#5 butt-lifting

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The, er, bottom line is a combo of moves that target your entire butt – not just your gluteus maximus You also need to home in on your gluteus medius and minimus to truly defy gravity. Part B is geared to framing your derriere by minimising surrounding body fat. (There’s no point having rock-hard glutes if they’re hidden.) Which is where the cardio and clean eating come in. Incline walking and running, stepping machine work and bike interval sessions are great ways to simultaneously burn calories and, therefore, body fat and further steel your glutes. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Exercise 1: Heel sky raise What it does: This exercise will give your butt shape and firmness. How to do it: Start on your knees and elbows. From here, put one leg out straight and flex your foot. Focus on lifting this leg from your butt (leg must stay straight or you are not using your butt). Slowly raise your leg from the ground until it’s in line with your body and lower back to the ground. Do it right: Perform this slowly, pausing at the top of each repetition. This is a small and controlled movement. If you raise too high you will use your back muscle instead of your butt. To really make it work, keep the height range between the ground and your torso. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Exercise 2: Single leg ballet kicks

What it does: Creates long, lean hamstrings and a perky butt.

How to do it: Start by correcting your posture, drawing your belly into your spine while finding something straight ahead to focus on with your eyes. Keeping your chest up and shoulders back, bring one hand down to touch the opposite toe, staying perfectly aligned and getting the back leg as high as you can.

Do it right: Your aim is to get maximum stretch down the hamstring of your standing leg. This exercise is to be performed slowly and with lots of control. With practice this exercise produces amazing results.

Exercise 3: Lower half lunge

What it does: These lunges will have your legs burning while forcing your glutes to contract without rest, targeting several muscle groups simultaneously and elevating your heart rate.

How to do it: Start in a lunge position with your back knee on the ground. Keeping your chest up, torso straight and belly pinned to the spine, bring your knee off the ground until you’re halfway up. Then go back to the ground.

Do it right: Do 15 pulses each leg and perform slowly for best results.

Exercise 4: Bottle

What it does: This exercise cleverly targets all areas of the glute and will help give you a pert, rounded butt!

How to do it: Start by lying on your stomach with perfect alignment and hands placed on the ground under your chin. Feet should be together and flexed. Using one leg at a time, imagine you have a bottle on the outside of your foot and you’re trying to get your foot up and over the bottle. Come back to starting position, making your way back over the imaginary bottle.

Do it right: During this exercise, keep your leg straight and glute contracted as you want to focus on using your glute to lift your leg.

Exercise 5: Pelvic tilts

What it does: This exercise will help lift your butt and stop it looking as though it’s sitting on the back of your legs.

How to do it: Lie on your back with your knees up and toes pointed up (on your heels). Slowly raise your hips off the ground until your pelvis is like a bridge. Hold this position for five seconds, focusing on squeezing your glutes up and belly down (imagine you are trying to get them to meet in the middle). Release and repeat.

The rules

Cardio: Do cardio sessions on days between strength training days. If you’re doing interval training (HIIT), aim for 20 to 30 minutes. For low-intensity cardio sessions (LISS), aim for 45 to 50 minutes. HOT BUTT TIP: If you can only fit three to four workouts into your week, optimise workouts by choosing strength and HIIT over steady state cardio sessions.

Strength: Integrate this butt workout into your strength training, which you'll do three to four times a week. Repeat these exercises as a circuit and work up to three sets of 15 reps.