, we believe her!
Either incorporate these moves into your current workout, or do a minute of each three times through with no rest in between for a 9-minute booty-blasting workout. After all, we like a fit butt and we cannot lie…
Best Butt Exercises for a Strong Booty
1. Hip Extension Lift. This is the bread-and-butter of getting the hip extensors firing (the glutes and hamstrings), Dr. Sacheck says. In this exercise, you lie on your back and place your feet either on a bench or the more advanced version is a Swiss ball. Keep your knees bent at 90 degrees and drive those hips off the floor, firing up those glutes. Hold for five seconds for one rep.
2. Split Squats. The split squat position when done correctly has a huge emphasis on the hip extensors and really overloads them, Dr. Sacheck says. It’s really great for balance, too! When doing the move, be sure to keep your front knee slightly bent, maintain good posture and keep your front thigh parallel to the ground.
3. The Lunge. Contrary to popular belief, the lunge has a much greater load on the glutes and hamstrings than the quads, especially when driving back up (the concentric phase). They are a bit harder to learn because of the dynamic step component and if someone has knee pain, this may not be the best choice. But it definitely defines the glutes because of the work load, she says!
What’s your favorite butt exercise? —Jenn
Comments
What’s the difference between the Split Squats and the Lunges? From the images, they look almost the same.
Hi Esther,
With the split squat you’re in a lunge position but stay there as you lower down and up for your reps, then switch to the other leg. On the lunges, you alternate from leg to leg which requires much more balance and coordination. That make more sense?
—FBG Jenn
How do I pin this? It’s wanting me to upload a photo to go with the pin and it doesn’t even give me the upload option!
Feel free to re-pin our pin, Michelle! 🙂
http://pinterest.com/pin/66991113180120300/
—FBG Jenn
I would love to pin this so I can keep it a as a great reference!
I’m a big fan of the hip extension lift – it’s great for toning up the glutes while also giving your lower back a good stretch 🙂
Will have to incorporate these into our workouts!
Nice post, just a little curious as to why you chose the split squat instead of the traditional?
Not bad indeed. But I’m also wondering why you would favor the split squat over the sumo squat. It seems to me the split squat targets about the same muscles as the lunges do. You’re definitely missing the necessary glute squeeze at the end of every squat this way.
I like the first one! I am recovering from a hamstring injury and hip surgeries, so I have to do bridges with a pelvic core ball right now. When I’m healthy, I also like doing bridges on a ball, and hamstring extensions on the ball. The hamstring extensions are when you lay on your back, feet on the ball, legs straight lifting butt off floor, bring legs in toward you, cthen extend out again. They work the booty and hamstring so well!!
Looking forward to starting
I can’t wait to try these… I’m currently trying to get back in shape and I don’t always have time for the usual 30 minute routines so this is a great startup to getting a workout habit going. And btw thank you for explaining the difference between the split lunges vs traditional lunges. 🙂
Comments are closed.