Perfect Your Technique

Killer Moves to Tone Your Butt

Want to sculpt and tone those glutes?

Basically, it comes down to two things

  1. losing excess body fat by eating a healthy diet (yep, there’s no escaping that one) and exercising.
  2. Building muscle tone to lift and firm the buttocks.

The buttock muscles (the gluteals) are actually a group of three muscles – gluteus maximus, gluteus minimus and glueteus medias –  which are essential in the maintenance of pelvic stability and prevention of injury. Our “glutes” however, are potentially the laziest muscles we have, so we need to make them a priority in our training or we face ongoing injuries. And hey, it doesn’t hurt that a well trained behind is going to look great too!

 

 

To achieve the best results, all of the gluteal muscles need to be worked. Exercises such as lunges and squats, while great, tend to work more the gluteus maximus muscle (at the rear) and not so much the smaller muscles around the sides, which help lift and sculpt your behind, and trim your hips.

Without a doubt, the most effective, targeted way to tone your buttocks is by doing Pilates exercises – the go-to workout of choice for an Insta-worthy behind that Victoria’s Secret models, A lister celebs and supermodels of the world swear by.

Try these two Pilates moves to get those glutes firing.

Kneeling Side Kick





Kneel on one knee, with the other leg held out straight and in line with the body. Place one hand on your hip and the other on the mat, about 60 cm from your knee, so that your hand, head, hip and lifted leg are all in one straight line. Slowly raise the leg up to hip height and slowly down again without touching the mat. Feel this work through the side of the buttock. Repeat 50 times with a 10 second hold at the end, then change sides.

Horsekick

 



Kneeling on all fours, extend one leg straight out behind you and turn the foot outwards. Keeping the T-Zone tight and ensuring there is no arching at all through the back, squeeze the buttock, exhale as you slowly sweep the leg out to the side without lowering the leg and without moving the hips at all. Inhale return the leg back to the centre. Do 50 reps each leg keeping the body dead still.


Want more? Check out our studio reformer Pilates classes at studiopilates.com.