While squats and deadlifts with a barbell are really popular glute-building exercises, they're not the only way to train your butt muscles. In fact, weights aren't even essential if you are looking to improve strength and definition in your glutes.
Heaps of the best glute exercises only use bodyweight as a force of resistance to place strain on the muscle. Of course, if significant muscle gain is on your fitness agenda, then you should consider buying one of the best kettlebells and learning how to use free weight exercises to build muscle.
But for this workout personal trainer, Heather Robertson will guide you through 15-minutes of bodyweight exercises specially tailored to target the glutes. There are two circuits to complete and you will use unilateral exercises to train one side of your body during each circuit.
Unilateral exercises help isolate muscle groups so you should be able to tell if you are performing the exercise right or not by whether or not you can feel it in your glutes. If not, take a moment to watch Robertson's demonstrations and correct your form before moving on.
Each round consists of 40 seconds of work per exercise followed by just 10 seconds rest. Since this bodyweight workout is mostly floor based, do your lower back a favor and place one of the best yoga mats underneath you for added support.
Watch Heather Robertson's 15-Minute Glute Workout
Although we spend a lot of time sitting down on our buttocks, the glutes do play a key large role in assisting your posture and ability to carry out everyday tasks.
There are three distinct muscles in your bottom, the gluteus maximus (the largest muscle in your body), gluteus medius and the gluteaus minimus. The stronger these muscles are the better things like your pelvic alignment and momentum while walking or running can be and strong glutes can even improve your balance.
Robertson said, "You can always add in a mini band or ankle weights for a little added resistance". One of the best resistance bands will be suitable for this as they will provide an added layer of tension for your muscles to fight against helping them to adapt and grow.
Not only do the unilateral moves used in this routine, such as kickbacks and single-leg bridges, ensure that each side of your glutes is equally worked but research published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology revealed that unilateral exercise is better than bilateral exercise for strengthening the core.
So you can kill two birds with one stone and improve your glute strength while working on your abdominal and core muscles using Robertson's workout. If you have longer to spare than 15-minutes why not learn how to train the obliques for more defined abs and include an extra core challenge to the end of your training?
