The 5 Best Ways to Tone Your Butt and Thighs
Posted by Brett Riesenhuber on Fri, Aug 12, 2011 @ 01:27 PM
Do you hate the way your butt and things look? Well many women, and men too, feel that way and here are the top 5 ways that you can add muscle tone to your butt and thighs!
Hike! Not what the Quarterback says to the Center, but rather up in the hills. Hiking up hills forces the legs to work harder that they would when walking on a flat surface. The glutes, hamstrings, and quads are all activated...along with the lower leg muscles, so call that an added benefit. Beyond the muscle toning created by the hills, you will also be burning more calories and ramping the heart rate up due to adding an uphill climb to your workout.
Lunge! Lunges are a tough exercise, even painful, but one of the best ways to tone up the thighs and butt. Start off with your feet parallel and a slight spread in the stance, shoulder width is good. With a dumbbell in each hand step forward with one foot and bend both knees, dropping the rear knee straight down towards the ground. All pressure should be on the front thigh and the front knee should not go past the toe. The rear knee should drop straight to the ground: imagine a point or dot on your shoulder, hip, and knee, and all are in one straight vertical line. Stand back up and repeat on the other side (preferable more than once;-)
Squat! Squats are the king of all exercises. Squats will tone your butt and thighs AND burn more calories than any other exercise due to the powerful combination of all the muscled used in the motion. Pretty much all the muscles in the body are engaged to either perform the actual movement or stabilize the body, with the 2 largest muscles doing most of the work: Glutes (butt) and Quads (thighs). Grab a barbell and put it over your shoulders, or dumbbells held either beside the body or at the shoulders (best!). Keep your eyes looking forward and slightly up while maintaining a shoulder width stance. Squat down like you were sitting on a chair or a low toilet seat (seriously, it works...toilets are usually kind of low) and get your thighs down to a point parallel to the ground. Stand back up and repeat!
Skate! The movements involved in skating create a ton of work for the entire leg and lead to great muscle tone and strengthening of the legs. The thighs get most of the work, and it is a lot of fun...as long as you don't fall down! The other cool thing about this activity is that it also burns calories. So Ice, in-line, or roller...Skating is great for toning the things and butt!
Diet! Yep, you knew that was coming! You have got to watch the diet in order to burn the fat off your thighs and butt. There is no way around it and you have heard me say it before: you can't out train a crappy diet. So watch the calories, cut back on the starch, and dump the processed crap while you are eating 5+ small meals every day and staying well hydrated.
One of the keys I always love to share with everyone about getting fit, staying fit, and toning the body, is to have fun and be consistent with your exercises. Enjoy and go out and get those legs and butts tone, trim, and hot!
Share your favorite ways to tone up the butt and things below!
