10 Best Butt Exercises

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woman doing butt exercise

A great thing about strengthening your butt is that it will look great as well as strengthen the muscles! To achieve this goal, you must perform the standard butt exercises consistently. It's easier than you think because the best butt exercises go a long way with only a small amount of time. See which ones will blend into your workout routine.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

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1. What Are the Best Butt Exercises?

Having a strong butt helps will assist you in other exercises of your workout as well as helping with daily activities. Sometimes you need to slow things down, and sometimes you need the ability to perform explosive movements; both will help with your goal. With controlled movement, the best butt exercises improve balance and agility to a whole new level. Getting your glutes working regularly will help you stabilize your stance and master your form.

The best butt exercises fall into one of these four main categories: squats, lunges, bridges and lifts, and jumps and kicks. You may gravitate toward butt exercises that fall into one major category, but we encourage you to try exercises of all categories. You'll work your glutes and surrounding muscles differently by adding this variety.

2. How Are These Exercise Done?

Squats are the most well-known of the exercises for strengthening your glutes. Squats look simple to do, but the intensity increases when you do them at high reps or if you add weight with a barbell, dumbbells, or medicine ball. There’s also an array of squat variations that can add power and agility to your workout routine. As they strengthen your butt, they’ll also improve your knee stability and your range of motion.

Another popular choice amongst the best butt exercises are lunges. Your upper body just goes along for the ride with these lower-body strengthening staples. Squats will have a broader base of support, but the split stance of doing lunges forces you to re-adjust your weight constantly and improve balance. Lunges also provide a wide variety; you can base your selection to fit your desire to improve hip or ankle mobility. 

Bridges and lifts allow you to squeeze your glutes at full hip extension. With these movements, you’ll engage your glutes along with your legs up to your shoulders. Jumps and kicks allow you to add more explosive, body-weight elements to your butt exercise routine. In these instances, you can incorporate your upper body into the movements.

3. How Do These Exercises Work?

Even though you'll be highlighting your glute muscles as you do the best butt exercises, other muscle groups will also work together. The bonus with doing butt exercises is that you’ll also be working your core and your lower back. Exercises that target the butt, like lunges and squats, will require you to have an engaged core throughout the movement. This means better gains for you as you’re building core strength along with building your butt.

Another technicality to remember when doing the best butt exercises is the close relationship between your butt strength and hip mobility. You will see this relationship when watching your squat depth. Sometimes you can experience glute pain when running due to weak hip abductors. Therefore, hip movements and cardiovascular training will come into play while developing your butt.

4. What Do You Need for the Best Butt Exercises?

Even if you aren't able to go to the gym every day, you can still do exercises for your butt. Many of the best butt exercises can be performed anywhere, since you only need a small space to do these exercises. With these exercises, you often use your own body weight, so equipment isn't really needed. This also makes it easier for you to do when whenever you want.

5. What Else Can You Do for Best Results?

Performing the best butt exercises is part of your focus, and you can prioritize your lifestyle to make faster progress. You want to push past a sedentary lifestyle and resist temptations to overeat and consume junk foods. As you add new exercises to your workout routine, continue to improve your diet. When you more eat natural, unprocessed foods and control your meal portions, you create better circumstances for your success with fitness.

How We Reviewed

Reviewed

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We’ve reviewed the best butt exercises to bring you a noticeable difference to your glutes with strength and aesthetics. We have some of the most popular tried-and-true exercises plus some intriguing dynamic exercises you may not know of to round off the list. Use the tips about some pros and cons for you to decide which exercises you like to add to your workout routine. For some of the more difficult ones, we've included links to a demonstration video so you can be sure you're working out correctly.

What We Reviewed

  • Squats
  • Lateral Squats with Rower
  • Standing Kickbacks
  • Glute Bridge
  • Lunges and Reverse Lunges
  • Step Up Knee Lift
  • Toe Taps
  • Hip Drive
  • Skater Hops

Squats

squat

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How to Do

With your shoulders back and your chest lifted, stand with your feet apart and directly under your hips. Keeping your upper body as straight as possible as you pull in your abdominal muscles, lower your butt toward the ground. Bend your knees as if you're lowering yourself into a chair. Trying not to lean forward, lower yourself as far as you can, and straighten your legs to rise back up.

Pros

  • A staple movement for your lower body
  • Stabilizes back and core strength

Cons

  • Chest mustn't lean too far forward
  • Remember to go low enough

Demonstration

Lateral Squats with Rower

 Lateral Squats with Rower

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How to Do

Have your right foot standing at the end of the rowing machine while placing your left foot on the seat. With your hips pushed back, slide the seat down the rail with your left leg out and squat down. Have your bending right knee go down to 90 degrees with your right knee stacked over your ankle directly. As you stand back up, slide the seat toward you again with your left foot and repeat 10 times before switching sides.

Pros

  • Similar movement to a one-legged pistol
  • Works one side at a time

Cons

  • Can easily lose form if not a controlled motion
  • May not have a rower available

Demonstration

Standing Kickbacks

Standing Kickbacks

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How to Do

Standing upright with shoulders rolled back, and chest lifted, keep your abs tightly engaged and release tension in your lower back. Pick one leg to kick back and keep your toes pointed as that leg goes up behind you. Concentrate on controlling the movement to make it come from your glute rather than your back. Then lower your leg back down, so it's parallel to the other, but don't let it touch the ground, instead lift it back up behind you again for 10 reps.

Pros

  • Allows for a hard squeeze of the glute
  • Works one side at a time

Cons

  • Paying attention that both sides reach the same height
  • May mistakenly throw your back into the kick

Demonstration

Glute Bridge

Glute Bridge

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How to Do

Lie down with your back completely flat, bending your knees with your feet on the ground and keeping arms at your side with your palms down. Slowly lift your hips off the ground until you for a straight line with knees, hips, and shoulders. Squeeze your glutes hard while you draw your abs inward without overextending your back during the movement. Keep your body’s alignment of the bridge position for a few seconds, then ease your butt back to the ground.

Pros

  • Glutes work hard to maintain balance
  • Can do pulses at the top of the movement

Cons

  • May overextend your back
  • Shoulders must stabilize your body 

Demonstration

Lunges and Reverse Lunges

Lunges and Reverse Lunges

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How to Do

Standing with your upper body straight, shoulders back, and chin up, keep your eyes looking forward and not down. Engage your core and lower your hips as you step forward with one leg, bringing your front knee in directly above your ankle. Your other knee will descend an inch from touching the floor, causing both knees to be bent at about a 90-degree angle. Direct your weight into your heels as you push yourself back to the starting position.

For Reverse Lunges, stand with your upper body straight, shoulders back, and chin up as you take a large step backward with one foot. Lower your hips so that your front leg is parallel to the floor with your knee positioned directly over your ankle. Your other knee bends at a 90-degree angle with foot pointed at the floor, and your heel is lifted. Drive through the heel of the standing leg as you bring in the extended leg to get back to starting position.

Pros

  • Works one side at a time
  • Putting weight on heel helps you push with glute

Cons

  • May overextend with your step
  • May step too shallow

Demonstration

Step Up Knee Lift

How to Do

Put a sturdy box or bench in front of you. Stand with your body straight, shoulders back and chin up with your eyes looking forward, and then step up with one foot. As you plant that foot on the box or bench, drive with your other foot to bring your knee as high into the air as you can. Then lower it back down and fully step onto the floor before repeating on the other side.

Pros

  • Great exercise for legs and butt
  • Tension and contraction to strengthen core

Cons

  • May not have a sturdy box or bench available
  • Can be challenging to stay upright the whole movement

Demonstration

Toe Taps

The Toe Taps

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How to Do

Lie down with your back completely flat, bending your knees with feet on the ground and keeping arms at your side with your palms down. Slowly bring both legs up to the table top position so that your knees are at a 90-degree angle and directly over your hip joint. Inhale deeply, then slowly exhale as you bring both your feet back to the ground. Tap your toes lightly then inhale as you bring your legs back to the table top position.

Pros

  • Great hamstring contraction 
  • Intense flexing of your core

Cons

  • Not directly focusing on glutes like other exercises
  • Not good to slam legs or go too fast

Demonstration

Frogger

The Frogger Exercise

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How to Do

Put yourself in a plank position with your hands underneath your shoulders, maintaining your body in one straight line. Make a jump that brings your feet to the outside of your hands. You will come into a deep squat while keeping your hands on the floor. With hands remaining on the floor, jump your feet back into then plank position, then repeat.

Pros

  • Strengthen your core and tones your glutes
  • A dynamic, explosive movement

Cons

  • Must support with arms and shoulders throughout the movement
  • Stomach crunching can affect breathing correctly

Demonstration

Hip Drive

The Hip Drive Exercise

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How to Do

Start by sitting on your knees, legs together, with your butt resting on your heels. Engage your glutes to lift your butt and raise yourself to a kneeling position. As you slowly lower yourself, keep your glutes and abs engaged. Return to starting position; then thrust your hips forward again for 10 reps.

Pros

  • Primarily works glutes and quads
  • Works secondary muscle  abs and hamstrings

Cons

  • May be an uncomfortable resting position
  • May do without engaged glutes if going too fast

Demonstration

Skater Hops

The Skater Hops

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How to Do

Standing with a slight bend, put your weight on your left foot and bend your left knee bent. With your right leg lifted off the floor behind you, jump toward your right side by pushing off with your left leg. Land on your right foot, lifting your left leg off the floor behind you. Continue hopping back and forth as you touch your jumping foot on the floor behind you for balance.

Pros

  • Excellent to improve agility  
  • Allows equal workload for both sides

Cons

  • May be a challenge for weak ankles
  • Poor form if not paying attention

Demonstration

The Verdict

Engaging your glutes with dynamic movement and finding the best butt exercises has never been more fun. We suggest that you start with lunges as they effectively build strength and help you practice balance and control. Glute bridges are also an easy, efficient exercise that will allow you to visualize the tightening of your glutes and abdominal muscles as you strengthen them. Soon you'll see and feel the difference with your stronger glutes!

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