One of the hottest areas of the body that many people want to target with their workout program is the buttocks or the glutes. Body sculpting has become a hot topic in the fitness world as more and more people have a very precise look they want to create and by use of proper body sculpting techniques, they can achieve that quite quickly.

One very important thing to note right off the top, however, is that in order for body sculpting to be achieved, you will also have to be at a relatively low body fat level as well.

It doesn’t matter how many exercises you do for the glutes, the abs, the arms – whatever muscle you happen to be targeting, if you have a very thick layer of fat covering the muscles, you are not going to see the results you were hoping for. It just won’t come as you’ll have too much of a ‘blanket’ over top of those hard-earned muscles.

Body sculpting does take a bit of time but when approached properly, you can see results from the very first week you start it.  Follow a good diet and your progress will be that much faster.

So all of this said, today we’re going to talk about the best body sculpting exercises for the buttocks. If you want a firm and shapely backside, these are the moves that you’re going to want to do.

1) Lunges

The very first of the great butt movements to make sure you include in your workout is the lunge. Lunges are great since they’ll not only work the muscles in the lower body very well, but they’ll also put your balance and agility to the test also.

A good lunge is a perfect way to work the core muscles and will also really target not only the glutes but the hamstrings and quads also. Since many people who want a firmer butt also want thinner or leaner thighs, this is a primary exercise to include in your plan.

When doing the lunge, make sure that you do them slowly and in a controlled manner. You don’t want speed and momentum to carry you through as this will take stress off the actual glute muscles.

2) Butt-To-The-Ground Squats

Next, also consider adding butt to the ground squats.  Now, notice the name here as this is important. If you want to see optimum body sculpting for your butt area, you must go all the way down to the ground – or as low as you can possibly go without suffering from knee pain.

Some people do have some pain in the knee that can get irritated if they go too low, so just be aware of this.

When doing the squat, you can either hold a barbell across your back or use simple body weight. Generally speaking though, the added resistance will speed up the firming process.

3) Step Ups

The step-up is the next great butt body sculpting exercise to include in your workout.  Step-ups can easily be interchanged with squats in the program to add more variety and to challenge the muscles from a different angle.

With the step up, in order to effectively target the glute muscles over the quads, use as high of a step as you possibly can.

The higher the step is, the more you’ll get glute activation, so the more you should feel it in our target region here.

In addition to that, you’ll also notice that you are slightly less balanced going about the movement with the higher step, which is great for making sure that you integrate the core muscles into the movement as well.

Step-ups can also be performed with a barbell across your back or simply by holding a dumbbell down by the sides of your body.

Some people may prefer doing these as more of a plyometric activity, jumping up onto the step and jumping up to exchange feet mid-air. This definitely can also provide body sculpting benefits, while also offering some serious cardiovascular benefits as well, but note that the overall effect of the workout is different in this manner.

You would not want to do this form of movement with weights, so you’d be using just body weight only. It’d be ideal for boosting your metabolism and burning fat, but less ideal for building up lean muscle and shaping the area.

The video below shows a how to do a step-up using plyo-boxes:

4) Split Squats

Moving along, split squats are the next exercise to consider adding to your workout program. Split squats are really quite similar as lunges are, with the exception that you’re standing stationary in one place.

The really nice benefit that this movement has to offer is the fact that it will require a high degree of balance and control as you go about it, making sure that it’s going to challenge your abs the entire way through the exercise.

When doing split squats, to target the glute muscles over the quads, think of driving the body upwards through the heel rather than the toes.

If you’re leaning too far forward and are thinking of pushing up through the toes, you’ll get the quads working extensively. Since this isn’t what you want (since the quads are typically stronger than the glutes so will really reduce the butt toning benefits you see), make sure you think of staying upright (no forward lean), and pushing through the back of the foot.

The video below shows an example of Split Squats with dumbbells:

5) Stepper Cardio Training

Finally, when it comes to your cardio training, in order to get the best butt body sculpting benefits, consider stepping.  The stepper – or stair climber as you may prefer to call it, is fantastic for targeting the butt region and will also challenge the thighs as well.

It’ll burn just about as many calories as fast-paced running would, so earns top marks for calorie burn as well.

So there you have your buttocks body sculpting protocol. Add two or three of these movements to your workouts at least two but not more than three times per week and you will be seeing results shortly.