I don’t want none…
Unless you got buns HON!
This week’s Work It Out is selfish. My goal this year is to grow a booty. When I first started with my trainer, he told me I literally ran my ass off. Nice, right? But he was correct. I had NO arse.
My friend Jessica and I decided that it is time to become more well-rounded, and take our glutes to the maximus.
We are off to a great start. Walking/sprinting inclines is great for the booty, and last weekend Jessica, our friend Kathleen, and I all hiked up Stone Mountain.
Jessica, Kathleen, and me
Beyond hiking, there are a ton of exercises you can do in the gym that will help to round out your rump (yes, I’m having way too much fun with this theme).
Today’s Work It Out is composed of my favorite booty-building moves. I do 4 sets of these, 15 reps each. You may want to start out with 3 sets of 10-12 reps and work your way up.
Two-Leg Glute Lifts
Lie face down on a stability ball, making sure your hips are on the ball and your hands are shoulder-width apart on the floor in front of you. Engage your abs, squeeze your glutes, and draw your heels together and your toes apart. The knee should make a right angle. Press your heels up towards the ceiling 15 times.
Need a challenge? Wear ankle weights!
Banded Side Walk
This is awesome for hitting the area where your glutes meet your hamstrings – an area where many women carry body fat.
Tie a resistance band just below your knees. Lower your booty about half way to a squat position, with your feet slightly more than shoulder-width apart (as pictured above on the left). This should be just enough to put tension on the band. Remain in your half-squat, keep your core tight, and step to the right with your right leg first, then your left. Be sure to keep tension on the band through the entire exercise. Repeat for reps, then switch sides to lead with your left leg.
Barbell Hip Lifts
This particular move killed my backside last week. You can perform this on a bench with a barbell or plates, or you can use the Smith Machine. Start light and work your way up as you get used to the movement – it can feel awkward at first!
To begin, sit on the ground with your back against a bench and your feet in front of you. Hold a (padded) barbell or plate in your lap. Extend your hips sky-ward to raise the barbell, keeping your core tight. Take care to push the hips upward using the glutes. At the to of the left, your body should form a straight line from your shoulders to your knees (full hip extension). Squeeze at the top, then slowly descend back to the ground.
One-Legged Deadlifts
Want to hit your glutes AND hips at once? One-legged deads are the way to go. This move does require some balance. Take your time, start with a light, and don’t be embarrassed to rest your hand on a bench to steady yourself.
Stand on one leg with the opposite foot slightly back, resting on the toe. Hold a weight in front of your thigh and lean forward from the hips, keeping the back straight and core tight. Slowly bring the weight towards the floor. Lift the back leg up as you lower the weight, reaching hip-level at the top of the move. Squeeze the glutes, returning to the upright position and repeat for reps before switching sides.
Disclaimer: I am not licensed or a professional anything. If you don’t rock a Beyoncé booty after this, it’s not my fault. Don’t sue me. End scene.
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People talk a lot about losing, but do you have a specific body part you’re looking to GROW?
What is your favorite booty move? Or favorite booty joke? Extra points if your comment makes me laugh out loud in my meetings tomorrow. 😉
I love one legged deadlifts. Great workout! May I steal that hip lift on the ball for one of my classes? They love new moves.
Please do! I hope they complain… bwhahahaha! 😉
And now I’ll be humming Baby Got Back all the way to the gym this morning! Excellent! 🙂
Great post . . . because I HAVE recently grown in the booty area! And I’m so proud. I feel like such a dork saying all of this, but it’s true. My butt was flat and, well, yuck, from all the crazy cardio and not enough strength training. Well, over the past year, I’ve been changing my routine. And the impact for building more muscle appeared on my butt first! Yay! I’m not hesitant to say that it looks great. I love it. Squats, side-lunges, hip lifts, kettlebell swings, and walking lunges have been my go-to exercises. Thanks for some new ideas to incorporate!
That’s awesome! Mine has made some imprvement too… but always room for more growth. Isn’t it cool how you can literally build your body?
Forget JT, Laura’s bringing sexy back ;)! I have such a pancake booty and would kill to add some more junk to my trunk! The crazy part in me loves the post-workout butt soreness- I’m looking forward to trying the barbell hip lifts!
I love the soreness too – it make it feel like you have the tightest tush ever! 🙂
I have zero buns. Flat as a pancake. It’s genetic unfortunately. I try my hardest to give it some lift but can’t fight what your mama (and grandma) gave you! 🙂
Yes, you can fight genetics. I know from personal and professional experience. Focus on the muscle group and it will grow with the proper training and nutrition.
Angela – I agree with Steve (my trainer). Mine butt has changed a lot since I started lifting. Stil room to grow, but it’s no longer totally flat! And my mom and grandmother have “mom” butts. I hope they aren’t reading this… 😉
you had me at barbell hip lifts!
Ive never tired those…
My main goal was to grow my legs and you know what!? I CAN FINALLY SEE MUSCLE ON THEM! It’s so freaking exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!! My favourite booty move is stiff dl’s! definitely gets my booty every time, but the hip thrusters with a barbell are great too
That’s so exciting!!! You’ll be pressing 6x your body weight in no time!
Last night is did stiff dl WITH a squat. Whoa. My arse is sore today. 🙂
This baby got back.
OK, not really. Well, sort of. I’m not Kim or Khloe or anything, but a guy I was dating last winter did tell me he liked to walk behind me when I was walking up stairs.
We are no longer together.
I think you have a fantastic backside. Clearly that dude didn’t deserve that view.
One of my close friends always complains about how her butt is flat. I told her to try fitting in squats and lunges into her routine since she didn’t want to try anything too “crazy.” She doesn’t want to do that because it’ll bulk her up… Oh the misconceptions! Personally, squats are my favorite as are donkey kicks!
LOL! Women make me laugh when they say they are afraid of bulking. In reality, it’s SO HARD to accomplish bulk…
I wouldn’t mind a wee bit of extra curvature in my booty. I’m a fan of walking lunges, bench step-ups, and this one hard-to-explain body weight move. I know, so helpful, right?
This is totally going to be in my head all day! My anaconda don’t want none unless you got buns. Of course, that’s the line that it’s in my head.
Thanks for the moves. I’m okay with the way my butt looks (maybe because I don’t see it?) but I know that my glute muscles are pretty weak.
You’re welcome. It’s not the WROST song to have in your head. Not like Hit Me Baby one more time… 😉
Hip lifts! That I gotta try!
Shoulders…definitely shoulders and hamstrings 🙂
Great moves. Love the banded walks (aka firewalkers) as well as the single-leg deadlifts. I alway feel like my form is better with those. I also like doing the hip lifts on the stability ball (bridges?) and weighted donkey kicks
Weighted donkey kicks rock! I should have added that one…
Kellie (in the photo for barbell hip thrusts) has the most amazing booty! When I met her at one of our competitions, I couldn’t stop staring at it! Then she told me what she did to get it and I was like, “Yeah, I need to get in on that!” 🙂
T.
Just saw that she posted this on facebook after I commented! 🙂 http://youtu.be/EzqzgGkt7rQ
T.
Why does my work block YouTube?! Ugh.
Great now I will be singing “Baby Got Back” all day long, it’s a bit like “Ice, Ice Baby” once you start it is hard to stop singing.
Anywho if there was an exercise to grow some boobs that would be nice, but I am pretty sure those don’t exist.
I will have to give some of these booty exercises a try as mine has just slowly slipped away and it would be nice to round things out a little.
Have safe travels Laura!
Wellll… you can actually build up your chest muscles (pecs) to give the appearance of larger boobs.
I just tried that deadlift at my desk (without weights) and nearly fell on my face… but did it! It makes me think of that bird toy that just keeps bobbing it’s head. LOL that is all I can think about now. Ok well I will be doing this move quite a bit if only to amuse myself.
LOL! Did your co-workers see??
I’ve got plenty of booty. Masses of jiggly booty. Sigh 🙁
These will work well for toning too! 🙂
Mannn I wish I had a good booty joke for you! I’ve always had a large-ish rear… but it’s not very toned. #celluliteisgross
Whatever! You have a great rear. I mean that in the least awkward way possible…
I’m working on my core.. mainly abs. I can see some upper ab muscles poking through… it’s the lower ones that are stubborn!
Do you do leg raises on the captain’s chair? That’s a great one for lower abs!
I have become a big fan of the one legged dead lifts. they really do work your legs more than you would think. big fan
I’m in the same no booty> grow booty boat and ran mine off, too. I love deadlifts, and barbell hip thrusts! I’ve never tried them on a Smith Machine. They’re somewhat awkward so I try to do them in the corner of the gym, haha. I also really like cable pullthroughs, but those definitely get stares. AWK-WARD. It doesn’t help that the cables have balls at the end of them….. Okay, I digress.
I also lately have been loving the donkey kick/”butt blaster machine,” one legged leg press, and good mornings. I love kicking my own ass, and making it sore (that just doesn’t sound right), and know DOMS means growth! I’m all about the butt hurt! (Workaholics, anyone?) 😉
They are really awkward… I try to grab a corner and not make eye contact with anyone! I did them in the hotel gym last night. I switched up my workout to get them done first before my (male) co-worker made it down. LOL!
The butt blaster is a regular in my program too! I get so much weight on there I want to puke. That means it’s working, right? 😉
Haha, yes! I do the same. Best and worst feeling ever! Like you feel like you might die a little, but in a good way. hahaha.
I love how nerdy you are.
It’s why we get along. 😉
I was a sprinter my whole life (I even ran in college) but when I stopped training 6 days a week I (sadly) lost a bit of my bum. These exercises are so do-able, thanks for the tips!
xx Kait
Thank you! Did you see the Olympic sprinters? Great bums!
Does it count if I want to lose and then grow in my arms? I don’t want old lady arms! 🙂
You won’t! All your swimming will prevent that. 🙂
Love these exercises! One legged deadlifts are my favorites! Body part I want to grow…my quads! I have the hardest time getting them defined! I’m working at it. They are slowly, but surely peaking out!
They can be SO stubborn, but after you hit the tipping point they usually bust out!
always trying to grow shoulders and booty.. and they also are my favorite to workout 🙂 have made some serious booty gains in the past few months- the only running i do is bursts of springs, otherwise its incline walking!
Good for you! That’s really all you need unless you’re trying to lose.
I def need to work my booty more. I love all these moves!! The banded side walk helped me so much when I was trying to strengthen to help my knee.
Get that junk in the trunk! I’ve got plenty I can share if need be. 😉
LOL1 You do not. 😛
My anaconda don’t want none unless you got buns hun!
I love this post and I will be pinning it for sure because boy oh boy would I love an ass, some junk in the truck, a firm and beautiful derrier, a donkey bootie, some cushin for the pushin. You get the idea.
Oh and I totally expect to have a Beyonce bootie after one session. I’m sure that’s realistic.
HA! Cushin’ for the pushin’ did make me LOL. You win! 😉
I also am working on my bootayyyy…. Especially since seeing Beyonce’s superbowl performance. That booty. oh my. This is perfect!! thank you 😀
It was epic, wasn’t it?
LOVE these moves!!! That first one can be done on a bench or incline bench too – I need ankle weights cause I can’t keep a dumbbell in between my feet! 😉
Hip lifts are hard core! I saw one where you put your heels on a separate bench or step & hip lift & can put weight plates in lap – it works! 🙂
Love this post cause my old booty keeps hanging low no matter what I do.. damn age! 😉
Grow – MY BOOBS! 🙂 Need a lift too! 🙂
I tried it with dumbbells too… it was tragic. LOL!
I’ve seen hip lifts like that too! I’m still trying to master the Smith machine (hardest for me), but those are next!
This will do it form me, huh? I need something to firm my saggy bum…
You’d be surprised how much you can change your shape if you work consistently!
aw man lady, it’s like you did 2 in a row for me! 🙂 I gotta get some back so my IT bands quit being stupid. And come to find out, my belly pooch might go away if my hips open up and get stronger. what up?
also — i forgot to mention that 2 of these moves are already in my prescribed regimen from my PT. One-legged deadlifts on a balance disk (with no or light weight) are good to help build balance too.
I’m reading your mind. 😉
Those deadlifts on the balance disk were on my PT list when I rehabbed my ankle. It works… if you do it…
haha. “… if you do it …” yeah. I actually wish I would have snagged a balance disc when I got a new fancy foam roller on amazon this AM. I’ve got amazon prime, so maybe I can get one anyway …
Seriously allllll I’m doing right now is stretching, focusing on form, and slowing everything way down. I’m running 1-2 miles per day (instead of 3-5 a few times a week) and really stretching everything out and strengthening right now. You’ve been a huge inspiration!
PS random Q — you’re not working the Arnold Classic at all by chance? My friend Shelly’s BFF Amanda won a max muscle weight loss contest and they’re being the “booth babes” for max muscle.
Awwww… thanks! I’m so glad you’re taking it easy and letting your body do what it needs. 🙂
I wish I was going… I need someone to sponsor me. I’ll work!!!
Somebody would sponsor you. Put a tweet out (find the ah’nold hashtag or something).
Oooh man, I haven’t done banded side walks in years, but I remember those being killer! And I still want to grow some QUADS, stick-legs are overrated.
Happy Valentine’s Day pumpkin! 🙂 Thanks for this post – I’ve been looking for more ways to work out my butt! I’ll try these moves and get back to you.
Happy Valentine’s ex-work wife! We need a Taqueria night soon. Miss your butt! 😉
Gah, these are all great moves…NONE of which I can do right now thanks to my shitty ass knee (not that I’m bitter or anything), but I’m DEFINITELY coming back to this once I get fixed up! Fingers crossed that will be sooner rather than later! I might be able to handle that stability ball one (which looks awesome)…we’ll see…I’ll report back tomorrow!
I would love to strengthen my arms! My biceps want to be big and strong just like you when they grow up! 😉
Awwww… poor knee! I’m ready for you to get better! 🙂
Thanks for the exercises. How often do you do legs and butt a week? also i am trying to lose some weight without losing the little butt i have and continue to work on building it…..What do you recommend i do?
I do each once a week. just make sure you’re working out the glute muscles. 🙂