Does Walking Swiftly Tone Your Buttocks?

Toned buttocks do more than just make you look great in your stretch jeans. Toned buttock muscles provide support to your hip joint, as well as help support the trunk of your body. Walking can help tone the muscles of the buttocks, especially if you walk swiftly, on hills or on a treadmill set to an incline setting.

You have probably heard your buttock muscles referred to as glutes, but you may not know there are three gluteal muscles. Columbia Health explains that the gluteus maximus, the largest of the three, underlies the cheeks of your buttocks, while the gluteus medius and gluteus minimus are located around the upper part of your hip bone.

The three gluteal muscles work together to stabilize your body, as well as help you extend your legs in different directions. They are the muscles that help defy gravity when you sit, stand and walk up stairs. The gluteus maximus is the bulkiest skeletal muscle in your body. By toning this muscle, you can affect the shape of your buttocks at the same time you increase your lower body strength and improve stability.

To tone your buttock muscles, you need to do more than just take a casual stroll. Fast walking, also called fitness walking, will produce the most improvement in your gluteals, as well as exercising your upper body and providing a cardiovascular workout. To fitness walk, pull yourself up tall and straight, look straight ahead, and bend your arms slightly less than 90 degrees, shoulders relaxed. As you walk, swing your arms fast. This will cause you to automatically increase your foot speed. Tighten your buttock muscles as you walk, and take smaller steps to increase your speed. The eventual goal of fitness walking is doing a mile in 12 to 15 minutes. Walking on hills or a treadmill set on an incline setting of 2 percent or more also provides maximum benefit to your buttock muscles.

Exaggerated arm swings can lead to injuries, so do not swing your arms higher than your sternum. Do not look at the ground or hunch your shoulders, but try to maintain good posture at all times. Above all, listen to your body. Do not start out with fitness walking if you are out of shape. Instead, start with easy daily walks and gradually increase your distance and speed. By making walking a daily habit, you will tone not only your buttocks, but your entire body.