Exercises can be done at home to help tone up and save the time of not having to drive to a gym. Don’t be fooled by thinking exercises performed at home are easy! Fitness instructors course material puts extra emphasis on workout programs that individuals can relate to and perform anywhere for consistency and accountability. Workouts that can be performed anywhere leave the clients with no excuses to not complete their daily training programs. Here are three glute toning exercises that certified health coach training programs approve for use at home in combination with a healthy diet and active lifestyle for maximum results:
- Squats. Individuals have a love/hate relationship with squats. They are challenging, yet extremely effective at toning the glute, thigh, and hamstring, and quad muscles for a perfect lower body toning workout. Squats can be performed effectively with no extra equipment needed and can use just your body weight as resistance. For added challenge, add dumbbells, barbells, exercise bands, or kettlebells to get your heart rate up and tone additional parts of the body. Health certifications are available for resistance training workouts to give you added training in practice and form.
- Lunges. Lunges are fantastic exercises for isolating the glute and the supporting quad and hamstring muscles. Isometric lunges, or pulsing lunges, help activate the hip flexor muscles as well to help strengthen weaker muscle groups. Lunges can be used as part of your functional fitness training because the muscles around the joints are strengthened to help decrease your risk of sports injury and overuse. Lunges can be performed at different angles such as forward, side, or backwards to make sure each muscle is targeted and activated during your workout.
- Donkey Kicks. Home fitness trainers love using donkey kicks to isolate and target glute muscles. They are easy to do and require only a mat to help cushion your knees. With your palms flat on the mat and your knees on the mat, create a neutral starting position by getting into a yoga bridge position with a neutral back and spine. Keeping your legs at a 90 degree angle, raise one leg up with your heel flat and parallel to the ceiling. Make sure your hips stay straight and neutral. Bring your leg back down to the mat in your starting position. You can keep your leg up and do isometric pulses with your donkey kicks, or you can do deeper rotations coming back to neutral each time. Exercise bands and ankle weights are a way to make this exercise more challenging. A home fitness trainer can help demonstrate for you and watch your form if you need more hands-on assistance performing this exercise. There are a variety of exercises that can be done to help target and tone the glutes. Working out at home gives the greatest flexibility in time management.
