The Best Butt Building Leg Exercises for Stronger Legs

Nothing burns so good like a killer butt building workout. Whether you are just getting started on your fitness journey or you’re a seasoned athlete, these bodyweight leg exercises are convenient and can be adapted to any level.

I’m not a fan of the Kardashians (sorry) but there is one thing that we can happily credit the girls for: the big butt trend. It’s not just about looks, though I won’t downsize the benefit of a booty when it comes to filling out your favorite jeans.

Glutes are the largest muscle group in your body and they play an important role in overall strength and power. Strong glutes make functional movement – like going upstairs, getting up from the ground or squatting low – much easier. They improve core strength which improves your posture, balance and stabilization. They help you run faster, jump higher, lift heavier and improve general performance. In essence, no matter who you are and no matter what you do, strong glutes can only make life better!

10 BUTT BUILDING LEG EXERCISES YOU CAN DO ANYWHERE

Choose 5-6 of these butt building exercises and complete 3 circuits of 10-12 reps each. Alternatively, work these butt building rock stars into your current routine. You can easily increase the intensity of any of these exercises by adding weight or a glute band.

Sumo Pulse Squats

Stand with feet wider than hip-width apart, toes pointing out at a 45 degree angle and arms at your sides. Bend at your knees and hips to lower your butt down into a deep squat. Pause, squeeze your glutes to pulse up 2″ and then back down 2″ and then push through your heels to return to a full standing position. Repeat.

Bulgarian Split Squats

Stand 2 to 3 feet in front of a knee high platform or bench. Extend your right leg behind you and place your toes on the bench, knee slightly bent. Take a breath in and bend your left leg, lowering your right knee towards the floor. Pause, then push through your front foot to return to the start position.

Glute Bridges

Lie face up on a mat with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor and arms at your sides. Keeping your back straight, squeeze your glutes to lift your hips up off the floor, pushing towards the ceiling until your knees, back and shoulders forma straight line. Pause and the slowly drop hips back towards the floor.

*Level these up by doing single leg glute bridges. Same movement but one leg is responsible for lifting your hips up to the ceiling instead of two.

Sprinter Squats

Stand with feet staggered, about 1 foot in between your front heel and back toes. Bend at the knees and hips to lower into a squat. Your back knee should approach your front calf. Push through your front heel to stand up straight. Repeat for the required reps before switching sides.

*If you feel like your balance is getting in the way of a good squat stand next to a wall or sturdy chair. A light touch of the fingertips is usually enough to help you feel stable.

Curtsy Lunges

Stand with feet should width apart, holding a kettlebell at waist height with both hands. Initiate the movement by shifting your weight to your right foot, lifting your left foot from the ground. While keeping your torso facing forward, place your left leg behind your right, taking a wide, lateral step behind your front leg. Descend into a lunge by bending your knees, lowering your body straight down. Pause at the bottom of the move. Drive through your heel and extend knee and hip. As you come back up, return the back leg to the starting position. Alternate the movement switching back and forth between legs.

Glute Kickbacks

Start on all fours, palms and knees resting on the mat. Engage your core to keep your back straight. Keeping your leg bent at a 90 degree angle and your foot flexed, lift one leg up behind you until your thigh is parallel to the ground. Pause, and without letting go of the tension in your glute, slowly return to the start position. Repeat for the required reps before switching sides.

*Ready to level up kickbacks? Add a glute band. Glute bands are woven fabric bands made specifically to constrict and target your butt. They’re killer at any level!

Walking Lunges

Stand up straight with your feet shoulder width apart. Step forward with your right foot, shift your weight to your right heel and bend your knee to lower into a squat. Push through the front heel to draw yourself forward and up. As you stand, bring your left foot forward and repeat the same movement pattern, bending at your knee to drop into a lunge.

*Make sure to take a big enough step so that your legs form 90 degree angles.

Step Ups

Stand facing a sturdy box or bench, dumbbells in each hand, arms straight down at your sides. Begin by placing your right foot firmly in the center of the bench. Press through the heel of your right foot to draw the rest of your body up and forward onto the bench. Draw your left foot onto the bench and stand up tall. To reverse direction, slowly step back with your left foot, smoothly lowering your weight back to the ground and to the start position.

*Don’t jump off your toes to help you stand up on the bench! If you want the most bang for your buck, put all of your weight on your front heel on the bench and leave your back foot on the ground as long as possible.

Alternating Side Lunges

Stand up straight with your feet wide apart. Keeping your torso upright, your back straight and your toes pointing forward or just slightly out, bend your right knee, drop your hips back and shift your weight over your right heel. Pause at the bottom of the lunge. Push through your right heel and straighten your right leg to shift your weight back through the middle and over to the left side.

*Pretend that the “other leg” doesn’t exist. For example, if you are doing a side lunge to the right, let all of the work come from the right glute and quad, leaving the left leg to simply balance.

Single Leg Deadlifts

Start with feet hip width apart, arms at your sides and a dumbbell in your right hand. Hinge forward at the hips transferring your weight to your right leg/foot and slowly extending your left leg straight out behind you. Hinge forward and lower the weights towards the floor. You back leg should extend up behind you, until your torso is parallel to the floor. Your body should make a “T” shape. Slowly return to the start position by drawing your hips forward, lifting your torso and dropping your left leg. Complete all reps on one leg before switching to the other.

*The trick to making the most of touchdowns is two-fold. First, keep your hips even and “facing forward”. In other words, if you are doing touchdowns standing on your left leg, don’t let your right hip open to the side and twist your torso. Second, find a spot 3-4 feet in front of you and stare it down. This will help you balance.

More butt-building workouts and ideas like this:

• The Booty Building Workout for Real Deal Results
• 20 Minute At Home Glutes
• The Glute Band Workout You Can do Anywhere

Tips to Maximize Your Workout (and your Butt Building Results)

If you’re going to take the time to put in the work, you may as well get the most out of it! And seeing as most of us use our butts to sit for most of the day, you want to get the most bang for your buck when you work out.

#1: Vary Your Exercise Selection

Quads, hamstrings, calves, glutes. When it comes to basic weight training, these are the four main muscle groups in the legs that we pay attention to. Dig deeper and you’ll break down glutes even further: gluteus maximus, medius and minimus. Each muscle is responsible for it’s own set of movements, some overlapping and some supporting one or the other. The key to maximizing the work and growth you get out of each? Exercise selection.

When you put your leg workouts together, mix and match a variety of exercise types and movements to work all angles and muscles. First, there are knee-dominant exercises like squats and lunges. Then, there are hip dominant exercises like deadlifts and glute bridges. There are lateral movements like side lunges and curtsy lunges. And there are isolation exercises like glute kickbacks and fire hydrants. This way you’ll work your butt in a full range of motion and depth. Best for butt building!

#2: Progressive Overload

Your legs are in constant use, constant motion! If you’re serious about butt building, you have to challenge the muscles. Progressive overload is constantly tasking your body to do more in order to jumpstart adaptation, aka growth. You can do that in a variety of ways:

• Add reps to the same number of sets and pounds lifted.
• Add another set with the same reps and pounds lifted.
• Lift heavier weights.
• Decrease the rest period you take between sets.
• Increase the amount of time under tension.
• Drop sets.
• Rest pause sets.

Choose one method and put it to work! Keep in mind that form comes first. Before you progress in any way, make sure that your form is on point.

#3: Mind Muscle Connection

When it comes to not wasting your time in the gym, the mind-muscle connection is the save all, end all of recommendations. You can squat all day but in the end, if you’re not performing the exercise properly and feeling the movement where you should be feeling it, you’re never going to reap the benefits.

Have you ever done an exercise and never quite known where you were supposed to feel the burn? One example that almost every one can relate to is a crunch. Whether you are on the floor or on a stability ball, we’ve all had a set of crunches that we either a) felt our hip flexors way more than our abs or b) felt nothing but a little momentum and strain in the neck. Most of us haven’t been taught how to engage our abs during a core exercise so that your abs, not your hip flexors and not momentum, can do the work! It’s something I talk about constantly during my classes!

Modern lifestyles and repetitive movements create imbalances. For example if you where heels every day, that causes your hips to tilt forward putting more strain on your quads and pulling movements that should hit your glutes, like walking and taking the stairs, away from your glutes. Your body gets used to that and now when you do squats, your quads are quick to engage and your glutes never stand chance.

Prime your glutes for action, aka activate your glutes, by concentrating and by performing the right warm up.

Before you lift, complete 1 set of 10-15 reps of primer movements, like glute bridges, lateral band walks and prisoner squats. Then, always do a warm up set of whatever your big exercise is. For example if you are doing barbell squats, do 10 bench squats first, concentrating intently on the muscle you know should be feeling the work.

Extra Credit Reading

If you want to dive in just a littttttle deeper (aka you’re ready for some long lasting, in depth change), here’s what it takes to build stronger, leaner legs.

At the end of the day, if you’re going to take the time and effort to get to the gym and you really looking for a butt building workouts that gets results, make the most of these it with these tips!