30-Minute Butt and Thigh Workout

Strengthening your lower body can tone your butt and legs, but it can also help your mobility, longevity, and aid in day-to-day activities. Doing workouts for your butt and thighs can offer benefits like injury prevention and blood flow improvement.

Learn more about 18 exercises that target your lower half to keep you strong. You can do each alone or piece them together for a full 30-minute workout routine.

Workout Overview

Many exercises are available to help strengthen and tone the muscles of your lower body, including your quads, hamstrings, and glutes. Butt and thigh workouts can include the following:

• Warrior III
• Chair squat
• Pivoting curtsy lunge
• Lower lunge hover
• Skater lunge
• The lean
• Leg lift
• Standing glute toner
• Two-thirds jump squat
• V-position
• Lateral lunge side kick
• Hip bridge
• Split-squat
• Single leg lift and row
• Chair twist
• Downward dog split
• Knee lift-leg kick combo
• Leg crossover stretch

Benefits of Butt and Thigh Exercises

Your lower half—hips, butt, thighs, and legs—contain some of your body's largest muscle groups. These powerful muscles are responsible for stabilizing and supporting your entire body, and conditioning them can help you maintain balance and move freely and easily in your daily life.

Exercising your lower half has many additional benefits, including:

• Improving blood flow, which could help protect against conditions such as heart disease and stroke
• Strengthening bones
• Boosting resting metabolic rate, enabling you to burn more calories post-workout
• Preventing injury
  

The Workout

Here are 18 exercises to help you work your lower body and build strength. Aim to do them at least twice a week—research has suggested this timing maximizes muscle growth.

1. Warrior III

Warrior III is a yoga pose. You can get strengthening benefits in your legs and core with this move. To do it:

• Stand with feet together, then step one foot slightly forward. Your weight should be on this leg.
• Stretch your arms above your head and intertwine your fingers. Point your index finger up.
• Lift your other leg up and out while hinging your hips to move your arms and upper body toward the floor. Your body should be in a straight light as you bend.
• Hold this pose for two to six breaths. Slowly return to the starting position by moving your arms up and your lifted leg down.
• Repeat these steps on the opposite side of your body.

2. Chair Squat

Grab a stationary chair—one that's stable and won't roll or slide—to do this exercise:

• Put the chair behind you and stand in front of it, feet shoulder-width apart.
• Stiffen your core to keep your back straight.
• Lower your body by bending your knees and pulling your hips back. Your chest and head should remain upward.
• Touch the seat of the chair using your glutes. Rise slowly to your starting position.
• Start with eight reps and work up to 12, if possible, as you become comfortable.

3. Pivoting Curtsy Lunge

The following instructions can help you do a curtsy lunge:

• Standing with feet hip-width apart, step your right foot diagonally behind you and into a 7 o'clock position.
• Bend both knees, so you're in a lunge stance.
• Lean your torso forward 30 degrees and pulse up and down 10 to 15 times.
• Straighten the body and pivot 180 degrees so your right foot comes to the front. Again, lower into a lunge.
• Pulse up and down 10 to 15 times on each side to complete one set; do three sets.

4. Low Lunge Hover

This standing move works both the legs and butt:

• Stand with feet hip-width apart before stepping your right foot back and lowering into a lunge stance with the left knee over the ankle.
• Bring your arms over your head and hinge forward from the waist. Lower the chest forward toward the thighs as your arms reach forward.
• Lift the right leg while straightening the left. Hold for three breaths before returning to the starting lunge position.
• Do three reps; switch legs and repeat.

5. Skater Lunge

Here's how to do a skater lunge:

• Stand with feet hip-width apart.
• Hop, or step, to one side, moving your arms across your body as you hop or step to the opposite side.
• Bring the foot you didn't use to hop or step behind and out diagonally, making your thigh parallel to the floor.
• Hold this move for a moment then do the same moves on the opposite side.
• Do 10 reps on each side.

6. The Lean

This move works the inner thighs and begins with the same stance as the skater's lunge:

• Begin with feet shoulder-width apart and arms down at your sides. Take a step diagonally back with the right foot.
• Then, bend sideways from the waist toward the side where your right leg is stretched out, and reach your right arm up and left arm down and back toward your right calf. Return arms to the starting position to complete one rep.
• Do 10 reps, then switch sides and repeat.

7. Glute Toner

This is a leg-lift exercise to work your glutes. To do it:

• Get in an all-fours position.
• Move one leg back and lift it to knee height.
• Bend your leg slightly and lift it higher, pulsing it twice.
• Take the same leg and lift it to the side, knee still bent, and pulse it twice laterally.
• Put your leg down and repeat on the opposite side.

8. Two-Thirds Jump Squat

Your quads and hamstrings will do most of the work for this exercise. Here's what you'll do:

• Stand with your arms by your sides and your feet the same distance apart as your shoulders.
• Move two-thirds of the way into a squatting position.
• Jump up from the squat with your hands and arms above you.
• Land and repeat until you've completed 20 reps.

9. V-Position

This V-Position is similar to a ballet plié, and just like that classic move, it works the thighs, hips, and glutes:

• Stand holding the back of a chair with one hand.
• Place your feet in a V position; your heels can be together or about hip-width apart, toes pointing outward.
• Bend your knees and lift the heels a few inches off the floor. Then, lower your hips until you feel your quads intensely working. Pulse up and down.
• One set includes 10 to 15 pulses up and down; do three sets.

10. Lateral Lunge Side Kick

Here's what to do for this workout move:

• Stand shoulder-width apart.
• Step one leg to the side and squat with the opposite leg.
• Stand up and kick out the leg you squatted with to the side.
• Return to the one-leg lunge and repeat the kick-lunge movement.
• Do 10 to 15 reps on each side.

11. Hip Bridge

This move is a modified bridge and targets the glutes:

• Lie on your back facing up with knees bent. Plant your heels into the floor and lift the toes toward the shins.
• Raise the buttocks off the ground until your back forms a straight line from the knees to the shoulders. Hold for one second before lowering down.
• Repeat for 15 reps.

12. Split-Squat

This squat incorporates dumbbells and works to tone the thighs:

• With a five-pound dumbbell in each hand at your sides, stand with the left foot forward and the right foot back in a wide stance.
• Bend both knees keeping the left knee over your ankle while lowering the right knee nearly to the floor.
• Return to standing.
• Do eight to 10 reps on each side.

13. Chair Twist

This move works the butt and legs. Though "chair" is in the title, no equipment or props are needed:

• Start by standing with feet together.
• Bend the knees and push the hips back, while making sure the knees stay behind the toes.
• Lower the thighs until they're almost parallel with the floor and raise the arms forward and up. Then, rotate the torso to the right side and place the left elbow on the outside of the right knee.
• Hold for three breaths and return to the starting position.
• Repeat on the left side to complete one rep; do three reps.
  

14. Downward Dog Split

This yoga move is great for the legs:

• Begin on all fours on the ground.
• Take a deep breath, release, and push into downward dog by straightening the legs and lifting your hips and butt into the air.
• Push your hands and feet into the ground and relax the head between your arms.
• Exhale and lift one leg as high as you can while keeping it straight with a flexed foot.
• Lower the leg down and repeat on the other side.

15. Knee Lift-Leg Kick Combo

This move can be challenging. Feel free to do less and work your way up to completing the entire set if you can't complete the recommended reps:

• Lie on your right side with the upper body supported by the right elbow and tricep, which should be flat on the mat at your side.
• Stack the legs and hip, and bend the knees.
• Lift the top bent leg, keeping it level, and lower it.
• Straighten both legs and let them fall into a small split position (with one leg split over the other).
• Hover the bottom leg about 1 to 2 inches from the floor with knees facing forward. Return to starting position to complete one rep.
• Do 30 to 40 reps, then switch sides and repeat.
  

Tips

You always want to talk to a healthcare provider before doing any physical activity—especially if you're new to exercise or haven't been active in a while. When trying a butt and thigh workout or other exercise routines, you'll also want to:

• Breathe normally, and don't hold your breath.
• Have something sturdy nearby to use if you feel unstable.
• Make sure you do warm-up and cool-down movements, like stretching, before any physical activity.
• Move carefully and in a way that isn't painful.
• Stay hydrated whenever you exercise.

A Quick Review

These lower body exercises are designed to shape your butt, thighs, and legs, but they will also help you stay strong, limber, and healthy. Try them all to see which ones work best for you, and stick with a routine to see faster results.