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7 Barre Exercises to Feel a Serious Booty Burn

A toned and strong booty never seems to go out of style. And rightfully so! Glute exercises don’t just tone and lift (hello barre booty!), they also help to stabilize your entire pelvic girdle to assist in essential everyday activities like walking.

Barre workouts are surprisingly challenging. They may not look like much from the outside, but on the inside, you’ll feel a serious burn.

Luckily, you don’t need a ballet barre to practice barre.

And when it comes to shaping your booty and getting that perfect peach barre booty, there’s no better glute exercises than what’s offered in barre.
 

Looking for More Barre Classes Online?

YA Classes by YouAligned features a wide variety of online barre classes, which fuse movements inspired from yoga, Pilates, ballet and strength training to give you a full body workout that actually works. Grab your mat and a chair, and get ready for a fun workout!
 
 

Practice These 7 Glute Exercises for a Killer Barre Booty:

Luckily, you don’t need a ballet barre to practice barre.

Just grab a chair or a table or any surface that you can rest your hands on for balance and a mat or carpet for comfort when you get down to the floor, and get ready to feel the burn with these barre glute exercises.
 

 
 

1. Fire Hydrants

Fire Hydrants

This glute exercise targets your “side butt” (aka your gluteus medius and minimus), which work as abductors to draw your legs away from the midline of your body.

Let’s try it:

  • Start on all fours in a neutral quadruped position
  • Stack your shoulders over your wrists and your hips over your knees
  • Integrate your core by energetically hugging your center in toward your spine
  • Keeping your pelvis neutral, inhale as you lift your bent right leg off the floor and open it out wide toward the right side of your mat (like a dog peeing on a fire hydrant)
  • Exhale and release your right leg back to a quadruped position
  • Repeat this movement on your breath for about 10 to 30 repetitions
  • On your last rep, hold your leg in its lifted position and make tiny micro-movement pulses up and down for about 10 to 30 repetitions
  • Return back to your starting position and switch sides

Is barre not your thing? Try these 5 Resistance Band Workouts for Booty and Core You Can Do Anywhere
 

2. Rainbow Waves

Rainbow Waves

Another target for your gluteus medius and minimus, this glute exercise will start to turn up the heat slightly to prep your barre booty for what’s coming.

Let’s try it:

  • Start on all fours in a neutral quadruped position
  • Stack your shoulders over your wrists and your hips over your knees
  • Integrate your core by energetically hugging your center in toward your spine
  • Keeping your pelvis neutral, stretch a straight right leg out to the right side of your mat so that it is in line with your hips
  • Point your toes and send energy out through your foot
  • Inhale and lift your right leg to the height of your hips
  • Exhale and make an arcing movement in the shape of a rainbow as you lower your right toes to the outside of your left foot
  • Reverse your arc and return your right foot back to the right side of your mat
  • Repeat about 10 to 30 times and then switch sides

Looking for more articles on Yoga, check out our full library of Yoga articles here
 

3. Plié Pulses

Plie Pulses

Get your barre booty ready to be at the barre with this gluteus maximus burner. Working with the two main functions of the gluteus maximus (hip external rotation and hip extension), this seemingly simple plié packs a serious punch.

Let’s try it:

  • Come to stand facing your “barre” or sturdy surface and rest your fingertips lightly on it. Avoid gripping strongly – simply use it to help stabilize your balance as needed
  • Bring your heels to touch and turn your toes out into a ballet first position
  • Rise to the balls of your feet and draw your heels in to touch once again in your elevated position
  • Squeeze your legs toward each other and squeeze your glutes firmly
  • Inhale and elongate your spine as you neutralize your pelvis
  • Maintain this as you exhale and bend your knees to lower your body into a plié position (mini squat)
  • Stay in your plié and from here, take tiny little pulses farther up and down from your plié shape
  • Repeat about 10 to 30 times
  • Straighten your legs and rise up fully and then lower back down to your plié position
  • Repeat the full range of motion pulse about 10 to 30 times

 
Want a Perky Booty? Do These 9 Yoga Poses For a Great Butt Workout (Video)
 

4. Hinge Toe Taps

Hinge Toe Taps

This glute exercise might look harmless at first, but it’s one of the quickest ways to build a barre booty out there. You’ll thank us afterwards, but probably not in the moment.

Let’s try it:

  • Turn so that the “barre” is on your right side
  • Lean your torso forward to rest your right forearm on the “barre”
  • Draw your left hand to your hip
  • Maintain the lean in your torso as you hinge forward to almost parallel to the floor and activate your core
  • Stabilize your weight in your right leg and soften your right knee
  • Slide your left leg straight back behind you and point your toes
  • Neutralize your pelvis and point both frontal hip points to the floor. Maintain this even as you move
  • Inhale and lift your left leg off the floor and raise it as high as you can without straining your back or to about the height of your hips
  • Exhale and tap your left pointed toes back down to the floor
  • Repeat about 10 to 30 times and then switch sides

 

5. Donkey Kicks

Donkey Kicks

Turn up the heat in your glute exercises with this classic barre booty practice.

Let’s try it:

  • Turn so that the “barre” is on your right side
  • Lean your torso forward to rest your right forearm on the “barre”
  • Draw your left hand to your hip
  • Maintain the lean in your torso as you hinge forward to almost parallel to the floor and activate your core
  • Stabilize your weight in your right leg and soften your right knee
  • Slide your left leg straight back behind you and point your toes
  • Lift your left leg off the floor and draw it as high as you can while maintaining neutrality in your pelvis and spine
  • Bend your left knee so that your thigh is parallel to the floor and point your toes to the sky
  • Maintain the 90-degree bend in your knee and inhale to kick your left leg higher toward the sky
  • Exhale and slowly, with control, lower your left leg back down to its starting height
  • Repeat the kicks up and down for about 10 to 30 repetitions and then pause at the top of your last repetition
  • Turn the movements into small, micro-pulses up and down for another 10 to 30 reps
  • Repeat on the opposite side

 
Need some more booty care? Move Over Face Masks . . . Butt Masks Are the Next Skincare Trend (For Real Though)
 

6. Curtsy Lunge

Curtsy Lunges

Oh, the good old curtsy. You never thought it would be the glute exercise from your nightmares. But don’t worry! It’ll give you the barre booty of your dreams . . . so it all evens out in the end.

Let’s try it:

  • Stand away from the “barre” with your feet hip-distance apart and your hands resting on your hips
  • Activate your core and lengthen your spine as you pour your weight into your left leg
  • Keep your hips facing forward and cross your right foot back behind your left
  • With control, bend your knees deeply until your front thigh is roughly parallel to the floor
  • Root down into your left foot to rise back up to your starting position
  • Repeat about 10 to 30 times and then switch sides

 

 
 

7. Bridge Kicks

Bridge Kicks

Without fail, this glute exercise will make you feel a serious booty burn . . . in the best way possible!

Let’s try it:

  • Start lying on your back with your knees bent and your feet on the floor roughly hip-distance apart
  • Release your arms by your sides with your palms facing up
  • Tuck your tailbone and reach it toward your heels so that your lower back presses down into the mat
  • Curl your belly toward your spine and lift one bone at a time up off the floor to elevate your hips and your abdomen (but keep your shoulder blades on the floor)
  • Squeeze your glutes as you continue to tuck your tailbone and posteriorly tilt your pelvis
  • Root your weight down into your left leg and lift your right foot off the floor
  • Straighten your right leg forward toward the bottom of your mat to align your thighs and your knees
  • Maintain the global tension in your body and take tiny little pulses up and down in your hips
  • Repeat about 10 to 30 time before switching sides

 
Craving more? Practice These 10 Moves to Tone Your Butt
 
 

Own Your Barre Booty With These Killer Glute Exercises

A barre booty is desirable because it’s toned, strong, and functional.

Glute exercises come in many different shapes and forms, but barre exercises might be some of the most underestimated but most challenging of them all.

Just because they don’t look like much, doesn’t mean that they don’t create incredible results. Give these glute exercises a try and see for yourself!
 
 

Ready to Rock Your Own Barre Booty?

Looking for more glute exercises? Practice Barre Booty with Kelly Richardson on YA Classes by YouAligned!

Barre Program
With Kelly Richardson
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Leah Sugerman

Leah Sugerman is a yoga teacher, writer, and passionate world traveler. An eternally grateful student, she has trained in countless traditions of the practice and teaches a fusion of the styles she has studied with a strong emphasis on breath, alignment, and anatomical integrity. Leah teaches workshops, retreats, and trainings both internationally and online.

leahsugerman.com

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