A well-shaped tush sure helps to fill out a pair of great jeans, and what woman doesn’t want that? If your booty is a little droopy, it’s time to get your rear in gear and tighten up those cheek muscles. Performing butt exercises at the gym is an option, but it can be a little intimidating. An alternative is to tighten and strengthen your butt muscles with exercises, such as butt-clenches, which can be done just about anywhere, even while driving your car.
Butt Basics
Your rear end is made up of three separate muscles -- the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. Collectively, these three muscles are simply referred to as your glutes, and are one of the strongest and largest groups of muscles in your body. Your glutes are instrumental in extension, external and internal rotation, abduction and transverse abduction of the hip joint.
Butt-Clenching Technique
Clenching your butt muscles is as easy as it sounds. The exercise simply requires you to tighten your glutes and squeeze your butt cheeks together as hard as you can. In doing so you'll notice that you rise up from your seat about an inch. Hold the lift and the clench position for several seconds, relax and repeat. A variation is to alternate the clench between cheeks. First, tighten your right cheek muscles, hold, relax and then repeat with your left cheek muscles.
Benefits
Butt clenches can help strengthen your glutes. Strong butt muscles play an important role in stabilizing your body. They hold your body upright, and help you stand tall to improve your posture. Strong glutes reduce the potential for injuries or pain to your lower back, hips and knees, according to Dan Eiden, personal trainer. Strengthening these muscles help you perform many daily activities with ease -- getting in and out of your car, climbing stairs or picking up heavy objects. Weak glutes make it hard to perform at your best when playing sports. Athletes rely on strong butt muscles for speed, acceleration, powerful jumps and explosive movements.
Exercise Tips
Even though butt clenches aren't hard to learn, practice them at home or at the office before doing them behind the wheel of your car. While in your car, only perform them when the car is not moving. For example, wait until you're stopped at a stop light. While waiting for the light to change, do as many clenches as you can. Hold each squeeze 10 seconds, relax for a count of two and repeat. Aim to do 20 clenches. When the light turns, stop clenching and when you get to the next light, repeat. Performing this routine a few times each day can help strengthen and tone your tush.
Other Considerations
Only doing butt-clenching exercises while driving will help strengthen your glutes, but if your goal is to get rid of the extra junk in your trunk, you'll need to do more to reach your goal. For best results, adopt a healthy diet and do weekly workouts consisting of cardio and strength-training exercises. To help burn off the extra fat, the American College of Sports Medicine recommends performing a minimum of 250 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity every week.
References
Resources
- Shapewalking: Six Easy Steps to Your Best Body; Marilyn L. Bach and Lorie Schleck