Here's a little secret...if you want a better butt
(and this applies to women AND men), you
need to work the gluteus medius and minimus
muscles...

...and for maximum lateral strength and power, which is
absolutely CRITICAL for sports and athletic performance, you
NEED to include direct lateral movements into your training.

These two muscles are the smaller of the "gluteus" muscles
and are two of the primary abductors of the hip (which means
they act to move the leg away from the centerline of the body).

The exercise I've got for you today targets these two muscles,
along with the gluteus maximus, quads and hamstrings, and
requires basically ZERO equipment to do...just something
solid to hold onto.

If you're a woman looking to target your glute and hip area
in addition to your legs, this exercise is also a very effective
way to do that when training at home.

It's a variation of the Pistol Squat.

Now, the Pistol Squat is one of THE best bodyweight exercises
for the legs. It's essentially a freestanding one-legged squat,
coming down with your non-supporting leg shooting straight
out in front.

It's a great exercise...extremely challenging and incredibly
effective for developing leg strength and power.

It's also a simple straight-up-and-down movement with very
little LATERAL muscle involvement.

That's where THIS version of the Pistol comes in.

This exercise is going to take the Pistol one step further by
adding in a lateral component to the movement pattern. This
is going to increase the involvement of the gluteus medius
and minimus muscles of the hip.

First, stand beside that solid object, balancing on the foot
that is closest to the object. I'm just using the upright of my
power rack, but you can use literally anything that you can
get a grip on that's solid enough to support your weight as
you're doing the exercise.

Your foot should be about a foot away from the object.



Now start to squat down on that plant leg, with your other
leg pointing forward.

Here's where the grip on the object comes in. It's going
to act as a way to spot yourself (if needed) AND most
importantly for our purposes, it's going to act as a
PIVOT point for the squat.



Come ALL the way down until your butt is ALMOST touching
the ground. You should be leaning to the side about 45
degrees at this point, using your arm to maintain the angle
of your body.

DO NOT sit down on the ground and DO NOT let any part of
your leg touch the ground.



Now dig in with your heel and push back up. Your grip on
the object will be the pivot point again as you try to push
AWAY from the object. This is what's going to activate
the gluteus medius and minimus strongly.

Come all the way up to the top then repeat for as many
reps as you can get.

This is a tough exercise, so if you can only come down
part of the way, that's fine. Just squat down as far as you
can and you'll still get great benefits from the exercise.

Once you've done all your reps on one leg, switch to the
other leg.



Get as many reps as you can on the other side then
you're done your set.

You'll very quickly discover which side of your body is
stronger doing this kind of single-leg training as well.

If you get strong enough that you can perform 6 to 8 rep
sets of this exercise and you want to start adding extra
resistance, you can very easily hold a dumbbell or kettlebell
in your non-gripping hand, or even wear a weight vest.
There are plenty of options.

Give this exercise a try next time you're working legs or
focusing on bodyweight training...it's a bodyweight leg
exercise that hits the hips in a very unique and very effective
fashion!

To watch the full video demo of this exercise in action,
check it out on my YouTube channel here.




If you're interested in more bodyweight exercises like this,
definitely check out my book "The Best Bodyweight
Exercises You've Never Heard Of"

And if you want to build larger, firmer, rounder glutes, I've
written the book on that, too :)...