Your girlfriend works out. She’s hits spin class, gets some yoga in, tried CrossFit, runs on the weekends, and isn’t scared of the weight room. But she’s still not happy. Maybe it’s too much cardio, maybe genetics, maybe it’s that go-green-vegan-vegetarian, or eat-anything-but-meat diet that she’s on. Either way, she wants to pump up her bottom like Beyoncé’s, and quite frankly, after seeing her at last night’s Grammy Awards, you’d love it, too. Here are the exercises she needs, and how to do them
1.Barbell Hip Thrust
Sit on the floor with your shoulder blades resting against a bench, and a barbell on a pad in your lap. Slide your feet in and plant them on the ground, shoulder-width apart, and raise your butt off the ground. Squeeze your glutes to push the bar up until your body from your shoulders to your knees is parallel to the ground.
Reason: It’s the best direct exercise for the glutes, and is a compound exercise, allowing you to use maximal weight.
2.Deep Squat
Set up a bar in a squat rack and hold it with an overhand grip, hands wider than shoulder width. Step under the bar and unrack it. Push your hips back while simultaneously bending your knees so the top of your thigh is parallel to the floor, then reverse the motion to return to a standing position.
Reason: The deeper one squats, the more work the glutes and hamstrings get.
3.Deadlift
Place a loaded barbell on the floor. Reach down and grasp it with an overhand grip, hands just wider than your knees, shins vertical, and your back flat. Pull your shoulder blades down and back and drive your heels into the floor, coming to a comfortable standing position. Place the weight back down.
Reason: A deadlift is a powerful hip-extension exercise, supported by the hamstrings and lower back. This hits all the muscles of the gluteus group.
4.Lying Hamstring Curl
Set up in a prone hamstring curl machine. Squeeze your glutes and pull your heels toward your butt, then slowly lower them back down.
Reason: The glutes and hamstrings work in conjunction with each other to extend the hips, and if one muscle lags the other suffers. This also helps alleviate back pain.
