Taming Your Trouble Spots: Glutes

Hi, I'm Dr. Pam Peeke. Call it what you want -- behind, booty, or derriere. It's part of our feminine curves, and it works well for us until you've got way too much of a good thing. Here are some terrific butt-blasters to tone and lift your glorious glutes. Now you'll need a chair and a floor exercise mat. Find a bare wall in your house and leave plenty of room for the floor-mat exercise. Let's start in with a backward leg touch-and-lift. Grab the chair. And then gently touch it. You just want to be able to stabilize yourself. Nice straight back. Take your right leg, and straight on back. Touch that toe to the floor. And lift. It doesn't matter how high you lift because you're working your glute no matter what. You don't have to be showing off now. Up and down, so it's lift and touch. Lift and touch. Nice and slow, too, so you can really work it. Now your goal is to do 1-3 sets of 5-10 repetitions of each leg. It's time to head on over to that wall for the chair wall squat.

: What is that? Oh, it's wonderful to build up those glutes, as well as your quads. Stand straight up against the wall. Take about two steps forward. And then start coming on down. If you're questionable about your knees, you don't have to come down all the way, but I am going to show you your goal. And that is to have your thighs parallel with the floor. Alright, you're sitting on your invisible chair. Hmmm. What do you feel? your quads and your glutes. Your goal is to be able to hold this position from anywhere from one second to 10 seconds, to 20, 30. One day you can hit one minute. Stand on up. Relax for about 30 seconds and then repeat five times. So let's head on over to the exercise mat. We're going to do a donkey kick crossover. What is that? It means that you come on down to the mat, onto your fours. All four of them, and you're going to be working your glutes by lifting your left leg, bent knee. Take that knee up to the hip level. Oh boy, do you feel it? Mmmmhmm. We're not done yet. Now you're going to bend that knee in and out. Keep working it. Oh boy, do you feel that?

: That's right. Glorious glutes. That's your goal. And so also is 1-3 sets of 5-10 repetitions of each leg. Feels great, doesn't it? So, stay mindful of your "rearful" and your reward is a pair of gorgeous glutes. That's my bottom line for a superior posterior. You can make healthy changes to your diet and body, and WebMD can help. Use the WebMD Food and Fitness Planner to track your progress.