Your glutes, or the muscles in your butt, play a large role in supporting your powerhouse, aka your core. In fact, your glutes are the base of your powerhouse, so it’s important to build up these muscles for more stability and strength. Think of all the everyday activities you do that involve your glutes. Walking, climbing up stairs, and picking up groceries off the ground all enlist the power-producing muscles in your booty.
Here, Los Angeles–based Pilates trainer Ana Caban walks us through a 20-minute booty burn workout.
The Warm-Up
1. C-Curve Stretch
To start, you’ll do a few reps of a C-curve stretch to warm up your back and core. Sit up tall with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Place your hands behind your knees. Inhale, and as you exhale, round your back and look into your belly.
2. Pilates 100
You can either bend your knees 90 degrees or straighten your legs and point your feet toward the ceiling. For either position, you want to lift your shoulders and upper back off the mat and reach your arms forward while keeping your lower back pressed to the ground. Pump your arms up and down as you curl your upper back and shoulders off the ground. Remember to inhale and exhale throughout the exercise.
3. Roll Down and Roll Up
Sit up tall and extend your legs straight in front of you with your toes pointed. Reach your arms forward, tuck your head looking down at your knees, pull your belly in, and slowly roll down to the mat, vertebrae by vertebrae. Resist gravity by engaging your core.
As you lie down on the mat, bring your arms overhead. From there, bring your arms forward, then tuck your chin into your chest and slowly roll up until you reach your toes. If you have trouble coming up, bend your knees slightly and squeeze your inner thighs together for more support.
4. Single-Leg Stretch
Lie down on the mat with your legs straight. Bend your right knee toward your chest by holding onto your thigh and ankle. Lift your shoulders and your left leg off the mat, keeping it straight. Press your lower back into the mat and keep your gaze at the center under your nose. Pull your left knee toward your chest as you straighten your right leg out. Continue to alternate legs as you keep your shoulder blades off the mat.
5. Double Straight-Leg Lower Lift
Lie down on the mat and extend your legs straight toward the ceiling, pointing your toes and pressing your lower back into the mat. Place your hands behind your head and lift it off the mat. Slowly lower your legs together toward the mat and then lift them back up; lower only as far as you can keep your low back on the mat. If your low back starts to arch or lift, you’ve lowered your legs too far.
6. Spine Stretch Forward
Sit up tall with your legs straight in front of you and walk them out wide to the width of the mat or a little wider. Flex your feet and stretch your arms forward. Make sure that your shoulders are directly over your hips. Flexing your feet and keeping your posture tall, on an inhale, tuck your chin to your chest, contract your abs, and round your spine into a C-curve. Bring your arms forward, then straighten back up and exhale, stacking vertebrae by vertebrae.
Interested in learning more? Check out 14-Day Pilates Body
The Workout
1. Single-Leg Lift Series
Get on all fours on the mat by stacking your shoulders over your elbows and your hips over your knees. Keeping your hips square, abs in, and toes softly pointed, extend your right leg back, and lift and lower your leg. After a few reps, you’ll flex your right foot and lift your leg until it’s parallel with the floor. With your leg lifted and foot flexed, bend and extend your right knee. Imagine that you’re pushing through mud, Caban says. Remember to keep your shoulders away from your ears.
Next, you’ll bend your right knee to 90 degrees and pulse your leg up and down. Repeat for a few reps. From here, you’ll extend your right leg out again and softly point your toes. Sweep your right leg across your body so that your toes are reaching for the opposite back corner of your mat. Sweep your leg to the right side and back to tap the opposite back corner of your mat. After a few reps, you’ll repeat this same series on the left leg.
2. Beats on the Belly
Lie face-down on the mat and stack your fists in front of you so that you can rest your forehead on them. Extend your legs straight behind you and widen your stance to the width of the mat. Point your toes softly. Keeping your forehead pressed to your fists, abs in, and your shoulders away from your ears, lift and lower your legs. Repeat for a few reps. From here, you’ll lift your legs again, close them in mid-air, and then spread them apart to the sides of your mat before lowering them down to the mat.
3. Stomping Bugs
Lie on your right side, using the back edge of your mat for guidance, and rest your head on your right hand or use your right arm to cradle it on the floor. Rest your opposite hand on the floor in front of you. With both legs extended and together, bring them forward slightly. Then, bend your knees in front of your body, forming 90-degree angles with your hips and behind the knees. With both feet flexed, lift your top leg up to hip height. Keeping your foot flexed, extend your leg out. Your body should form a straight line from your head to your heel. Then pull your leg back in.
4. Clamshell
From the same starting position in the stomping bugs exercise, bring your feet behind your hips. With your hips square and feet touching, peel your top knee open, rotating your top hip, then bring your knee back down. After several reps, you’ll maintain the same starting position, but lift your feet up together a few inches. Do the same clamshell exercise with your feet lifted in the air. Inhale as you open your knee and exhale as you close.
Swing your legs to the front to switch sides, and repeat the same glutes series on the left leg.
The Cooldown
1. Single Pigeon Stretch
Bend your right knee so that your shin is parallel to the front edge of your mat and extend your left leg straight behind you with your toes softly pointed. Flex your right ankle to protect your knee and sit up tall. Deepen the stretch by walking your hands forward to come to your forearms or lie your forehead on the ground. Repeat on the left leg.
2. Figure-4 Stretch
Lie on your back and bend your left knee, stacking your knee over your hip. Bend your right knee and open it up to the side, resting your right ankle on top of your left knee. Flex your right ankle. Thread your hands through your legs to feel the stretch. Push your right knee away from your body to deepen the stretch.
For more Pilates exercises, check out this 30–minute Pilates ring ab workout. Consider incorporating these somatic stretching exercises and mini workouts into your routine to improve your flexibility, strength, and cardiorespiratory fitness.
