Treadmill Exercises to Shape the Buttocks

The Glutes and Running

Your buttocks consist of three muscles collectively known as the gluteal muscles, or glutes for short. The three muscles are the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. One way to tone these muscles and shape your butt is by running. When you run, your glutes have numerous functions in helping your legs perform these motions and are working at a much faster speed than if you were walking.

Hill Workout

Another way to shape your butt is through this 20-minute hill walking workout that you can do on a treadmill. The treadmill speed should stay at 4 mph, but the incline percentage will change throughout your rate of perceived exertion, or RPE. For the first five minutes of the workout increase the incline to 3 or 3.5 percent at an RPE of five. The next two minutes will require you to raise the incline more, between 8 and 10 percent with an RPE of seven. For the next minute, drop the incline to between 4 and 6 percent with an RPE of six. Increase the incline to 10 percent with an RPE of eight for the following two minutes. Bring the incline down between 5 and 7 percent for one minute with an RPE of seven. Increase the incline again for the next two minutes to 12 percent with an RPE of nine. Drop the incline slightly to 10 percent for the next minute and decrease your RPE to eight. Push through the next minute with an incline of 12 percent and an RPE of nine. For the last five minutes start to cool down and bring the incline down to between 2 and 4 percent with an RPE of five.

HIIT Treadmill Workout

HIIT, or high intensity interval training, treadmill workouts are another way to get your butt in shape. Not only can an HIIT workout tone your gluteal muscles, but it’s an intense cardio workout that will help you burn fat. HIIT workouts on the treadmill consist of alternating between high- and low-intensity exercises. You can make your HIIT workout whatever you want it to be, but an example workout would be to alternate between one minute of running at full speed and 30 seconds of walking, for a total workout time of 20 to 30 minutes.

Treadmill Lunges

You can also use a treadmill to shape your butt by doing walking lunges, side lunges and skateboard lunges. For walking and side lunges, set the treadmill to a slow walking pace and do them as you would normally do them on solid ground. Skateboard lunges are a little trickier but can be beneficial to your gluteal muscles. Firmly place one foot on the rear of the side platform of the treadmill and then lunge forward with the opposite foot and ride the belt all the way back, simulating pushing a skateboard. After your desired number of reps, switch legs.

Nutrition

While these exercises can help tone your gluteal muscles and make your butt look great, a key component of shaping any part of your body is a healthy diet. To lose the unwanted fat on your butt, you should reduce the number of calories you consume each day. Consider replacing unhealthy, high-fat snacks with plant-based snacks like fruits and vegetables.