buttmain

One of the most common questions we've been asked is "what can I do for my saggy butt?" These are some of the top exercises to help you tighten up your butt.

Hip thrust

This exercise is a very simple but tough if you don’t have the mobility, it targets the glutes as well as the hamstrings. The key to the exercise is to fully extend the hip and squeeze your glutes at the top of the motion. It seems alot of people fail raise the hips up high to activate the correct muscle. I prefer to raise the feet on a medicine ball to focus a little more attention on the hamstrings as it stabilises in place.

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Single leg Hip Thrust

Once you’ve mastered the basic hip raise on the floor, the next progression is to perform the single leg variation. Perform by driving the heel of your foot into ground, thrusting the hip up as high as possible, hold for a 2 second contraction and come back down to full range. The arms are placed out to your sides with the palms facing the ceiling. The position helps to open the thoracic and keep the shoulders retracted.

Glute bridge

This exercise is best performed with a barbell cushion or foam pad placed around the bar. The bar is placed between the groove of your hips. Main points to keep in mind is when you thrust the bar up, keep your elbows locked out as the bar will want to slip back. Thrust the hips up just like you did before in the last exercises shown and slowly lower back down. Try to control the movement when lowering the bar to the floor rather than smash your back into the floor on the descent.

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Weighted glute thrust on bench

This is a variation of the weight hip raise above, it’s exactly the same but you will be leaning against a bench. Place the bar between the crease of your hips, push back against the bench and dig your heels into the ground, your hips should thrust upwards and lift the barbell upwards. This movement allows more range of motion through hip drive. A powerful exercise especially for wrestlers or Jiu Jitsu/MMA enthusiast.

Barbell Single Leg Romanian Deadlift

A very tough exercise as it demands more balance and co-ordination. 7/10 times I see this exercise performed with shoulders rounding forward. Make sure you retract your shoulders back. Perform with a light barbell to begin with and build the weight up.

Should men do these exercises?

Yes they should, if they want to sprint faster, deadlift a disgusting amount of weight and be able to jump over trees!