TONE AT HOME : The 10 Best Butt Exercises For Home Workouts

As a working mom of two I TOTALLY understand what it’s like to be strapped for time. That doesn’t mean that working out has to fall to the wayside. It simply means we have to get creative at home. For those of you who know me I actually HATE the word TONE. The fact that I am even writing TONE AT HOME, makes me puke a little in my mouth LOL. But hey google likes it. So TONE AT HOME it is. The act of toning is actually putting on muscle and stripping away fat so that you can see the muscle. Strength training and proper nutrition are the BEST, MOST EFFECTIVE combination to TONE. Onto the Booty work.
As a trainer to regular people in Boston for the past 15 years many of the people I encounter simply don’t have the mind body connection to our glutes. This can happen when we sit a lot, don’t strength train enough, have babies, have back pain…the list goes on and on. As a result, you could be doing all the “right” exercises but you still don’t feel your butt! Or perhaps you feel one butt more than the other.  I too have one bionic butt cheek and one that is a little slow to the party.
Give this prone glute squeeze + lift a go before you jump into the other exercises. Make sure that you are feeling your GLUTE, not your hamstring, not the front of your leg…YOUR GLUTE. Give your butt a squeeze with your hand in order to help your mind make the connection. It works!

I hope you find it comforting that my clients struggle with this one just as much as you do 🙂
Next we will perform a glute bridge with pallof hold. Once again we will individually target one glute at a time while simultaneously getting your core on on board. When working out at home, simply attach your band to your bed, sofa or staircase.

Now that we have taken the time to wake up those glutes we are going to work them in standing with my latest favorite the single leg wall squat. This a glute medius exercise like NONE OTHER! If you like to run, make sure to give this one a shot!

Lunges can really target the glutes when performed correctly. If you have ever worked with me in person or completed Smart Strength you KNOW this to be true. Once you have nailed down the basics, give the Step Through Lunge a try.  These can be done bodyweight or using a dumbbell/ kettlebell/ sandbag…heck even a kiddo 🙂 I recommend performing 6-8 per side.

Ahhhh on we go to one of the most butchered exercises of all time. The lateral band walk.  These are designed to work your glutes NOT YOUR HIP FLEXORS. If you find that you cannot feel your glutes please refer to this post.

We have discussed supine, and standing glute exercises, now let’s talk hands and knees kickbacks. This exercise is awesome for core recruitment and performing them at the wall can make sure you don’t shift from side to side. Make sure you place the band beneath your knee so that it stays put for the duration of the exercise.

Frog Pumps on steriods!!!! In this variation I elevate my feet and add a band to further emphasize driving my knees out.

Up next we have my favorite booty building exercise of ALL TIME! The hip thrust! I love this exercise so much that I created a playlist with all of the various variations I use within my own workouts, my training sessions with clients and in my online training programs. I am sure you will find a new variation to give a try in this playlist.

The Step Up To Reverse Lunge is another one of those bang for your buck exercises that hits BOTH glutes on both sides of the exercise. This is one of my clients LOVE TO HATE favorites from Smart Strength.

And last but not least…we have the Squat! There are endless variations on this exercise as well but we want to make sure we are doing the squat properly in order to reap the benefits of this exercise. Squatting can be another basic exercise that a lot of people simply don’t perform optimally!

Have more questions?
Shoot me an email at stacey@staceyschaedler.com
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Check out how you can get DO IT YOURSELF programming from me courtesy of Smart Strength , Fast Fitness and Smart Strength 2.0 Gym Edition.
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Come see me at the studio!