Butt Exercises: How to Tighten Your Tush in 5 Minutes

Summer may seem a long way off, but we’re only a few months away from bikini season! Getting in shape for summer can seem overwhelming, particularly when you think about slipping your tush into a tiny, shapeless piece of lycra. Don’t worry! Tightening your butt doesn’t have to mean hours at the gym. Whip your booty into shape with this 5-minute workout you can do right in your living room—all you need is a resistance band and a set of light dumbbells. Repeat it 3 times a week, and you’ll start seeing awesome results. (And trust me, you will feel a burn in just 5 minutes.)

1. Sumo squat jumps
Start in a sumo squat with your feet in a wide stance and your toes facing out toward the corners of the room. You can rest your hands on your hips. Lower down into a squat position, and drive yourself upward into a jump. Your legs should straighten as your feet leave the floor. As you land, lower back down into another sumo squat. Repeat for 1 minute.

2. Lateral walk outs with band
For this exercise, you’ll need a resistance band. Stand with your feet in a wide stance so that the band is taut around your ankles. From here, step to the right for 4 steps, keeping the band tight as you move. Next, step to the left 4 times. Repeat, going right and left for 4 steps. Do this 10 times. Next side step to the right 2 times, before moving to the left 2 times. Repeat 10 times. Finally, step once to the right and then once to the left, repeating 10 times. Continue this pattern for one minute, keeping the band taut the entire time. Make sure to keep your hips level as you step.

3. Side-to-side squats with band
Start with your feet hip-width apart and with a resistance band around your ankles. Your toes should be facing forward. Step out to the side with your right leg into a squat. As you step out, you should feel a tug from the band. Push back into your starting position, and then step out to the side with your left leg into a squat. Continue the side-to-side squats for 1 minute.

4. Curtsy lunge with kick
Hold a pair of dumbbells and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and toes facing forward. Step back and to the side into a curtsy lunge with your right foot, placing it on the outside of your left foot. Both legs should be bent at a 90-degree angle. As you push back into standing position, kick your right leg out to the side. Come back to starting position and repeat. Work your right leg for 30 seconds, and then switch to the left for 30 seconds.

5. Walking lunges with dumbbells
Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding a light dumbbell in each hand. Step forward into a lunge, making sure to keep your shoulders back and chest high. Both of your legs should be at a 90-degree angle. Push out of the lunge by walking forward with your other leg. Continue to walk forward alternating legs as you lunge for 1 minute.
Want more quick workouts that fit into your busy schedule? Try 4 Moves for Strong, Sexy Hips and The 12- Minute Get Strong Workout!

Jennifer Cohen is a leading fitness authority, TV personality, best-selling author, and entrepreneur. With her signature, straight-talking approach to wellness, Jennifer was the featured trainer on The CW’s Shedding for the Wedding, mentoring the contestants’ to lose hundreds of pounds before their big day, and she appears regularly on NBC’s Today Show, Extra, The Doctors and Good Morning America. Connect with Jennifer on Facebook, Twitter, G+ and on Pinterest.

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The ‘Hijabi Runner’ Is Crushing Stereotypes of Muslim Women

This story is part of Health’s #RealLifeStrong series, where we are celebrating women who represent strength, resilience, and grace.

Four years ago—the last time I was in Afghanistan to visit my family—I tried to explain to my mother why I’d taken up running. “What are you running away from?” she kept asking. Not until she listened to my tone of voice did she finally understand.

“It must be nice to have an escape,” she said.

When I was born, my parents lived in a refugee camp in Iran. To this day, I’m not sure of my exact birthdate. My mother couldn’t read or write, so when she was given my birth certificate, she lost it.

After I turned 8, my family moved me and my eight siblings from Iran to Kunduz, one of the most conservative provinces in Afghanistan. Girls can’t go to public school there. Outside, we had to be covered up, without any bare skin showing. People judged you if your eyes looked up, not down. By the time I was a teenager, I was dying of seeing nothing but pavement.

“If anyone touches you on the street, walk faster. Don’t say anything,” my mother instructed me. But if I was harassed by a man, I couldn’t stay quiet. I would try to slap them. It didn’t go well. Shopkeepers would say, “If you don’t want to be touched, why are you outside?” Sick of me getting into fights, my parents allowed me to attend the first female boarding school in Afghanistan, in Kabul.

My father stopped going to school at age 11. My mother didn’t learn to sign her name until she was 47. Still, they taught me to value education. I learned English and at 14, came to the U.S. to attend boarding school in Rhode Island on a scholarship.

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I was in culture shock at first. People spoke so fast! I worried that the bed in my dorm room was by a window. What if there was a bomb blast? For weeks, I slept on the floor.

Walking at night also scared me. I associated that time of day with shooting between Taliban soldiers and the government. It took a long time before I felt ready to brave the one-minute walk from the library to my dorm alone.

I was feeling homesick when the cross-country coach encouraged me to start running with the team. At first, I didn’t want to. I’m Hijabi, meaning I choose to cover my hair like I always had growing up. I knew I’d look different. My coach wouldn’t take that as an excuse. The next thing I knew, I was picking out a pair of running shoes.

I discovered I loved running. Each practice felt like a small victory that gave me confidence for the rest of the day. Still, when I first began running in my hijab, a lot of people looked at me with raised eyebrows.

Zahra Arabzada running on her high school cross-country team.

“Why are you torturing yourself, covered up in the heat of summer?” people asked. Or, “You’re in America now. You have freedom. Why not use it?”

They didn’t understand: I grew up in a country where girls are raised to do everything to make the life of men better—to cook, to clean, to make breakfast. Girls in Kunduz don’t go to school. They wear the clothes that a man tells them to, and they marry who they’re told to. The inequalities in Afghanistan are the result of many decades of war and foreign invasion. 

Each time I ran, whether fifteen minutes or an hour, was truly “free” time I was giving myself.

RELATED: Suicidal After Her Daughter’s Birth, This Mom Spent 10 Days in a Psych Ward: ‘I Had to Stop Trying to Be Superwoman’

I’m 21 now and have finished a marathon and half-marathons as well as a 50-mile ultra-marathon. I’m going to be a senior at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, majoring in biochemistry, and I still run five to six times a week. I also find time to write about my experiences.

When I was first thinking about running, I looked online to find other Muslim girls running in hijab. I didn’t find much, so I decided to make my own blog: The Hijabi Runner.

I hope it helps other Muslim women choose an active lifestyle and non-Muslims realize how difficult it is to be an identifiable Muslim in the West right now. Google the word and the first thing you’ll see are images of 9/11, war in Iraq, jihads, men who have four wives. These are things Islam is associated with, but the way we Muslims say hi to each other is “Peace be upon you.” How did my peaceful religion become associated with such violent images?

After I finished my ultra-marathon, my sister, a lawyer in Afghanistan, congratulated me. “In honor of your race,” she said, “I bought myself a treadmill, but running outside will be my dream.”

We Afghan women have a long path ahead—but I believe in the power of small changes.

Most acts of bravery in my life were not because I one day woke up and said, “I’m going to stand up for myself.” Being strong was the only choice.

Zahra Arabzada is an ambassador for Free to Run, an organization that aims to empower women and girls in conflict-affected communities around the world.

We want to hear more amazing stories about #RealLifeStrong women. Nominate yourself—or a friend or family member—here. We’ll be sharing the most inspiring stories we receive in the months ahead.

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