Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Shape Your Butt Faster By Working Out Less

Shape your butt faster by working out harder and smarter in less time! Its that simple.



Fire up your butt muscles first! Your glutes are probably not firing properly because of inadequate neural drive from the central nervous system. In other words, it is probably not an issue of strength. First, you need to lengthen tight muscles. The stretches are listed as follows (use self myofascial release with foam roller before doing these stretches):

1. Hip Flexor Stretch
2. Quadriceps Stretch
3. Bodyweight Lateral Lunges (pictured above)

Then, you need to activate (fire up) your glutes with these exercises:

1. Glute Bridge
2. Opposite Leg Opposite Arm Raise
3. Glute Kickbacks

Lastly, exercise your fired up glutes with these exercises:

1. Bodyweight squats
2. Lateral tube walks
3. Walking Lunges and lateral lunges

Now you're ready for your workout! Keep in mind, this is just part of your total workout which includes upper body work. To be effective, glutes (and leg work for that matter) should be trained with cardio and strength training.

The American Council on Exercise (ACE) research found that the top cardio exercises for shaping your butt (and legs) are: lunges, walking uphill, stair climbing, jogging and running. No big surprises here and no gimmicks! Just hard work! And research has proven that high intensity interval cardio is superior to longer duration, slow cardio (interpretation: go hard for 20 minutes instead of slow for 60 minutes)! Do 3-4 days of cardio exercise.

As for strength training? You can't leave out squats! Do your squats---bodyweight squats, dumbbell squats, barbell squats, split squats, lateral squats, one-legged squats, etc. Mix it up but do them. The benefits of the squat exercise extend beyond your legs. The same can be said for deadlifts (traditional, stiff-legged or other variations). Other top glute exercises are:

1) Step ups (front and lateral)
2) Standing cable or machine hip abductors
3) Standing, prone or floor hip extensions
4) Floor lateral thigh raises
5) Glute bridges and marching glute bridges
6) Pelvic raises and posterior pelvic tilts

If these exercises become easy for you, then increase resistance or weights.

Download your FREE 14-Day Accelerated Fat Loss Program, start burning max fat and start building your lean, hard body!

"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

No comments:

Post a Comment