bootylicious

Scott Schwab:
I thought that I would take a minute and post something about the backside and its benefits. The butt is one of those areas that takes on high levels of scrutiny and yet, you see your own butt fewer times than other supposed coveted areas. Is there really a perfect butt and/or exercises that can truly deliver? Perhaps, but here are a couple that no matter what type of butt you have, you can add some shape, lift, and form.

Stairs
Stairs are so great because they are one of the exercises that engage the whole leg as well as the butt. Running stairs is one of the best ways to tighten your backside and give it a defined shape. If you have a little cottage cheese that has sneaked up on you the last couple of years, this is a great way to eliminate the bumpy look through thinner material. Speaking from experience, I actually had a nickname in Junior High called bb butt. The reason my friends called me that, is that it looked like someone took a pellet gun and shot my bum. I didn't realize then but it was cottage cheese or scottage cheese. And people wonder why I am the way I am? Running stairs was the best thing that happened to me.

Lunges
Regular lunges are great and will engage the lower part of your butt and your hamstring. The key to a little lift is strengthening that area and building muscle. It is also one of the areas that people will put on weight the fastest. Inactivity and weight gain will usually attack the areas that you don't see. To get control of that, you simply have to work your butt off, literally. Take a set of dumbbells and get to work. Obviously there is a limit to your work and you don't want to eliminate your ability to walk, but do high reps and low weight for some good lean muscle growth. You will also want to make the action slow and balanced. That way you avoid injury and truly work the correct muscles.

Reverse Lunges
Just like the regular lunges you take weight and get to work. Surprisingly stepping backward engages different muscles than stepping forward. Having weight in your hands and down to your side will work your hips, lower back, and upper to middle butt. This will continue the lift and cut down on the shelf effect. The shelf effect is being able to place something on the top of your booty and it will stay there. This exercise will help the rounding effect especially for pancake bums and flat bums.

Squats
The best workout for the butt is the squat. Truthfully, you look at the exercise from start to finish and it is all about the strength in your backside. Having a great butt also requires you to work at your legs. Strengthening the hamstrings and the quads will lengthen muscles and strengthen the gluteus maximus and minimus. As you do slow squats with the right amount of weight you are working your quads,hamstrings and butt like no other exercise. It does require you to have good form and don't think you have to lift a lot of weight to be effective. Even if you have no weight or dumbbells, the exercise is still the most effective.

Make sure with all of these exercises that you extend your leg or lift as far as you can. That is another reason that you begin with very low weight. Even testing yourself without weight would be recommended depending on your activity level. With the three lifts mentioned here, the best advice that I can give is to get "low".