10 Minute Butt and Thigh Workout

Hi, my name is Leah Zahner, I'm one of the GHU TV trainers, and I'm here to lead you through a 10 minute butt and thigh workout. So as soon as you've got your space, grab yourself a set of dumbbells, go a little heavy on this one, you'll be ready to go. So the first couple workout exercises that we're going to do are going to be getting you ready for the workout, activating your glutes. So I'm going to start my timer right away. You're going to be doing about 50 seconds of work, 10 seconds to transition between exercises, and before you know it you'll be done. All right, I'm starting my timer. Very first thing you need to do is find a wall. Back yourself up close enough that you can lighten your fingertips up. You're just going to take a straight leg, press your heel into the wall behind you, alternating side to side, all you're doing is waking up those glutes, waking up the backside of your body. You want to feel that pressure. Start by squeezing right in those glutes. You'll feel a little bit of activation in your hamstrings as well, but you want to start waking up those muscles to make sure that you're not going to be using your hip flexors for any of this work that we're about to do. So you're here for just about 20 more seconds. Every press just really focused on activating those glutes. Should start a little bit easy but I promise you you're going to be digging deep in just a minute here. Three more seconds here. And then as soon as you're done with this, go ahead, step away from the wall. Walk your feet nice and wide. We're going to do the bottom half of a Yogi squat for our next exercise. So I want you to find that nice wide position and sink yourself down to start. So your feet should be wide. Press your hands together. Keep your knees open. And all you're going to do is lift halfway up and come back down. So now we're opening up your hips. We're also starting to feel a little bit of burn in the quads into the glutes. Every time you lift up you want to stop right when your thighs get parallel. So I'm going to turn to the side so you can see that. I'm not going to come up any higher than here and keep that work just in the lower half of my body, while focusing on keeping my chest lifted. So you want to feel nice and tall in your upper body. You want to feel like your hips are opening up. You should start to feel your heart rate come up a little bit here too because you should be firing all those big muscle groups in your legs. Three more seconds here, then you're going to grab a dumbbell. There it is. Stand yourself all the way up. You're grabbing just one dumbbell. I'm going to grab my heavier dumbbell here. You're going to take that dumbbell like this and place it gently on your shoulders. Feet go just hip width apart, soft bend in your knees, and you're going to fold forward with a flat back. These are good-mornings. I'm going to turn to the side so you can see I'm not resting that dumbbell on my neck. I'm supporting it with my hands and I'm squeezing my glutes to lift myself up every single lift. It's almost like at the top I give my glutes a little extra squeeze to stand up as tall as I possibly can, firing up that whole entire backside of your legs. Glutes and hamstrings stretch on the way down. Feel that load? Squeeze and lift back up. Good job. You should feel that support with your hands for the dumbbell, especially as you start to get to the end. Last one. Go ahead and set that dumbbell in front of you. You're going to grab another one and we're going to do a little combination movement. Start with a deadlift and then you're going to do a reverse lunge. Weights come in front of you. Reach all the way down. Back is flat. Lift up, step back, complete one lunge. You're going to alternate side to side. Keep your gaze in front of you on the deadlift. Keep your gaze in front of you on the lunge. Try to avoid looking at your toes. The second you do that your spine rounds, you take all of that work that you're doing right out of your glutes, put it into your back, and then you're not going to be working the correct muscle group. So keep on focusing, find that balance, flat back, squeeze tight on the way up. Step back. Find that 90 degree bend in both of your knees. This movement is not fast. Don't feel like you have to race through it. Feel like you want to be in control the entire time. Almost ready to switch. All right, you're going to hang on to your dumbbells. You're going to keep them in front of your body. You can take two or just one. You're going to go side to side into a lunge. Here we go. Step into that lunge. My knee is tracking right over my toe. My hips sink back behind me. I'm driving really hard through my quads to press myself up right back to that standing position. So remember that flat back you have when you're doing the deadlifts? That's what you're using right here. Right about now your heart rate should be up. You should feel a burn in those legs. Make sure you fight through it. Woo, keep breathing. You're already about halfway done with this workout. So tell yourself you can hang on to these heavier weights. Maybe this is the first time you've busted out that pair of fifteens or higher. Try to stick with it. We've got about 10 more seconds of this movement right here. Then we're going to give ourselves a change. That's it. Keep that back flat for your last rep and then stand back up. You're going to hang on to just one of the dumbbells. You're going to hang on to it from the top of the dumbbell and take your feet wide, Turn your toes out. Watch this first one. You sink into a Sumo squat till the dumbbell taps. Then you lift your hips, squeeze to come back up. So it's a Sumo squat. You're turning it into a deadlift on the way back up. When you're going to focus more on those muscles in the outer parts of your glutes. Right? So this should feel far different than those first deadlifts you were doing. I'm going to turn to the side so you can take a little peek. I keep my chest lifted on the way down. Keep my chest where it is as I lift my hips, and then squeeze to come all the way back up to standing, using this dumbbell just as a little bit of counterweight. Every muscle in the back of my legs squeezing tight to come up and stand tall. Got about five more seconds. Again, keeping this movement controlled all the way to the end. That's it. Going back to two dumbbells. Moving quickly here. Keep these dumbbells right at your sides. Your feet are hip width apart and parallel. All you're doing are some squats. So you want to keep those dumbbells right outside of your shins on the way down. Keep your chest lifted. This is driving through your glutes. This is going to be a calorie burner. This is going to be really challenging for those of you that have trouble with squats without folding forward. This is a good one to check and make sure that your body is staying in line. So instead of folding forward, you're keeping those dumbbells right next to your legs on the way down. I'm starting to feel it. I hope you are too! Keep those weights in your hands. Almost to the next movement. This next one is going to be an even bigger calorie burner. So try and freeze in your muscle memory how this squat feels. You're going to keep it going and add a little thrust up to the ceiling with the weights. We're moving into thrusters. Take a little ten second break. You can widen your stance just a little bit. Bring those weights right up to your shoulders. So your last big standing push. So here we go. Sink into your squat, use those glutes, squeeze tight. That's what's driving the weights up to the top. You will feel a little bit of work in your shoulders, but for the most part you want to make sure that it's the strength in your lower body that is pressing these weights up to the ceiling. That's it! Keep thinking about tracking your knees over your toes. Keep thinking about your chest. Staying lifted. You're nice and proud. Everything is controlled. Woo, strong exhale on that way up. We're almost to the floor. Keep it going. You can do it. Yes you can. Squeeze those glutes at the top. You're almost to your mat. You can make it through just a few more of these. Big exhale on the way up. That's it, you got it. Drive your feet down. Lift those weights up. All done. Hang on to just one of your weights as you come down to the floor. You're going to set that weight right on your hips for some glute bridges. As soon as you get there plant your feet, drive through your glutes to lift your body into the air. Now, something that we sometimes forget here is that your core has to stay engaged as well. That's going to make sure your spine is supported as you lift your hips up into the air. So you want to focus on keeping your navel drawn in tight to your spine. Everything here is tight. The movement is coming from the squeeze in your glutes. So once you've focused on that you'll start to feel a nice big burn and all you've got coming up after this is one isometric hold. So drive those heels and feet down into the floor. Lift those glutes up. Keep breathing. In just a few seconds you get to set that dumbbell off to the side. Woo! All right, there was the beep. Set the dumbbell off to the side. You're going to come to all fours. Once you get to this tabletop position you're going to have about 50 seconds to lift your knees. Find that nice box position. I should be able to put a box between my arms and my quads. That's where I want to hold. Now, if this is feeling a little uncomfortable for your wrist, grab those dumbbells. You can set yourself up on the dumbbells or on your fists. If you're feeling like this is a little too much fire you can set your knees down and do one arm, one leg but you really want to focus on curling those toes under. Your quads should be on fire by the end of this. Continue to breathe all the way through. Think about pressing your hands down. Think about spreading your toes out on the floor. Squeeze those quads. Embrace any shaking in those muscles. It's just telling you it's working. Keep on breathing. Almost to a little stretch at the end. That's it. That's the last beep. Right before you get done and get ready for the rest of your day, want you to just come up to standing. Once you're there, you're going to grab same hand, same foot. Bring your heel into your glutes, knees back in line, press your hips forward. Everything is protected while you're stretching. You're going to switch to the other side. Same thing. Grab your foot, heel into your glutes, knees back in line, then you can press your hips forward. Once you feel that stretch down the front, should be feeling good. Once your feet go down, one stretch for the backside of your legs, fold all the way forward. Start with a soft bend in your knees. Let yourself hinge all the way. Once you're there, you can start to extend your knees straight. Roll yourself up very slowly. Your head will be the last thing to lift. Roll those shoulders back. That's it. You made it all the way through 10 minute butt and thighs. Awesome job.