The Build-a-Better-Booty Workout

Firm your rear and flatten abs with these 10 easy, effective exercisesYou're always busting it, saving it, covering it, or laughing it off, but how much time do you actually devote to sculpting your butt? Not enough.

Pretty much anytime you're standing on two feet, your glutes and hamstrings are hard at work. Problem is, like most Americans, you're probably spending more and more time parked on your backside in front of a computer or flatscreen.

That's too bad, since your glutes are your largest (and possibly most powerful) muscle group and therefore an all-star calorie burner and metabolism booster...as long as you use them. Neglect them long enough and your bum becomes your body's problem child--loaded with potential, but lazy, forgetful, and unmotivated. And not so hot-looking either.

Fitness Rules You Should Never Follow

Show your buns some love with these 10 killer moves. They work the glutes and the muscles that support them (the hip flexors and hamstrings) to tighten and tone your booty and core. Whether you choose to add them to your existing routine in place of lower-body exercises or combine them for a calorie-frying buttock-toning circuit is up to you. Either way, you'll wind up with a superior posterior.

Build-a-Better-Booty Workout
Combine these moves into one seriously booty-shaping routine.

Get a printable version of the entire workout!

The Warmup:
Do one or two sets of five to 10 reps of each move (10 to 15 for the Sideways Band Shuffle).

Single-Leg, Single-Arm Reach
Facedown Hip External Rotation
Single-Leg Hip Extension
Sideways Band Shuffle

The Workout:
Challenge the glutes with high-intensity supersets. Do 10 to 12 reps of 1A, then immediately do 10 to 12 reps of 1B. Rest for 30 to 60 seconds, then work through the pairs until you've done 10 to 12 reps of each move. Do each superset twice.

1A/ Stability-Ball Hip Extension Leg Curl
1B/ Dumbbell Bent-Knee Deadlift

2A/ Dumbbell Step Up
2B/ Stability-Ball Back Extension

3A/ Elevated Reverse Lunge
3B/ Dumbbell Straight-Leg Deadlift

For a video how-to, watch fitness instructor Bethany Lyons below for the entire workout.

--Rachel Cosgrove, Women's Health

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Need more workout ideas? Buy The WH Big Book of Exercises and you'll never get bored again.







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