Squats, Lunges-Get That Perky Derrière

Squats, Lunges-Get That Perky Derrière. Yes, that’s right a “Perky Derrière” that is the most popular fitness goal request that I hear with weight loss and overall toning coming in a close second and third. The reason is because it is the first area women notice sagging as they age and it is not a happy experience! The good news is we CAN fight it with a good exercise routine and diet!

So let’s fight gravity and lift up that derriere!

I am a huge advocate of strength training, lunges and squats are effective for building strength and toning your lower-body muscles. Strengthening your glutes, quad and calf muscles helps build lean muscle tissue, which increases your metabolic rate and will help you burn more calories throughout the day.

Keep in mind that lunges and squats target the muscles in these areas BUT they do not target fat tissue, you have to burn more calories to decrease fat.

You can increase the calories that you burn by adding cardiovascular activities, such as high intensity interval training, walking, jogging or swimming, into your fitness routine. It will also help to decrease your daily calorie intake, try limiting high calorie and fatty foods from your diet. Choose whole foods, fruits, vegetables, lean proteins and whole grains instead. This will help you lose fat everywhere, including your legs, derrière and your belly too.

While I do decide on the specific exercises and body parts to train at the beginning of each week my workout routines always includes good old fashioned weight training, dumb bells and machines, mixed with an all body, high intensity interval training 3-4 times per week.

These are just a “few” of my favorite “booty lifting” exercises:

Walking Lunges with 10 pound dumb-bells

Squats with Kettle Bell

TRX Reverse Lunges and Jump Squats

Barre Squats and Mixed Barre Exercises

Core Ball Leg Lifts

Donkey Kicks

Bridges

If you are going to try to add these exercises into your routine, do it one at a time, be sure to do your squats and lunges correctly and never place pressure on your knees by leaning forward and exceeding your knees past your toes, push up through your heels. I advise you to ask your trainer or gym staff to help you with the correct form to assure that you are doing the exercises correctly, this will reduce your risk of injury and assure that you will get the best results.

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Donkey Kicks