Butt Exercises for Women – Growing your Glutes

Butt Exercise: Back Squat

If you are looking for a great butt building exercise, you would be hard pressed to do much better than the traditional back squat.
Back squats place a significant load on the posterior half of the legs, namely the glutes and hamstrings.  To execute a back squat with proper form, I recommend practicing first with an unweighted bar as these types of butt exercises require practice to perfect.
Begin with a barbell resting behind your head at your shoulders.  Keeping the weight in your heels, begin descending slowly into the back squat keeping your chest lifted.  Drop your hips until they are parallel with the floor.  As you begin to come back up from your back squat, utilize your glutes and hamstrings to help you rise back to the top.  It is critical to keep the core tight during this difficult butt workout.

Butt Exercise: Barbell Thrusters

Ready to take things to the next level and make one of the great butt exercises work for your whole body?  Meet the Barbell Thruster.  Cross fitters have know for some time that combining a powerful front squat with a push press is a full body slam dunk that will help you get stronger and increase your functional fitness.  For those looking to build the best butt possible with great butt workouts will appreciate the barbell thruster even more.

Begin holding a weighted barbell at your shoulders, hands in a reverse grip and elbows squeezed together and lifted.  Sit back pressing through your heels and holding your core strong as you descend into the front squat portion of the barbell thruster.  Sit until your butt is parallel with the floor.  With power, press upward unloading your legs and arms at the same time.  You end this butt exercise in a full overhead press keeping tight alignment all the way through from the barbell, shoulders, hips and heels.

Butt Exercise:  Plie Squat

For one of my favorite targeted butt workouts, check out Plie Squats.  Stand with your feet wider than shoulder width apart, toes turned out.  I like to hold a plate in front of me for the plie squat,  but you can also hold a dumbbell straight down.  Push your hips back and lower your body until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Be sure to keep your chest lifted and the core engaged.  While pressing strongly through your glutes, a plie squat will take you back up to the starting position with your legs straight.  As an upper body bonus on plie squats, squeeze tightly with your arms by keeping your elbows in tight to your body.

Butt Exercise:  Bulgarian Split Squat / Single Leg Lunge Rear Foot Elevated

Whether you call it a Bulgarian Split Squat or a Single Leg Lunge with Rear Foot Elevated, I love butt exercises that challenge both your glutes/legs and your balance allowing you to really get the most out of the movement.  Feel free to use a stable bench as you being learning the Bulgarian Split Squat but for advanced trainers, few things are better than a stability ball to make this one of the toughest butt workouts out there!

Stand lunge-length in front of a stability ball. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and rest the top of your left foot on the ball behind you. Lower your body until your front knee is bent at a 90 degree angle.   Squeezing your thighs together will keep you from toppling over in this Bulgarian Split Squat.