BUTT exercises

My butt this my butt that! probably one of the most desiredly worked out muscle groups of the body and one that is so simple so here are 10!! that you can do to get the butt you've always wanted.. Beginners NO weights / Intermediate medium weights / Advanced medium to heavy weights.


1. Walking Lunge
Stand with your feet together. Keep your chest out and your midsection firm, do not arch your back. Place your hands on your hips or by your sides. Step forward with a large step. Bend both your knees. Your front shin should remain in a straight line with your ankle. Your back knee should be nearly touching the floor. As you are pushing up and at the top of your lunge, lunge forward with the other leg repeating the same movement. Continue with this sequence, alternating from one leg to the other until you have finished the required amount of reps.


2. Plie Squat
Stand with your legs wide apart - (wider than shoulder width apart). Have your toes pointed outwards. Keep your chest out, your midsection firm and head facing frontward. Holding one end of a dumbbell with both hands, the other end of the dumbbell should be facing the floor, have your arms directly in front of you. Make sure your back is straight and don't lean too far forward. (Keep the weights light to start with) Now bending your knees squat leaning into your heels. Now push yourself back up again squeezing your butt and inner thighs. Make sure you don't lift your toes up off the floor.



3. Dumbbell Stiff Legged Deadlift
Beginners start with a very light or no weight until you can perform this exercise with correct form. Stand with your feet only slightly apart. With a dumbbell in each hand at arms length, bend over from your hips so that your dumbbells are in front of your ankles, beginners - have your dumbbells at your shins. Your palms should now be facing your lower legs. Keep your body stable with your chest out, midsection firm, knees slightly bent for beginners and legs straight for advanced. Squeezing your butt and hamstrings raise your body back up to standing position, while also keeping your chest out, midsection firm and shoulders back. Keep the dumbbells at arms length so when returning to starting position the dumbbells should be in front of your thighs.

4. Reverse Lunges
Reverse lunges can be performed with barbells or dumbbells but I would recommend you not using any of these until you are well practiced at performing this exercise with no weights at all.

Don't worry; you will still feel it working. Stand with your feet together. Keep your chest out and your midsection firm; do not arch your back. Place your hands on your hips or by your sides. Here's where it changes..........

Step backward with your left leg. Bend both your knees. Your right shin should remain in a straight line with your ankle. Your left knee should be nearly touching the floor. Now with your left foot push up carefully until you are back to starting position. Then swap legs and perform the exercise again stepping back with your right leg. Take your time and keep yourself sturdy.

5. Machine Leg Press
Beginners keep your weights very light to none at all. Sit in the Leg Press machine. Place your feet high on the plate and wider than shoulder width apart. Have your toes pointing slightly outwards. Keep your chest out, back pushed into the back pad and your midsection firm. There should be a lever either side of your seat, which you will need to unlatch to lower the plate down. Keeping your feet stable lower the plate down towards you controlling it slowly down, depending on your flexibility, until you feel the pull in the back of your thigh. If your heels lift off the plate when lowering the plate down then your feet are positioned dangerously too low on the plate. Push, don't bounce, the plate back up to starting position.

6. Butt Tightener - Exercise Ball
Lie face down on the exercise ball with your abs and hips resting on the top of the ball. With your arms reaching out directly in front of you, hold onto a machine frame or a nearby bench with both hands to keep you sturdy.Now with your legs and feet together raise them off the floor while also squeezing your butt holding, if you can, for a count of 2. Your legs shouldn't rise any higher than your hips and abs.Lower your legs back to starting position.

7. Step Ups off a Bench or Step
Standing in front of your step or bench, start with your right foot first stepping up onto the step or bench, bringing your left foot up behind you, making sure your feet are securely on the bench at the top of the movement. Now lower your right foot down again, followed by your left foot. Now swap feet starting with your left foot up first, followed by your right foot.

8. Smith Machine Squat
Position yourself in the Smith machine, resting the bar across your traps and upper shoulders. Place your feet about 8-12 inches in front of your body, just wider than shoulder width apart. Have your toes pointing slightly outwards. Now lower yourself downwards keeping your midsection firm, inhaling on the way down, keeping your feet and heels pushed into the floor. When your thighs are approximately parallel to the floor squeeze your glutes and hamstrings to push yourself back up again. Exhale on the way up. Do not bounce the squat when pushing yourself back up. Keep the movement controlled throughout the exercise.

NOTE: To emphasize your glutes in the exercise keep the weights lighter and squat slightly lower than the 90-degree angle.

9. Cable Hip Extension
Place the ankle cuff around your right ankle on the low pulley on the cable crossovers (or the cable machine). Facing the weight stack and holding onto the bar provided (you will need something stable to hang onto directly in front of you to keep you sturdy) lean forwards slightly, turning your right foot outwards slightly. Now push your foot up and back behind you, squeezing your butt. Have your left knee (your supporting leg) slightly bent so it can support your weight sufficiently. Now lower your leg down to starting position. Complete your reps and then swap legs.

10. Glute Extension
This looks totally weird but works. Lie flat on a bench with your legs bent and hanging off the edge. (Your abs and hips should be resting on the end of the bench). Adjust the bench so that your bent knees can touch the floor. If not they can hang there. You have two options for this exercise:
You can use ankle weights with the soles of your feet pointing upwards or you can hold a dumbbell between the soles of your feet with the soles of your feet pointing upwards. Hold onto the bench with your arms. Now with your knees pointing downwards but slightly outwards and your heels facing the ceiling push your feet upwards squeezing your butt. Do not raise your thighs higher than your hips and abs.If you have lower back problems this exercise can also be performed on the floor. Make sure you use an exercise mat. Beginners should not use any weights until they have got used to performing this exercise. If any doubts always consult a personal trainer or professional

Barbecued squid with green mango salad

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic
2 small chillies
2 tablespoons dried shrimp
1/2 green mango, julienne
100 g young green beans, sliced finely on an angle
1 ripe tomato, halved, seeded and diced
1/2 cup Thai basil
1/2 cup Viet mint
1/2 cup coriander
2 tablespoons peanuts
1 tablespoon reduced-salt soy sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon sugar, (preferably palm sugar)
400 g young small squid, cleaned and cut into strips
20 ml canola oil
3 tablespoons fried shallots




Method:
1. Place garlic, chillies and dried shrimp in a food processor and blend to a fine mince. Put in a bowl with the mango, green beans, tomato, Thai basil, Viet mint, coriander and peanuts. In a separate bowl, combine the soy sauce, lime juice and palm sugar. Warm gently to dissolve. Add dressing to salad and let sit for 5 minutes.

2. Toss the prepared squid in canola oil and quickly sear on a very hot barbecue for about 1 minute. Add to salad and toss. Divide between 4 plates and serve sprinkled with fried shallots.

Skipping

Using a skipping rope is a great cardiovascular exercise. It's one of the foundations of a boxer's conditioning programme, and you've got to be in shape to box. The tennis champ Jimmy Connors even used to skip a rope as part of his conditioning routine.

Wear supportive cross-trainers, tennis or basketball shoes while skipping. Running shoes won't give enough forefoot support for all the bouncing you'll do. Avoid jumping on concrete, floors laid over concrete, and other hard surfaces like tile. If you don't have a springy wooden or carpeted floor, place a thin exercise mat on the floor and jump on that.

Skipping is strenuous and may be hard to sustain for the 30 minutes that you need for a good aerobic workout. Try this routine, used in boxing classes:

Skip for three minutes (a round in boxing is three minutes long).
Take a minute off and do as many crunches as you can.
Skip for another three minutes.
During the next minute between rounds, do as many push-ups as you can.
Return to skipping for three minutes.
Do crunches for another minute. Repeat.
You can alternate rounds of skipping with crunches and push-ups until you've completed 30 minutes or more of exercise. After the second or third round of skipping, your heart rate won't drop that much during the crunches and push-ups.

You might not be able to do more than a few intervals of push-ups. Use any exercise you want during the minute between rounds. Try doing squats and lunges (with or without weights) to give your larger leg muscles added work. Do upper-body exercises with dumbbells during that minute. Use proper form and don't rush. One more thing: Skipping focuses on your calves, so be diligent about stretching them before and after your workout.

Another advantage of using a skipping rope is that you can take it anywhere. If you're travelling and there isn't a gym nearby, you can workout in your hotel room.

Yummy Vegetarian Pizza

Serves: 4

Ingredients:
1 cup wholemeal plain flour
1 teaspoon dried yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup warm water
1 cup low-fat cheese, shredded
1/2 cup reduced-salt tomato paste
1 medium capsicum, sliced
1 onion, diced
1 cup mushrooms, sliced




Method:
1. Heat oven to 220˚C.
2. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl, add water and mix to a soft dough. If too sticky, add 1-2 tablespoons extra flour.
3. Cover and rest in a warm place for 15 minutes.
4. Turn dough onto floured board and knead until smooth.
5. Roll out dough to the desired size (22cm pizza or mini pizzas).
6. Lightly brush or spray pizza pan with oil.
7. Put dough on lightly greased tray and cover pizza with plastic wrap. Stand in warm place for 10 minutes to rise.
8. Top with tomato sauce and toppings. Cover with low-fat, grated cheese.
9. Bake at 220˚C for 20 minutes and serve hot.