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workouts
women: butt
By Martha Lourey Bird | MSpSC, BSpSC (ExSc), DipRT

While trimming down total body fat with calorie-burning exercises, you can also tone up the muscles. To tone your bottom muscles, try doing the following exercise routine every other day. Repeat up to three sets of 12 to 20 standing and lying exercises — be sure to rest a couple of minutes between sets.

Instructions

1.	heel presses Lie face down, resting your head in your hands. First, bend one knee to a 90-degree angle and then also bend your ankle to a 90-degree angle. To activate your bottom muscles, lift your knee and thigh about 4 inches off the floor, as shown. Try to keep your lower back relaxed (don't arch) and both hips firmly on the ground. Gently lower the knee back down to the ground between lifts and change legs when you have done as many as you can on one side.

2.	lunge ups Stand on a step and take a large step back with the one foot, as shown (in picture a). Keep your body upright as you bend your back knee down towards the floor, as shown (in picture b). Be careful that this knee doesn’t actually touch the ground. Straighten the back knee again to return to the starting position each time. Perform up to 20 lunges with one leg in front and then swap sides.

3.	squat presses To begin, stand up straight and place your feet shoulder-width apart. Keep your eyes fixed in front of you. To perform the squat, bend your knees and push your bottom away from you, pretending you’re going to sit on an imaginary chair. Sit down to 90-degrees at the knees and keep your heels pressed into the floor, head up, as shown (in picture a). Then, straighten your legs, and as you stand up again, extend one leg behind you, as shown (in picture b). The action of pressing the heel out behind you emphasizes the butt work. Return to a squat in between and make sure you swap legs each time. If you find it difficult to balance, hold on to a fixed object such as a table, door handle or bench.