Bridges are a MUST-DO….I mean MUST-DO glute activation move.
They help you improve your hip extension to unlock tight hips as they activate. And all you need is your own bodyweight to start feeling those glute works.
Plus glute bridges are even a great move to start working your abs. By engaging your abs with a posterior pelvic tilt, not only can you activate those core intrinsic stabilizers, but you can actually help get a better glute contraction!
So if you’re ready to loosen up tight hips and activate your glutes, try this Bridge Booty Burner from my 28-Day Booty Burner Series! (BONUS: Some of these bridges will also open up your chest and shoulders to reverse that hunched posture we spend way too much time in during the day!)
Bridge Booty Burner
Complete 2-4 rounds of the burner below. If you are using it as a warm up, even just 1-2 rounds is all you need! Rest up to 45 seconds between rounds if needed. Make sure your glutes are working. If your low back or hamstrings start to take over, pause or rest to make sure your glutes keep doing the work!
CIRCUIT:
5 reps per side Sit Thru to Thoracic Bridge
10 reps Camel Bridge
15 reps Tabletop Bridge
20 reps Glute Bridge
It isn’t about how long you spend working out…It’s about the QUALITY of the time you spend.
Sometimes we get so focused on needing to spend a certain amount of time working out that, when we then don’t have “enough time,” we end up doing NOTHING.
Or we just put ourselves into a “run out the clock” situation and don’t actually maximize the time we do spend at the gym.
Stop focusing though on the length of your workout and instead pick moves and workout designs to maximize the time you do have. And give yourself options for those busy days when 5 minutes may be all you have!
Something is better than nothing ESPECIALLY if it is quality.
That is why I do a Friday Five Workout each and every week. And now I even have a Library of all my Friday Fives in my App Redefining Strength On Demand!
Check out this awesome 5-Minute Full-Body Burner from my Friday Five series below. And get even more of my follow alongs with RS On Demand!
Join Redefining Strength On Demand for access to all of my Friday Fives, Bodyweight Burners, Travel Series and MORE wonderful follow along video workouts!
Often I get asked, “Is it better to do strength or cardio training? How many days of each should I do?”
But workouts aren’t necessarily only one or the other. Strength workouts can have cardio elements and cardio workouts can have strength elements.
Yes, you can focus purely on one or the other, but there is a huge gray area in the middle where your workouts can be a little of both.
Where you can build strength as you improve your conditioning!
That is why I love workouts that use weights BUT also get your blood pumping with full-body movements and very limited, if any, rest intervals.
That is why I love the 7s workout below!
The lower reps in this workout allow you to use heavier weights, which, combined with limited rest and full-body exercises, really gets you breathing hard and your blood pumping!
So if you’re ready for a workout that is both strength and cardio, try the 7s Blast below!
The 7s Strength-Cardio Blast
You will complete 7 rounds of 7 reps of each of the 7 move below. Choose weights that challenge you and barely allow you to complete the 7 reps. Better to have to rest or put down the weight briefly toward the end than to be able to easily complete the 7 reps in a row just to get done faster. Time how long the workout takes you and try to beat that time next time. It is a combination of trying to rest as little as possible while also choosing weights that really challenge you!
Record your weights and times to try to beat next time! It is great to include this workout in your routine for 3 weeks straight so you can see improvement before switching things up!
For more about each move and modifications, check out the exercise descriptions below!
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Goblet Squats – To do the Goblet Squat with a kettlebell, take one kettlebell and turn it upside down, holding it on the bell. Set your feet between hip-width and shoulder-width apart. Keeping the kettlebell in at your chest, draw your belly button in toward your spine and sit your butt back. Squat down and keep your chest up and don’t let your back round forward. Sink your butt down as low as you can, keeping your heels on the ground. Try to touch your elbows to your knees, but not at the expense of really leaning forward or rounding over. Then, driving through your heels, come back to standing. Do not lean or rock forward as you stand up. Come all the way up and squeeze your glutes at the top then sink back down. If you don’t have a kettlebell, you can sub in a dumbbell. You can also do a Barbell Front Squat if preferred.
Pull Ups – To do a Basic Pull Up, stand with a pull up bar overhead and in front of you. Grab the bar with your palms facing away and about shoulder-width apart. Hang from the bar with your body hanging straight down. Press your chest out and even lean back ever so slightly. Then pull your chin up above the bar, leading with your chest. Drive your elbows down as you lead with your chest. Once you get your chin above the bar, lower back down, fully extending your arms. Try not to swing a ton or kick. Repeat, pulling yourself back up to the bar, leading with your chest. Beginners can do foot-assisted pull ups, jumping pull ups or, if needed, Inverted Rows. Do not sub in lat pull down because it won’t get your core working the same as the others will.
Kettlebell Swings – To do the Kettlebell Swing, set the kettlebell (or bell) down on the ground and slightly in front of you in between your feet. Hinge over, bending your knees slightly and pushing your butt back as you lean forward. Keep your back flat and then reach your arms out and place both hands on the handle, tilting the bell back toward you. Hike the kettlebell back between your legs like you would a football. Pull it back and up between your legs toward your butt. To power the bell out, forward and up, squeeze your glutes and drive your hips forward as you stand up nice and tall. Pop your hips forward and propel the kettlebell up off your hips. Do not worry about how high the bell goes. Squeeze your glutes as you stand tall. Then wait to hinge back over as the bell comes back down. Your forearms need to connect with your hips before you hinge back over and bring the bell back down and through your legs. Do not lean forward and hinge over before the kettlebell comes back down. You want to hinge in response to the kettlebell not before. And you do not want to turn it into a squat. You want to hinge at the hips and push your butt back and soften your knees. Then squeeze your glutes again and thrust the kettlebell back up as you come back up to standing. You can also use a dumbbell or even sub in a band hinge instead.
Burpees – To do the Basic Burpee, start standing with your feet together. Then bend over and place your hands on the ground as you jump your feet back into a high plank or top of a push up position. From that high plank position, perform a push up, dropping your chest down to the ground. Then push back up to the plank position and jump your feet into your hands. Come back to standing and jump up off the ground before repeating the movement. If you can’t perform a full push up, you may drop to your knees for the push up or stick with the Beginner variation. If you want to get more of a cardio workout, you will want to keep the movement quick so skip the push up if you can’t do a full one. If you want more of an upper body workout while still getting your blood pumping, put in the push up even if you have to do it from your knees and it slows you down. Beginners can put their hands to a bench instead of going all the way down to the ground. They can also take out the push up or do the push up from their knees.
Knees to Elbows – To do the Hanging Knees To Elbows, hang from the bar with your palms facing away. Then pull down on the bar and draw your shoulder blades down and back as you tuck your knees up toward your elbows. You should really feel your lats engage as you bring your knees up toward your elbows. Then slowly lower your legs back down. Beginners may not be able to raise their knees all the way up to their elbows and that is ok to start. Just focus on engaging the lats!
Wall Ball – To do Wall Ball, hold a med ball in both hands at your chest and stand with your feet about hip-width to shoulder-width apart. You can stand facing a way to throw up at or you can simply throw up toward the ceiling.
Then squat down with the ball at your chest. As you explode up out of the squat, press the ball from your chest throwing it as high up as you can. It is ok to explode out of the squat and jump as you throw the ball from your chest up as high as possible. Make sure that as you throw you extend your body and your arms up toward the ball. Then catch the ball either straight off the throw or after a bounce on the ground and sink right back into the squat and repeat. Do not round forward as you sink into the squat while holding the ball at your chest. This also doesn’t have to be a squat where you sink your butt all the way to the ground, but you do want to make sure to sit your butt back and down. Throw the ball as high as you can. Add weight if you can easily throw it super high or as high as your space allows!
Sit Ups –To do the Full Sit Up, you can do a variation where you reach up overhead as you sit up or you can reach toward your toes. Reaching toward your toes can help if you struggle to roll up and keep your abs engaged and working. To do the Full Sit Up (with a reach toward the toes), lie back on the ground with your legs out straight and your arms overhead. You can also reach your arms up toward the ceiling if you want to limit the assistance you get from “swinging” your arms. Then roll to sit up, first lifting your shoulder blades then the rest of your spine and finally your low back. As you “roll” up, reach your hands forward and toward your feet. Then lie back down, reaching your arms back overhead. Repeat, sitting back up. If you struggle to sit up, you can hold light weights in your hands. The weights actually can make it easier.
The Mini Band is a great way to activate and burn out your glutes from every angle. Using the Mini Band, you can target all three glute muscles to really activate your glutes from every angle.
These moves will get your glutes firing to help tone your glutes while also strengthening them to help you prevent low back, hip and even knee pain.
Too often we get back pain and think, “Oh I need to work my low back. My low back must be weak.”
When really the issue lies more in the fact that we are constantly overusing our low backs to carry a load our glutes and abs should really be used for.
So to get your glutes firing using the Mini Band, try this Mini Band Booty Burner below.
Mini Band Booty Burner
Complete 2-4 rounds of each superset. Do not rest between exercises, but rest as needed between rounds so you keep feeling your glutes working. Regress as needed to so that your glutes continue to work to burn them out without your low back taking over. Beginners may need to start with fewer rounds while more advanced exercisers, or exercisers who’ve done this before, will want to do all 4 rounds.
Shorten this and just do 2 rounds of each if you are using it as activation before your workouts!
“Trouble zones”…You know…those areas we all seem to want to work, but struggle to get to look the way we want.
Areas like…The triceps…”the bra fat”….the glutes…and the inner thighs…to name a few.
And while we know we can’t spot reduce, it doesn’t prevent us from feeling like we’d still really like to work those areas and do all we can to tone and make them look their best.
That is why I wanted to share this Glutes and Inner Thighs “Trouble Zones” Workout.
This workout will activate and strengthen your glutes and inner thighs using a combination of compound and isolation exercises. Not only can it target those “trouble zones” to help your legs look stronger and leaner, BUT it is actually an essential workout if you’ve ever had low back, hip or knee pain.
It is an especially great workout for all of you runners as well!
It will help you build core, glute and inner thigh strength to improve your movement patterns!
While you can’t spot reduce, you can use a combination of compound and isolation moves to really work those areas for the best results possible!
So try this Tone Those Trouble Zones – Glutes And Inner Thigh Workout!
Tone Those Trouble Zones – Glutes And Inner Thigh Workout
WARM UP
Stretch and Roll Out:
Calves
Quads
Groin
Hamstring
Hips/Glutes
Back/Chest
Shoulders/Forearms
WORKOUT
Complete 3-5 rounds of each circuit, resting as needed between rounds. Rest 1-2 minutes between circuits. Focus on adding weight or trying more challenging variations; however, make sure that you use a full range of motion. Don’t add weight at the expense of not completing a full range of motion!
CIRCUIT #1:
20 reps Glute Bridge with Squeeze
6-8 reps per side Cossack Squat
8-12 reps per side Side Plank Bench Lift
CIRCUIT #2:
10 reps per side Side Plank Clams
10-15 reps Sumo Squat
10-15 reps Peek-a-boo
COOL DOWN
Stretch and Roll Out:
Calves
Quads
Groin
Hamstring
Hips/Glutes
Back/Chest
Shoulders/Forearms
NOTES: Modify moves as needed, and add weight to make moves more challenging if you can still work through a full range of motion. This workout should help activate your glutes, strengthen your adductors while also improving your mobility!
For descriptions of each move, see this post 21 Inner Thigh Moves for a video of the moves.
Ready To Strength Your Core And Tone Those Trouble Zones!?!
So you want a sexy, strong butt…because let’s face it…who doesn’t!?!
Whether you just want your butt to look firm and toned or you want to lift more, run faster or even PREVENT INJURY, glute activation is a MUST.
And it can be done quickly BEFORE you workout so you get even more out of all of those squats, lunges and deadlifts.
Because while squats, lunges and deadlifts are AMAZING compound exercises, if your glutes aren’t ALREADY activated, they won’t work properly during those moves.
Which can not only lead to injury, but also cause your quads and legs to change while your glutes stay the same.
So if you want to get the most out of your workouts, you’ve got to activate your glutes BEFORE.
(And P.S. Guys – this applies to you too. If you want to prevent low back, hip and knee pain, run faster, and lift more, you have to activate those glutes…Plus I won’t lie…Women like a nice backside. 😉 haha)
Below are 3 moves you can do before your lower body workouts to make sure your glutes are activating and firing.
These moves are all BODYWEIGHT because with bodyweight we have the ability to contract our glutes harder and establish the mind-body connection.
Too often we add weight to try to get the glutes to work, but then they stop firing. Bodyweight and light resistance for higher reps is KEY to getting them activated and pumped.
Using these 3 moves you can also unlock your hips to improve hip extension and work all 3 gluteal muscles.
It is important that your glute activation ALSO works on hip extension because tight hips can not only lead to pain and injury, but they can keep your glutes from working proper and cause that LOWER BELLY POOCH!
Use these 3 moves and get your glutes working properly before your workout for a strong and sexy butt!
3 Moves To Activate Your Glutes Before You Workout
Bench 2-Way Leg Swings:
This move works all three gluteal muscles, opens up your hips AND even helps you build core stability.
It is the perfect move if you can literally only do one thing that day to activate your glutes and core. This move alone will get you ready to feel your glutes during your workout!
To do the Bench 2-Way Leg Swings, place one knee and both hands on a bench with your knee under your hips and your hands under your shoulders. Your other leg will be off to the side of the bench hanging straight down to the ground.
Keeping your arms straight, brace your core and then lift the leg off the bench straight up to the side. Keep the leg straight as you lift and don’t bend your elbows or lean away to try to lift higher. Squeeze your glute to lift the leg up and out to the side. Try to get it as straight out to the side as possible. Feel the outside of your hip working.
Lower back down and then lift the same leg straight back toward the wall behind your. Again, squeeze your glute to lift your leg straight out behind you and extend your hip. Keep your core engaged and do not hyperextend your low back or rotate your hips open just to kick the leg up higher as you lift it back behind you.
Lower back down and repeat the lifts on the same side. Do not bend your arms or really rock away to get the leg up higher. You want to move from the hip and use your glute.
Do not just swing the leg, but focus on FEELING your glute working. Complete all reps on one side before switching. Move quickly between the two lifts.
Side Balance Leg Raise:
This is the perfect way to activate your hip stabilizers aka your gluteus medius and minimus to prevent pain and injury AND even make sure your gluteus maximus engages during your workout! PLUS, this move will work your core and even your shoulders!
To do the Side Balance Leg Raise, start on one knee with your other leg out straight to the side. Then place your hand down on the outside of your knee so you are in a side balance position. Your hand should be under your shoulder while your knee will be just slightly below your hip. You want to keep your chest open and not rotate toward the ground.
Then lift your top straight leg up toward the ceiling. Lift the leg as close to parallel to the ground as you can and then lower back down. Do not swing your entire body to lift the leg. Keep your core tight and do not let your body rotate toward the ground or open toward the ceiling as you lift. Make sure your toe doesn’t rotate open as you lift.
Feel the outside of your glute and hip working to lift the leg. Complete all reps on one side before switching.
Feet-Raised Hip Thruster:
Take the basic glute bridge and amplify the pump with the Feet-Raised Hip Thruster. This move will work on hip extension and get those glutes burning and engaged! It is the perfect way to unlock your hips as you activate your glutes.
To Feet-Raised Hip Thruster, place a box and a bench close enough together that your back can be on the bench and your feet up on the box. You just don’t want your legs to be out too far. If your legs are out too straight, you will use more hamstrings than glutes.
Then with your feet and back both up on boxes or benches, bridge up, driving up through your heels and your upper back. Make sure to engage your abs and even do a pelvic tilt if you struggle to keep your low back from taking over.
Drive your hips up and squeeze your glutes. Lift your hips to full extension and hold for a second and then lower back down. Make sure you don’t drive yourself backward over the bench. You want to bridge straight up and feel like you are driving your knees forward over your toes.
Lower back down, making sure to drop your butt below the height of the box and repeat. You do not have to touch the ground each time, but you do want to do a bigger range of motion than you could if performing a bridge from the ground.
