The top reasons people list for starting a diet or workout is to lose fat, and most of these people go on to say they want to lose the fat in their stomach and butt. I am sure this is not news. Most exercises, though, are focused on the stomach, arms, and chest. Little attention is given to the gluteus maximus. That ends today.

With only three exercises, you can tone your butt and build leg strength. They do require weights for the full benefits. The exercises are squats, leg press, and walking dumbbell lunges.

Squats

Almost all gyms have a squat rack or Smith machine as it is often referred as. These are ideal because you can start with the weight on the rack’s hooks and place the safety bars in there to prevent you from coming down to far causing damage to your knees.

Once you find the Smith machine, take all the weights off of the bar and place the bar on your shoulders. Be sure to keep the bar on the meaty part of your shoulders and avoid the spine. Find a good starting point for the bar that allows you to get under it and have a few inches to lift it off of the rack without having to go to your tiptoes. Once that is set, find your down limit. This is the point where your thighs are parallel to the floor. If you have bad knees, stop right before they are parallel. This is where you put the safety bars.

After all that is set, add some weights and get busy.

Leg press

This simply requires finding the leg press machine and slowly adding weight until you find enough challenge and become comfortable with the apparatus.

Walking dumbbell lunges

Grab a couple of dumbbells and stand with feet should width apart. Lunge forward with your right leg until your right thigh is parallel to the ground. Stand with your right leg and pull your left leg forward until your feet are should width apart again and repeat with the left leg. If you do not have the room, you can stay in the same spot and just bring your right foot back to where it was. The benefit of walking is it puts more of a demand on your butt muscles as opposed to just your hamstrings.

The workout is as follows

Do one set of 12-15 squats; do 12-15 leg presses; do a set of 10 lunges (each leg); and then repeat three times with a one to two minute break in between.

I prefer to skip breaks and maximize my time in the gym as it is limited with work and kids, so in between sets I add an ab exercise, pull ups, arm curls, or anything else that does not involve the legs.