Sizzlin’ Summer Booty Workout

Welcome back to the Sizzlin’ Summer Workout Series where today we will workout my favorite body part…the booty! To get the booty ready while creating a nice burn right from the get go, lets begin with this little mini series on our hands and knees.  Feel free to use a hand weight to place behind your knee to make some of these exercises more challenging!Kneeling Leg Raises – One of my favorite exercises because of the way that it makes your glutes burn with high repetitions. Shift your weight into forearms and knees and lift one knee straight up behind you while keeping the knee still bent at 90º with the bottom of your foot facing flat up to the ceiling. Make sure your belly button is pulled into the spine engaging the abs. You will make tiny little pulses with your leg, trying to push your foot higher up into the air. Concentrate on your booty and using the booty to control the pulse to move the foot. Continue for 30 seconds.

Using that same leg, without dropping the knee back down to the ground (it is okay if you need to in order to take a mini break-just remember the whole idea is to work through the burn) straighten your leg, keeping your leg at the same level as your back, point your toes and continue pulsing-using your booty to control the movement. Continue for another 30 seconds. One last move before dropping that knee down, stead of pulsing I want you to draw tiny little circles with your toes. Leg is still straight out behind you level with your back. Draw tiny circles in one direction for 20 seconds then reverse the circle for another 20 seconds.Phew! I hope you felt the burn! It burns so good, right!?

You’re not quite done warming up…make sure you continue those same movements but this time with the other leg!

Also make a note not to lean to much into the knee that is on the ground. You want to keep balance and in alignment. Allow the arms and arms to take the weight and not the opposite leg.

Swan:
I like to call this exercise the swan because it makes your body feel elongated and elegant along with the proud chest position.

This exercise is best explained through the use of the picture above.I start is a cross-legged (Indian style) position. Leaning over to one side, place your hand to the ground and shift your weight over to the hand and booty cheek. Bring the opposite leg back behind you, lifting the knee off the ground and the thigh parallel to the ground. Note the angle of the foot as well you want it to be at a 45 degree angle between the ground and ceiling. From here you are going to create small pulses just like in our warm-up exercise. Make sure the movement is coming from the booty. Continue pulsing for 20 seconds. Keeping the same leg elevated we are going to make tiny circles again. This time draw the circles with your knee, 20 seconds in one direction followed by 20 seconds in the opposite direction.

Change legs and repeat series.

Clam:

This photo is pretty self-explanatory. Remember just like every other exercise the work comes from the booty. Use the booty to open the knee, give it a nice extra squeeze once your knees are open all the way. Continue opening and closing the knee for 30 repetitions before continuing to onto the other side.
Inhale as you close and exhale as you open.Single Leg Bridge:
An oldie but a goodie

The idea in this exercise is to push through the heel on the foot on the ground to lift the booty into the air. Once booty is lifted. Give the booty the extra feel good squeeze at the top before lowering down. Inhale as you lower your booty and exhale as you lift your booty. Repeat for 20 repetitions before moving onto the other leg.That completes our booty exercises. Feel free to go through the exercises more than once. To really give your booty a great challenge and to structure your workout like that of my Pilates classes, we like to do all the exercises using one leg aka booty cheek before moving to the other cheek. This way the booty is really feeling the intensity of the workout and burn to help lift, shape and create that great Pilates butt we are all thriving for!