A few months ago, one of my awesome groups of women decided to take on some monthly challenges.  And their favorite is back by popular demand starting today!

Yes, January is going to be all about the butt!  I spend at least 50% of my day talking about this amazing muscle group and the never ending ways to work them.  So why not put some focus on them specifically each day this month and also tune back into your workouts making sure they are doing their job.

Bottom line, the glutes are responsible for extending your hips, rotating the hips, supporting the lower back, transferring energy, being awesome, helping prevent hip flexor tightness from sitting all day and helping you get after it in the gym!  So basically everything you do during the day requires some level of glute function.

And there are many ways to approach this from a training standpoint.  Today I’m showing you some ways to isolate out this muscle group.  This can be used to activate them or as a workout finisher when you want to feel that muscle burn.

• Frog Pumps:  If you want to get to low down on this exercise, make sure to go visit Bret Contreras on Instagram.  He is also known as “The Glute Guy” and has single handedly brought this exercise to the forefront.  Set up with the hips externally rotated and the bottom of your feet touching.  Push your feet together and you will feel some glute activation.  Now lift your hips up and you will feel even more!  This is by far one of the best exercises from engaging the glutes and really feeling them.
• Leg Lifts:  For this one I set up in what I call the relief position.  This helps bring a greater level of stability to the shoulders and core allowing you to focus more on the Glute Max lifting the leg.  The key here is doing full range of motion, you will be amazing how much more you feel the exercise by bring the leg all the way back down.
• Butt Burners:  This one is tough, but I love it because it combines hip extension and hip abduction adding an even greater amount of muscle activation.  Start with your body at a 90 degree angle resting your weight on your forearm.  Extend the hips forward while lifting the top leg off the ground.  Once you get going, you’ll feel it!

I started this circuit with 50 Frog Pumps because that engages my glutes more than any of the other exercises, then moved to 25 Leg Lifts each side, 25 Butt Burners each and then finishing with another round of Frog Pumps.

#200GlutesADay

Give it a try and use the hashtag!

Happy New Year!

-S