The Best Exercises To Tone Your Buttocks
The glutes are the largest muscles in the body and for women in particular, a muscle group that can have a major impact on appearance and safety. It is also an important muscle to keep strong and healthy as it is used for even serving activities such as standing. The glutes work together with the hamstring muscles, and training these muscles to keep them strong can also prevent injuries to the knees, hips and lower back.
As many of us do office work and spend days sitting, the muscles in our hips weaken and become ineffective in contraction. Practicing exercises for the buttocks and hips counteracts this weakening and can lead you to have curves in the right places and to tone your muscles.
In addition, glute training offers excellent benefits, for example due to the fact that they are the largest muscles in the body, training them burns a lot of calories compared to a smaller muscle group. As mentioned earlier, another benefit is the prevention of injuries, especially those related to the knees and ligaments as they rely on the hips for balance. Additionally, your posture improves as you strengthen these muscles.
Muscles Of The Buttock
The buttocks are composed of a few muscles such as the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus and below them the hips.
Il large buttock - is the best known muscle due to the fact that it is the main muscle that determines the aesthetics of the butt. This muscle gets involved when you stand up and this makes it essential in squats and glute bridge.
Il middle and small buttocks - are the two smaller muscles. They are used in movements that require the raising of the thighs to the sides and also outwards if the leg is straight, finally also inwards if the hips are bent.
Hips - they are in fact separate muscles but are described collectively as also. This group includes three muscles, the hamstring, the semitendinosus and the semimembranosus.
These muscles are needed to assist the gluteus maximus extend the hips and also to flex the knee. The hamstring helps to rotate the hip outward, while the semitendinosus inward.
There are numerous exercises you can include in your glute firming workout, some of these are certainly better than others although, as always, multi-joint movements take precedence in your weekly workout routine.
Squats and deadlifts are excellent for training the glutes, as are good mornings. They also burn a lot of calories as many muscle groups are involved in the body.
1. Good Mornings
Good mornings are an excellent exercise for muscle balance, crucial for injury prevention. This is because there is no way to cheat with this exercise by shifting weight to your quads instead of working your glutes, back and hips, this can be a problem with squats for some people. The good mornings ensure an overall work of the muscles.
How to do them:
Begin the exercise with your feet slightly apart, just short of shoulder width apart. With the barbell on your back in the same position as the classic squat, hold the bar in place with your hands and keep all your muscles steady. With a slight angle of the knees, keeping the back straight, come down forward with the chest by pushing back the hips.
Tilt your torso 45 degrees to the floor. Going even lower may be fine if the execution is perfect but be cautious when you are still learning this exercise. Maintain a good grip on the bar to keep it from rolling towards your neck. Contracting your glutes and hips, return to the starting position and perform as many repetitions as necessary.
It is better to start with light loads and increase until you can maintain a good execution so as to avoid potential injuries.
2. Bridge For Buttocks
The glute bridge and hip thrusts are in my opinion two of the best glute exercises around and I personally got results quickly when I started including them frequently in my routine.
The bridge affects both the buttock and hip muscles, as well as those of the abdomen as both the abdominals and the lower back are important to keep the body stable during exercise. Hip lifts should be done with body weight until you master the execution, then you can use a barbell.
When you want to do this, I can only recommend some type of pad under the bar, be it foam type or even an exercise mat folded in two, especially for women who may experience barbell abrasions.
How to do them:
To perform this exercise without weights, simply lie on the floor face up by bending your knees with your feet flat on the ground. Push with your heels and lift your hips creating a straight line from the shoulders to the knees.
Hold the position for a few seconds while making sure to contract your glutes and finally return to the starting position. Aside from adding weight, you can make it more difficult by using a bench to broaden the movement. Even using one leg instead of two will increase the difficulty and promote muscle balance.
There are also other exercises that I highly recommend including cable kick backs and reverse leg raises. Dumbbell swings also act on the glutes and are great for being introduced into training.
3. Reverse Leg Raise
To perform the reverse leg raise, lie with your chest on the bench. The chest must rest on the bench but the legs do not because you will need space to lift them during the movement.
How to do them:
Raise your legs until your thighs are in line with your torso. Maintain this position and then return to the starting position. It is important to contract the buttocks during the movement. You can also use a Swiss ball if you don't have a bench available or just to vary as the ball will be less stable.
4. Swings Manubri
Dumbbell or kettle bell swings are excellent exercises as they too burn a lot of calories.
How to do them:
To perform dumbbell swings, grab a dumbbell with your palm facing down. Keep it at arm length in front of the waist. Bend your knees and hips while keeping your back straight and then lower your torso to form a 45 degree angle with the floor. Rock the dumbbell between your legs remembering to squeeze your buttocks during the movement.
Keeping your arm straight, straighten your legs and swing the dumbbell up to chest height as you return to a standing position. Bend your knees again as the dumbbell swings down between your legs and back to the starting position again and repeat the movement continuously.
Complete all necessary repetitions safely. It is not possible to perform this in crowded gyms where space is an issue.
5. Lateral Leg Raises With Elastic
Resistance bands are really helpful in glute training with exercises like side leg raises and shell exercise. Elastic side walking is also a great exercise towards the end of your routine but also at the beginning to warm up your glutes before doing heavy exercises like squats and deadlifts.
How to do them:
To perform a side leg lift with elastic, first lie down on your left side.
Wrap a resistance band around your ankles, a short band is preferable for this exercise. Rest your head on your left arm during the exercise.
Place your right hand on the ground in front of your chest to maintain balance during the exercise. Being careful not to move other parts of the body, lift the right leg as high as possible, hold the position and then move back to the starting position. Repeat the process on the opposite side of the body after completing all the necessary repetitions on one side.
6. Side Walk With Elastic
How to do it:
The side walk with elastic is just as easy to perform. Simply place the legs inside an elastic, even here a short band is preferable but if you don't have one available, you can tie a long one until it is the desired length. Place the elastic just below your knees. Take small steps to the left as long as you can and repeat to the other side.
How to do them:
Lie on your right side with your hips and knees bent at approximately 45 degrees. The right leg should be on top of the left one, the right ankle on top of the left one. While keeping your feet together, lift your left knee as high as possible without moving your pelvic area.
Hold the position and then return to the starting position. Do not allow the right leg to lift off the ground during the movement and, as with all exercises, contract the muscles during the exercise.
This movement must look like a shell that opens and closes and although it seems easy, it is a really difficult exercise, even if very effective.
Not to be forgotten
By including glute-specific exercises in your routine along with multi-joint exercises, you will not only notice a great aesthetic improvement in your physique, but also a noticeable difference in strength and power as these exercises teach the muscles to work in harmony and thus reduce the risk of injury.
It is important to stretch after each workout and the foam roll is an excellent way to complete a stretching session while reducing post workout cramps.
