The women's fitness blog

Where is the Butt (Gluteus Maximus)? The scientific name for the butt is the gluteus maximus or "glutes" for short. It is the round muscle below the back and hips that is involved with almost any motion that the leg makes in case there is someone out there who doesn’t know where their butt is!

The Glutes are made up of several muscles that are termed the Gluteal muscles of which the maximus is the most powerful. It is this muscle that we need to target when working on shaping and achieving a sexy, firm butt.

Working Out the Butt

Working out the butt isn’t that hard. It is worked almost anytime we use our legs and as such the way to make muscle gains is to intensify what you do normally.

The following motions and exercises work the glutes really well:

• Stair Climbing
• Hill running
• Bike Riding
• Sprinting
• Lunges
• Squats

Now, we are never going to shape and tone our butt if we just do normal squats, just going through the motions. Likewise, we are not going to make any progress by just wandering up some stairs. Like any muscle, in order to make it grow we need to add resistance by adding weight or intensity. The best and most traditional way to shape the butt is with weights at the gym. I will go over some of the simple ways later.

Getting a Toned Butt...

Getting a toned butt is an emotional task. It can take a very long time and the results can be painfully slow. However, with the information contained in this post and this blog losing that fat butt will be as painless as possible. Here are the important aspects that you MUST DO if you want to lose your fat butt as fast as possible:

1 - All over weight loss
You guessed it! If you want to have a good looking and shapely butt you need to lose the fat that is covering it. It is like any muscle, if you want people to be able to see the definition and tone you need to remove the layer of fat that is covering it.

Now, I don’t want to get into an argument about whether a big booty is better than a small one. I like them both! This post is for women who want to lose weight off their butt and as such will focus solely on that.

The fact of the matter is you cannot lose fat off of only one area of your body. If you want a toned and firm butt you need to lose fat off of your entire body.

In order to lose weight quickly you need to use three things well:

1. Diet;
2. Weight Training; and
3. Cardio

This post will look at all three things briefly. In order to lose weight you need to, very simply, burn more calores than you take in. You do this by boosting your metabolism with the right foods and the right types and amounts of cardio.

2 - Cardio Hard!
Have you ever seen a footballer or a runner or a bike rider with a bad butt? I haven’t. They do so much running and lunging and all sorts of movements that work the glutes. If you want to tone and shape your butt then you should do like they do.

The types of cardio that are best for the butt are the hard ones! Sprinting up hills, lunging, jumping squats and all that kind of stuff. You see, if you increase the elevation of the surface or do cardio that makes you bend over more then your butt will get more use. So, if you wan to shape and tone your butt while you are doing cardio, pick a hard one.

3 - Weight Training
Weight training for the butt isn’t that hard. It is essential. Not only does weight training shape your butt muscles, it makes your metabolism speed up and as such you will burn more fat and absorb less calories as fat during the day. All of these are the perfect ingredients for toning a muscle!

The Best Weight Training Exercises for the Butt

As I have mentioned, adding resistance to natural movements is the best idea. Here are the best butt exercises:

1. The Jumping Squat
   I have mentioned this baby before. It will leave your whole lower body burning and begging that you never do it again. Fast results with this one.
2. Weighted Lunge
   Careful if you have bad knees, otherwise a perfect exercise.
3. Step Ups
   Start with a light weight and gradually increase.
4. Hill Sprints
   One of my all time favourites!
5. Leg Press Machine
   One of the few machines that I use at the gym. Keep a wider stance on this one with some heavy weights to really work your butt.

These are just some of the best exercises. These five are more than enough to do the job if you do them well. Does anyone have any others they love to use?