These 9 Moves Will Give Your Glutes the Workout They Deserve

If toning your tush is at the top of your #fitgoals list, adding an extra glute move or two to your daily fitness routine can help you make it happen. Ally Leard, a Reebok fitness trainer, says, “It’s important to work out your glutes because not only are strong buns nice to look at, but they also improve posture. Movements like squats, deadlifts, and lunges will strengthen and lengthen the opposing hip flexors to help you stand tall.” Since Leard (and everyone else on the planet) would love a booty like Kim Kardashian, she gave us nine moves we can add to our gym workout to get us there pronto. Read on for her best tips.

1. Air Squat: Keep your weight on your heels, feet hip-width apart and toes facing slightly outward. Make sure your torso is held upright and your shoulders are pulled back. Bend your knees, and push your butt and hips out and down behind you. Keep your weight on your heels, and make sure that your knees are over your toes, but not beyond them. Come down until your thighs are below parallel, or as close as you can get to parallel. Then, return to the standing position and repeat.

2. Back Rack Lunge: With feet hip-width apart and the barbell resting on your shoulders behind your neck, step straight back with your right leg, lowering your body to the ground until your front knee reaches 90 degrees. Return to the standing position by putting pressure on the left heel while squeezing your glutes. Repeat the movement with the opposite leg.

3. Bulgarian Split Squat: Standing away from and slightly in front of a bench with your feet shoulder-width apart, grab your dumbbells with an overhand grip, keeping your arms close to your body. Raise one foot onto a flat bench behind you with the other leg slightly in front of you. Gradually lower your leg until you feel a contraction without your knee hitting the floor. Rise back to the starting position.

4. Deadlift: With your feet underneath the barbell, plant your feet hip-width apart. Bend your knees, and grab the bar while straightening your back and lifting your chest. Keep the bar over your mid-foot, shins against the bar. Hold the bar and stand up with the weight, keeping the bar in contact with your legs through the entire pull. Keep your chest lifted and your back straight throughout. Keeping the bar in contact with your body, bring the bar back to the floor.

5. Front Rack Lunge: Begin in a front rack position, the barbell resting on the meaty part of your chest and shoulders with your elbows pointed straight in front of you. Hold the bar with a hook grip. Keeping the bar in this position, step forward into a lunge until your front knee reaches 90 degrees and your back knee taps the floor. Then, use the momentum from your front leg to push back into your starting position.

6. Glute Ham Raise: Set up the machine so that your knees are either directly on or slightly behind the pad, feet are firmly planted on the platform behind, and the back of your calves are pressed lightly against the upper ankle hook. Begin with your torso perpendicular to the floor. Then, squeeze the hamstrings, glutes, and abs, and lower yourself until the torso is parallel to the floor. From there, return to the starting position by pushing the toes into the foot plate and pulling up with the hamstrings. Be sure to keep the glutes flexed.

7. Good Morning: With your legs shoulder-width apart and knees slightly bent, arch your back with your chest up and lower yourself to where you feel pressure, but no pain, in your IT band. Keep the barbell in a back rack position throughout, and lift back into the standing position.

8. Hip Extension: Set up the machine so that your knees are behind the padding, with your quads on top of the padding. Starting with your body parallel to the floor, flex at your hip while maintaining a static torso. If your torso flexes, you have gone too far. Lower your torso at your hip toward the floor, then utilize your glutes and hamstrings to raise your torso back to the parallel position.

9. Walking Lunges: Keeping your upper body straight and your core engaged, step forward with one leg until both knees are bent at a 90-degree angle. Make sure that your front knee is directly above your ankle while your back knee does not touch the floor. Keeping the weight in your heels, push forward and swing the back leg into the lunge position to switch to the other leg.

Show us your best glute moves and tag us in your #fitjourney pics @BritandCo!

(Featured photo via Getty, GIFs via Reebok)