These are the benefits of contracting buttocks 15 minutes a day to get the perfect toning this summer
Summer is just around the corner and that is why many people have begun to leave their sedentary lifestyle behind and embrace the benefits of exercise. Walking, running, swimming or cycling are perfect activities to start exercising the whole body. However, we know that these aerobic exercises bring many benefits, but they do not serve to train a specific part of the body.
This is the case of the glutes , one of the largest muscle groups and whose toning has more healthy effects, according to the specialized health and sports magazine Women's Health. By exercising this part of the body, in addition to toning them, you will be improving the movement of the knees, posture and reducing lower back pain problems.
Tone buttocks in just 15 minutes
If what you want is to show off scandalous buttocks, the truth is that it is not easy. To gain muscle in this part of the body, perseverance, accompanied by a good diet, is essential. However, there are exercises that will give you that 'extra help' and will only take 15 minutes a day.
According to a study published by PeerJ - The Journal of Life and Environmental Sciences, simply by contracting your buttocks for a quarter of an hour a day you will be increasing the volume and resistance of this area of the body. To demonstrate this, they used a total of 32 university students, 17 men and 15 women, with an average age of 23 years, who performed the exercise daily. After 8 weeks, they found that all of them significantly improved hip strength and gluteal volume.
The exercises they carried out are very simple. The first consists of performing gluteal contractions while sitting, with your back straight, feet on the ground and knees apart.
Exercise 1 | PeerJ - The Journal of Life and Environmental
The second is based on one of the most used exercises when we train glutes: the bilateral bridge. By doing this simple activity for 15 minutes and adding repetitions as you contract your buttocks, you will be helping to tone this area and increase volume.
Exercise 2 | PeerJ - The Journal of Life and Environmental
The key: body posture
Mila Pérez, personal trainer and physiotherapist at Fisio Fit Mujer, tells laSexta.com the exercise routine that we must follow to properly activate the glutes. “For any type of exercise (buttocks, legs, abdomen…) before toning up, it is important to correct our posture, otherwise we will do it in an unbalanced way and we will not achieve the final objective: toning up”, she explains.
Also, do not neglect the rest of the body. Many times we focus so much on the glutes that we forget that a prior total activation of our muscles is necessary for them to have an effect. Pérez explains that the most specific exercises for this area would come after exercising the whole body. Like the rest of the muscles, the glutes will notice improvement if other muscle groups, such as the abdomen or legs, are also trained.
So, is there really a 'trick' to having perfect buttocks? The truth is that there is no secret to improving this part of the body, just perseverance and good nutrition . However, Pérez brings us the keys to keep in mind when exercising this area of the body that will help us progress more quickly.
- Work posture to have good postural control.
- Know and know how to activate the muscles that we want to work.
- Accompany your exercises with breathing. Exhale on the effort.
- Start with activation exercises and later exercises with load (own weight, balance, weights...). In addition, we can use accessories to complement the exercises, such as rubber bands or TRX (suspension straps).
4 exercises for your training routine
Likewise, Pérez explains the four most effective exercises to work the glutes and that you can include in your training routine. It will not take you more than 10 minutes a day, they are simple and you can practice them both in the gym and in your own home.
When we talk about toning the buttocks, the squat is a classic and one of the most popular exercises. With this, in addition to working the gluteus, you will also be activating the legs , the abdomen , favoring fat burning and strengthening the balance . Of course, it is very important not to fall into the most common mistakes when doing squats because we could suffer muscle injuries. For a correct execution we must place the feet at the same distance as the shoulders and arms and flex at an angle of 90º.
In the case of the deep squat, the technique involves going down past 90 degrees. This variant, like the balance squat, involves extra difficulty and supports less weight than the classic one.
The glute kick is another of the most effective exercises when it comes to working this part of the body. It consists of adopting a horizontal position on the ground and raising each of the legs, trying to keep the back in a straight position, the face looking towards the ground and the neck relaxed. As the personal trainer says, the backward gluteal kick is ideal “to activate the gluteus medius and maximus ”.
The bridge exercise is also very beneficial, both for the glutes and for other muscle groups, such as the abdomen or the calves . To do it correctly you must lie on your back, with your back flat on the ground, your knees bent and your feet at hip height. Then you should lift your hips and buttocks off the ground, making sure your back is still flat on the ground, and hold for a few seconds before lowering back down. If you want to add extra difficulty you can try adding weight (dumbbells, water bottles, books...).
For this activity, you must lie on your side with your legs almost completely stretched out and raise your upper leg in a controlled manner, maintaining the position for a few seconds. This routine will help you train both the gluteal area and the hip muscles, specifically the gluteus medius . If you dare, you can also add accessories to make the activity more complete, such as ribbons or rubber bands.
