Best Exercises for Your Butt

Appearance and athletic bottom line

What makes a better butt? If improving appearance is the goal, your target “butt cut” might be firm and round. If your aim is to boost athletic performance, powerful glute muscles will contribute. If you simply want to stay in shape and provide support for your back, glute-centered exercises can help. When you start a new workout to reshape your rear end, you’ll become aware of and build muscles you didn’t even know you had. Fitness experts offer the following tips on the best exercise routines for your bottom.

Rear anatomy

Your pelvis forms the basis of the bone structure of your buttocks and hips. Women tend to have a wider pelvis and therefore a wider butt than men. The main buttocks muscles are the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. Closer to the surface, a superficial fat layer provides the padding. The gluteus maximus is among the largest muscles in the human body. Deeper posterior muscles include the piriformis, obturator, quadratus femoris and gemellus muscles. However, the glutes are the prime movers and shapers in the buttocks region. Glutes are highly powerful muscles that deserve a serious workout routine.

Weight training

Weight resistance training is essential for reshaping glutes. However, dainty light dumbbells won’t make a much of an impact, says fitness expert Ilaria Montagnani. Heavier weights are needed to make a real difference in these big muscles, says Montagnani, a karate black belt who creates fitness DVDs and leads fitness classes in New York City. It takes at least one set of dumbbells with significant weight, she says — 15 to 20 pounds for a woman. “Actually, our hips are strong,” she says. “Our legs are much stronger than what we think. So, to engage stronger glutes, better-looking glutes, more effective glutes, we definitely need to work against resistance.” Squats, lunges and deadlifts with weights are key basics for strengthening glutes. Martial art kicks help, too. Working out at least three times a week is a start, she says: “It would be amazing if every time you could devote around 20 minutes to glute work.”

Squats

To reverse the sedentary, butt-sagging effects of sitting, try squatting. Classes can teach you proper squat mechanics, such as pressing your heels firmly on the ground and engaging your core muscles to protect your back. Squats can be done in a variety of leg positions. Goblet squats involve holding a free weight or kettlebell up to your chest and sinking down into your heels. Plie squats start with your feet slightly wider apart than shoulder distance and your toes turned out at least 45 degrees. While keeping your abs tight and chest upright, smoothly lower and raise your body. “Really focus on squeezing and engaging your glutes: Every time, think about your glutes and, specifically, pressing the heels down on the floor harder,” Montagnani says. “Whether you have a weight in your hands or on your shoulders — you have to put the work into it.”

Lunges

Lunges are some of the best lower-body exercises you can do. Lunges work the quadriceps and hamstring muscles of the thighs along with your glutes. Performing lunges with weights adds tension to your glute workout to make it more effective. Lunges variations take you in different directions. Reverse lunges, in which you first take a step backward, load both the hamstrings and glutes. Lateral lunges incorporate the sides of the glutes and the hips as well. Space permitting, walking lunges bring an added dimension of balance and coordination. Although regular walking engages the backs of the thighs with each step, Montagnani says, glute reshaping requires more effort. “In order to be worked differently, to a point that they’re challenged, you break down the muscles and fibers and they become stronger — therefore you shape them differently.”

Deadlifts

Deadlifts, which basically involve lifting weights from the ground and replacing them in a series of reps, can be done with a barbell or dumbbells. Good form is essential to prevent injury, which is why taking a class or two is so useful. Muscle groups that will benefit from deadlifts include your quadriceps, glutes and back muscles. “Having strong glutes, it’s most likely that you’re going to prevent any back injuries and have a much stronger, well-rounded physique,” Montagnani says. “I always try to train glutes as hard as possible.” While most people know that core strength is important for posture and back support, she says, having a strong glute region is just as crucial.

Ballet for your bum

Ballet can do wonders for your posterior. Dancer Jillian Dreusike is the creator of the Allongée technique and owner of a Philadelphia studio offering ballet-based workouts. “We actually have an entire class dedicated to shaping your rear end,” Dreusike says. (The class is called Derriere, the elegant French word for butt.) The 50-minute class includes ballet-influenced exercises done from floor or standing positions. “It’s really one of the more popular classes,” she says. “Because with everything in the media (about) the Kardashians having nice butts, it’s definitely more of a focal point for the ladies.” Within a few weeks of classes, she says, members start noticing changes in fitness and seeing results.

Tabletop exercises

Some exercises take you to a tabletop position on hands and knees, with your hands directly beneath your shoulders and knees beneath your hips. In donkey kicks, you lift one bent leg with the heel to the ceiling, then tap that knee down back in line with the other, nonworking knee. For this familiar exercise, placing a dumbbell in the crick of the working knee adds resistance to help build the glute muscles more quickly. “What makes it a little different with us is we have those heavier weights in,” Dreusike says. “Most women opt for a 10- or 15-pound weight.” Another tabletop position involves crossing one leg over the other, squeezing the thighs together and then lifting the top leg to the side, targeting the inner thigh and glutes. “You also get the waist involved, which is kind of cool,” she says.

Standing ballet moves

Certain full-body exercises can make you feel like a ballet dancer. “Here’s one straight out of ballet, because ballerinas have really nice strong butts, so we incorporate it into our Derriere class,” Dreusike says: You stand behind the barre (or a countertop or chair of similar height at home) and balance with your leg lifted in a bent-kneed, outwardly rotated position called passé. Next, you extend your leg back and straighten it to an arabesque position, then return it to passé, repeating 10 to 15 times on each side. “As the leg stays turned out, you can really access the gluteus minimus muscles,” she says. Another standing exercise uses sweeping ballet lunges to activate the glutes.

Benefits for men and women

Ballet-based classes are popular among women, but men also show up in Dreusike’s Philly classes. “Dancers are beautiful but they’re as strong as all hell, because they use their bodies for every single thing they do,” Dreusike says. “So the program in and of itself builds the strongest version of your body.” Montagnani, in her New York fitness classes, also sees some men who want to improve their posteriors, for both athletic ability and appearance (although women are more likely to admit to the latter). Men who are into sports and athletics realize the importance of building strong glute muscles, Montagnani says: “If you have strong glutes, you’re a stronger runner. You’re a stronger sprinter. You are able to jump. You are able to move whether you play tennis or basketball. The power is not just in the legs.”

Focused training

Whatever kind of workout you do, start with your particular area of concern, says Kelly Coffey Meyer, owner, creator and producer of CoffeyFit DVDs and Coffeyfit RAW on VIMEO. As a student, she says, “I’m going to have a good 5-to-10-minute warmup of jogging, marching in place, sidesteps, whatever I’m doing. But then I get right into my glute work, because I want my energy focused on what I want to work on.” For at-home and in-class exercisers, weighted bridges are excellent. Start by lying on your back on your matt, holding weights on your hips as you lift and lower them. As you master that move and feel strong, Coffey Meyer says, you can progress to bridges with your upper body on a bench. She, too, recommends exercises performed in tabletop position with weights. Ankle weights are even better, she says, with one caveat: “You have to have a good-sized ankle weight. I have 10-pound ankle weights and I much prefer doing that to balancing that darn dumbbell behind my knee.”

Gym equipment

If you have access to a gym, exercise machines can help you safely lift larger amounts of weight with more support for proper form. Glute-improving gym equipment includes machines for hack squats, hamstring curls and butt-blasting exercises that simulate the effect of donkey kicks with weights. “You can go heavy as you want and really push through it,” Coffey Meyer says. A Smith machine, which holds a barbell and lets it glide vertically between a pair of steel rails, helps users keep their upper bodies aligned during squats.

Outdoor glute workouts

You can tone your rear while getting fresh air. “For the glutes and the back of the legs, walking up hills is amazing,” Coffey Meyer says. She also suggests: “If you’re in the park and you have a bench, step up and step down on top of it. That’s great for the legs and glutes.” Although using a bench is similar to taking a step class, it’s not exactly the same. “The difference is, you’re going slower,” she says. “You’re focusing more on having the whole foot on top of that bench. You’re pushing through the heel to go straight up. It’s also a lot higher. The higher that level, the more the glutes work.” If you don’t mind counting, she says, “Do 10 sets on one leg then 10 on the other. Rest, and then repeat that three more times. Or sometimes I’ll put on a song and then do it for the entire song.” Enjoying motivating music can help time pass more quickly while you’re improving your glutes.

Best Exercises for Your Butt

These exercises target and reshape your glute muscles:

— Squats with weights

— Lunges with weights

— Deadlifts

— Hack squats

— Hamstring curls

— Donkey kicks with weights

— Standing ballet postures

— Walking uphill

— Bench stepping

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