5 killer resistance band moves to tone your glutes

Want a smile as big as Alexz’s? Try one of her new Resistance Tone workouts!

How do they work? A band adds tension that your muscles have to work to resist or push against. They can deliver the same results for your muscles and strength as weights, with added benefits for your form and balance. (If you want to switch on your stabilizer muscles, get a band!)

And since “toning” means creating definition and shape by building muscle and burning fat, resistance bands are the perfect piece of equipment to get the job done.

Want to try 5 of my favorite resistance band moves? Your bum isn’t ready, trust me.

1. Squat pulse

Adding a resistance band challenges you to keep your knees wide, generating an even bigger burn in your glutes and abductors than a classic squat pulse. I can hear the screams from here!

How to do a squat pulse:

• Place the resistance band around your thighs, just above your knees.
• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, your chest up, shoulders back and core engaged.
• With your weight pressing into your heels, sit back and down into a micro squat.
• Make a small up-and-down pulsing motion without fully extending through your legs. Stay low and keep your knees nice and wide. The wider the knees the deeper the burn!
• To make sure you are activating the right muscles, touch your butt cheeks and make sure they feel nice and firm. If they don’t, you need to get lower and pull wider through the band.

Modification: If a constant squat pulse is too intense, rise up and fully extend through your legs in between each rep.

2. Glute bridge pulse

To really make your glutes work for it, just add a band and keep those knees wide!

How to do a glute bridge pulse:

• Place the band around your thighs, just above your knees.
• Lie on your back with your knees bent and roughly hip-distance apart. You should be able to touch the heels of your feet with the tips of your fingers.
• Engage your core, curl your spine off the mat and squeeze your glutes when you reach the top. Your body should form a straight line from your knees to your shoulders.
• To lower, slowly curl your spine down, lowering your glutes until they are hovering just above the mat.
• Now repeat and set your glutes on fire.
• Keep your knees wide to maintain resistance through the band.

Modification: If you struggle with the pulse, you can lift and hold the bridge, or lower your butt back to the floor after every rep.

3. Step-back squat

By combining squats, lunges and a band, we end up with a real core, quad and glute shaker.

How to do a step-back squat:

• Place the band around your thighs, just above your knees.
• With your feet shoulder-width apart, knees wide and core engaged, drop into a shallow squat.
• Place your hands on your hips for balance, then step one foot back into a low lunge.
• Bring the same foot back so you are once again in a shallow squat – keeping tension on the band at all times – then step the opposite foot back.
• Continue alternating step backs at a steady pace, keeping your shoulders back, bum low, shoulders back and neck neutral.

4. Bicycle Crunches

Besides making you work a little harder, adding a band to this exercise strengthens your quads and deep lower abdominal muscles, giving you a full-body burn.

How to do bicycle crunches:

• Place the band around the arches of your feet.
• Lie on your back with your hands behind your head and lift your knees up into the air, bent at a 90 degree angle.
• Engage your ab muscles, then push against the band to extend your right leg out, at the same time as you rotate through your core to tap your right elbow on your left knee.
• Pause briefly, then as you lower your right elbow and bring your leg back in, simultaneously extend your left leg and bring your left elbow to your right knee.
• Continue this bicycle motion, one leg after the other, in a slow and controlled manner to maximize the intensity and burn.

Modification: If the crunches are too advanced, sit up, place your hands on the mat behind you and heels on the mat to create a V-shape with your torso and legs. Then lift and extend one leg at a time.

5. Russian twist

While you’re twisting through those amazing obliques, the band is adding resistance to your abductor muscles – also letting the outer side of your glutes, hips and legs feel the burn.

How to do a Russian twist:

• Sit on the floor with the band around your thighs, just above your knees.
• Curling your shoulders forward, bring your spine back until you’re forming a C-shape with your torso and thighs, keeping your heels on the ground.
• With your arms in a circle shape and your elbows away from your body, rotate from side-to-side while engaging your core. Inhale while you rotate and exhale when you complete a full rotation.
• To increase the burn you can lift your heels off the mat or sink lower through your spine, always making sure the band is nice & wide.

Modification: If this is too strong, try to hold the v position with your body, but take out the twist.

You can find my Resistance Tone workouts at any time in the Coached Workouts section by filtering for “Bonus” and “15-mins & under”. Not a Centr member yet? Start your free trial today to feel the burn!