A Better Butt Means Squats and Lunges

Wow! One of the Severna Park Fitness and Health Blog's regular readers (my mom and a few others) sent me a butt question. Now that is near and dear to my heart. Here is the question:

When I met my husband, I was guaranteed one complement: "Honey, you have a great butt." These days, I hear it only when I'm wearing clothes that DON'T show off my butt. My question if obvious: what can I do? I'm coming to Club One at least twice a week but I'm mostly just doing cardio.

Answer: The good news: there is a cure. The bad news: they are hard. The best exercises for a good butt are squats and lunges. I think lunges are best for your butt and squats are best for your legs. (There is no science that I have seen directly supporting this theory but that has been my experience.)

When you do your lunges, put your legs shoulder width apart, soft knees (meaning just shy of locked but not locked;) step first with the left leg, remaining in the bent knee position; hold. Then switch either in place or walking across the floor. For your squat, place your feet shoulder width apart and bending down in a squat, making sure your knees do not go over your toes. Do these slowly, going down and then slowly coming back up. For a tighter butt, I would do 12-15 repetitions of three sets at least twice a week.

This is going to get your husband back in the complement mode. In your tight pants...