Exercises to tone my butt and legs?

Question

What works the best and how long until I notice results? I really want to make my legs a little more muscular and tone my butt more. However I won't have access to a gym until August so that makes it a little more difficult. Anything I can just do at home to accomplish this? And also will running make me lose weight? I really don't want to lose weight, if anything I need to gain a couple pounds. Any tips?

BeowulfNode · Accepted Answer

Reducing body fat % takes the soft curved muscle look away to be replaced by the sharper more defined look. Though if you don't have the muscles you just look anorexic and sick. Your body burns fat from all over and not just from the area being exercised. So a high energy cardio workout in combination with the rest of your workout burns fat fast.

Exercising specific muscles makes them bigger but not necessarily more defined. Note you need protein to build muscles so you may need to increase your protein in take a bit.

All that being said, the process of building bigger muscles also burns fat. Also simply having bigger muscles burns more energy and you can burn fat easier and faster when you have more muscle.

Thus you need to find your own balance between cardio workout and resistance training the various areas of your body. If you find that somewhere has started to look too big, swap the resistance training in that area to stretches and increase your cardio workout.

Many women find that yoga and/or pilates are sufficient for them. You may want to add some ankle weights while doing them to increase the resistance training in your legs to build muscle there.

DaRealMan · Accepted Answer

Yea. Squats, one-legged squats, calf-raises, lunges, wall sits (45-90 sec at 90 deg), and for cardio use the stair master (this will help target the leg muscles more). If you can't get to a stair stepper walk staiors or walk a steep hill. Also do the abbductor/adductor machine on as wide a setting as your hips can handle this will help tagert your glutius medias which is the middle butt muscle that helps form that little dip in the side of your ass. But you don't have a gym...hmmm lay on your back with a pillow under your butt and hold your legs open in a V. Squeeze outward as hard as you can then squeeze inward as hard and slow as you can keeping your legs 6 inches off teh ground. Not as good as the machine but it will also work your core. Aim for 2-3 sets of each exercise for 15-20 reps apiece. Do them at least three times a week. I've been a nationally certified personal trainer for 4 years and am studying exercise physiology in grad school so let me know if you need more advice. ;)

Crimson_Petal · Accepted Answer

I am like the biggest proponent of ballet exercises. Your butt will tone up awesomely and you'll have strong shapely legs. There are things you can do at home that particularly help. Things like plies -bends with your legs 'turned out' to the sides and releves (going up on to the balls of your feet- you can change it so you're only rising on one leg and the other is off the ground, you REALLY feel it then) are both good. Or clam exercises. You lie on your side with your legs bent and together then you slowly open and close the top leg. Do sets of 10 with a rest of 5-10 secs in between and then repeat 4 or five times on both sides. I guarantee you'll be feeling it in your bottom the next day.

Squats are good but can build bulky muscle. Leg raises (to the side, front and back) are all good for toning your legs. Lie on the floor and lift your leg in the air in which ever direction you're going for hold it flex and point your toes and lower slowly back down. Do this 8 times in each direction and on both legs then you CAN (if you want) do it quicker. In floor barre classes we do this and you do sixteen to each side and both legs.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Hi! you don't need gym to tone your butt and legs! What sports do you like to do?

Badminton is actually quite a good sports to tone your butt and legs.

Swimming, stretching exercises, squats, wall sits, lunges, karate, taekwondo help too :)

It's about the quality you do it. Don't overdo it (you can search for some websites to check whether it's good). Mix all these exercises up also helps and creates variety.

All these MUST be coupled with good eating habits so that the results will be noticeable. I'd say you can see part of the results in 1 week's time, but there's still a long way to go. Eat sufficient amount of good protein :) And no running won't make you lose weight if you eat properly and don't overdo it. Try some of these exercises for a week, see what happens and make adjustments according to what works to your body. Good luck! ^_^ x

Anonymous · Answer

Look up on YouTube Angelica Carrera's home workout and she has different workouts for everyday of the week, day1 to day7, in different rooms of the house so no gym required and if you read the description box she says to repeat all exercises 3 times for a full workout. She's really in shape and a really good dancer if you watch the rest of her videos. I tried day 1 and I was so out of breath after only doing the exercises once! And my knee muscles hurt the day after so they really do work, I'm going to really stick with it this week, you really should look her up it will defo put you in shape and tone your muscles because that's something she mentions in her videos, so good luck:)x

Undoubtable · Answer

Squats, lunges and deadlifts. Wear a backpack with some weight to its contents. Single-legged Squats, called pistols, are great even without a backpack. Keep adding weight, if you can squeeze out more than fifteen repetitions then you won't gain muscle. The 8-12 range is ideal for muscle growth, for that matter, so stay within that.

luiyuichifi2 · Answer

butt bridges and dumbell squats are one of the best. (u can get really cheap dumbells from walmart/target. and if you don't know how to do these excercises, check youtube.

eat a decent amount of carbs and protein, but eat fats and sweets sparingly or none at all

SixStringSeal · Answer

A girl I used to know who had, by far, the nicest rear end I've ever seen on a human being did the eliptical (sp?) at maximum incline and yoga. She was a very "routine" oriented person and did it often.

She never did any typical floor routine stuff though.. like squats or lunges. Which surprised me.

peace-love-couture · Answer

-squats -lunges -wall sits They can be a butt and legs best friend Running could possibly cause your to gain a couple of pounds of lean muscle

ThatNikkiGirl · Answer

try walking up and down some stairs. better yet, walk up and down bleachers at a school if there's one nearby.

San_Diego_Rick · Answer

Squats and lunges will do it, hiking is also a good idea if you can motivate yourself to do it.

AmberChick · Answer

Yoga is a great exercise that tones your body and running is cardiovascular and will help you lose weight.  If you just want muscle, though,  I recommend yoga. You can buy yoga videos anywhere, online or at a bookstore.

serenityatmidnight · Answer

squats and lunges are great for your legs and butt. also, I suggest pilates its a great total body workout. you can find videos on youtube.

dalila · Answer

Squats for sure and try to get something to use it as a weight it makes a huge difference I do it 3 times a week and in two months my bum had a huge improvment but I do át. The gym with lots of weight...good luck

actricalian · Answer

By the way, if you do squats, try as hard as you can to go down to where your femur is parallel to the ground.  A lot of people don't do this and don't get the maximum benefit as a result.

lecavlier · Answer

Brazilian butt workout? I saw an infomercial on that haha.

cookie1993 · Answer

swimming, running, especially over woodland, situps, crunches,  exercise ball, leg raises etc Any of these will help you...

emmabee11 · Answer

Cross trainers are good for toning your butt and legs too plus because they are easier you can soend more time on them.

colombo21 · Answer

sex should help with the butt thing. especially doggy style

ketfoen · Answer

6 words "Buns of steel work out dvd"

kermitthehog · Answer

Elliptical. best cardio for that.

Jazz_92 · Answer

jogging I think

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