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30 Free Butt Workout Videos On YouTube To Tone Up Your Backside

Photo: avanti_photo via Canva
woman measuring her butt

Between watching the Kardashians with their perfect backsides, and the growing number of toning and sculpting YouTube workout videos, it's hard to break through the noise and discover which exercises work best for you.

But for some, their problem area is their butt, and they may not know the best butt workouts to tone up. Lucky for you, we've got you covered.

Read on as we review workout videos that will keep your booty looking tight and are sure to assist you in building the perfect derriere.

30 Best Butt Workout Videos On YouTube

1. Side Kicks

RELATED: Find Out What The Shape Of Your Butt Says About How Healthy You Are

While this entire video by Get Fit by Whit speaks to the ultimate glute workout, there’s one move, in particular, we’d like to feature — and it’s side kicks.

While holding onto a wall or support beam, begin 3 sets of 10 leg lifts on each side. For added resistance, users can try implementing a weight band.

2. The Perfect Squat

The squat is the perfect and essential lower body strength training movement key to sculpting the tush. It’s assumed that everyone can engage in a proper squat given its popularity, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Many think they know the proper form, but their self-learning leaves out a lot of crucial form must-knows.

Watch the squats for beginners YouTube workout to learn a perfect squat, including the best squat position, which should be with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.

3. Donkey Kicks

Talk about feeling the burn! Donkey kicks are the secure and ideal way to shape your behind in a relatively quick amount of time.

In the featured video,, you’re walked through the perfect 10-minute exercise series featuring a combination of donkey kicks and other associated movements. Be sure to squeeze your glutes as you do the exercise.

4. Deadlifts

Before adding in weights, those wishing to engage in deadlifts should learn the proper form. Deadlifts are ideal for working and developing the posterior chain which consists of all the muscles in the body’s backside, including the booty.

Make sure your form is good or you can seriously hurt yourself. Have your feet hip-width apart. Romanian deadlifts are slightly more difficult as they eliminate the squat, so keep your legs straight and bend from the hip.

5. Leg Raises

Like side kicks, but to the back, leg raises are a simple way to target and strengthen the body’s backside and grow a sculpted butt.

6. Glute Bridges

What works your booty more than a glute bridge? About 100 repetitions of glute bridges.

Used in exercises like barre, pilates, and more, throughout the video, users will also learn various modifications to add to their glute bridges to increase intensity or change up to which part of the glute is exercised.

Squeeze your gluteus medius and gluteus minimus muscles with each hip thrust.

7. Squat Shuffles

As mentioned, squats are the ideal butt exercises to shape the lower body. Once the traditional squat is mastered, it’s time to move on to the many squat variations (like the squat shuffle or Bulgarian split squats).

These squat shuffles from eHow display the proper movements to master the lateral squat shuffle. They also recommend using bands while engaging in the movement as it adds an extra layer of resistance which in turn helps build the gluteus muscles.

8. Pliés

A popular movement in both ballet dance class and barre, pliés are a great way to incorporate isolated body movements into your workout. Not only do they shape and sculpt your backside, but they also help the body become aware of smaller muscle groups throughout the body.

9. Lateral Pistol Squats on Rower

We’re told that exercise equipment can be used in various ways, but did you think they could help act as stabilizers or be incorporated into our floor strength training workouts?

This butt workout uses the rowing machine to assist in lateral pistol squats. If you do not have a rower and are looking to substitute an item, try a stability ball.

10. Half Moon Yoga Pose

While considered more of a stretch for our glutes, it’s imperative to add dynamic stretching movements into our routines and exercise movement to avoid cramping and, over time, help reach various muscles in the backside.

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11. 'Swimming' Barre Movement

This swimming barre movement is an amazing video to include in your butt workouts because not only does it target the butt, but the abdomen and chest.

Along with the workout in the video, Barre Fitness includes many complementary videos to this one to help incorporate various fitness dynamics into your regimen.

12. The Perfect Lunge

As another staple lower body movement, the lunge is a crucial movement to master in order to sculpt an ideal lower half and tush. Like the squat, many do not perform the lunge form well enough to encourage muscle growth and avoid injury.

Watch the video to help you (or someone you know) to master the perfect lunge.

13. Hip Raises

Similar to the bridge, hip raises are a movement performed laying on the floor and raising your lower body to the ceiling. Unlike the bridge, the hip raises focus attention on the hip and abdomen versus the thigh and glutes.

While both positively affect the muscle growth of the butt, their main concentrations are slightly different.

14. Candlesticks

A move brought to us by CrossFit, this movement should be performed by relatively expert fitness enthusiasts as it does incorporate advanced movements in both balance and isolated muscle group movements.

15. Kick Backs

Similar to donkey kicks, kickbacks are performed on all fours (palms of hands and both knees). The back legs rotate as you kick back straightly, so keep your knee slightly bent but extended, whereas donkey kick legs are spent at a 90-degree angle.

16. Butterfly Raises

Butterfly raises are the ideal muscle movement for those who can’t dedicate an ideal amount of time to fitness. These exercise movements spot various parts of the body. To focus on the bottom (specifically) focus the video at 0:55.

17. Resistance Walks

Like the lateral squat walks, resistance walks are dynamic muscle walks that utilize resistance bands as moving from one side to the other. Unlike the previously listed exercise, these resistance walks are performed to show how you may be doing them wrong.

The video mentions how many perform lateral walks wrong and compromise on form. While this exercise solely focuses on the walks (while the other focuses on squats), this may be the perfect exercise if you consider yourself more of a beginner.

18. Sumo Squats

Another square variation, FitnessBlender introduced sumo squats into the routine. Instead of a standard squat, a sumo squat is performed with the feet 6-to-12 inches past shoulder-width apart.

19. Cross Lunges

Staying on the squat train, cross lunge squats bring together two of the most important lower-body strength training movements: squats and lunges. Before engaging in this expert and dynamic exercise, make sure you can master both a traditional lunge and squat, form and all.

20. Side Lunges

A great way to target the side of the glute, or what gives the body the traditional butt bounce in bikinis, the side lunge is an isolated exercise movement that can be performed both in the gym and at home.

Unlike the traditional lunge, the side lunge brings each leg out to the side and proves more challenging as the body needs to maintain composed and centered while extending.

RELATED: Having A Big Butt Is Good For Your Heart And Brain, Says Science

21. Leg Raises in Plank Position

This is the standard plank on steroids. While traditional planks mostly target the core, by engaging your legs and incorporating movement, users are better able to reach their glute muscles.

22. Roundhouse or Fan Kicks

Utilized in both dance and boxing, fan kicks can either be referred to as simply a fan kick or roundhouse fan kick (boxing). This video by HowCast speaks only to the dancer’s version of a jazz dancer’s kick.

23. Star Jump Burpees

If burpees weren’t already ridiculously hard, now try incorporating a star jump into the mix. By jumping from the floor to the ground, you’re placing resistance and muscle growth in the lower half of the body (including the butt).

The introduction of the star pushes the legs out and forces more of the glute muscles to be engaged at the same time, completing an overall lower-body workout.

24. Mermaid Kicks

This complete mermaid workout is awesome because, let’s be honest, we all want to be Ariel from "The Little Mermaid." Although we're focusing on lower body and butt workouts, draw your attention to the mermaid kicks at 13:35 in the video.

25. Heel Beats

Featuring another HowCast barre movement, heel beats are a buns burner and a great exercise to add to any routine exercise regime. Best of all, all you need is a mat and a floor, so these can be performed at the gym or at home.

26. Reverse Lunges

It wouldn’t be a backside toning list without mentioning the reverse lunge. The fan favorite has a booty sculpting guarantee and can be a magic trick to add to your workout routine.

The only complication people tend to find with reverse lunges is the coordination of moving backward as opposed to forward.

27. Leapfrog Jumps

Practiced during our early childhoods, leapfrog jumps have made a reappearance. This time to help sculpt our tushies. HowCast shares this dynamic movement and how to make it a complete muscle-strengthening exercise.

28. Speed Skaters

A relatively new exercise movement on the scene, skater workouts — whether side touches, lunges, or jumps — are great movements to help build up a person’s backside.

29. Jump Squats

Just like star jumps during burpees, these jumping squats take an already ideal lower body strength training exercise and enhance them for those who exercise at the expert level.

30. Hamstring Curls on the Stability Ball

If working out from home, rather than having an entire exercise machine, try incorporating a stability ball to bring the dynamic of muscle group movements to an exercise routine.

When it comes to hamstring curls, utilizing the stability ball is an excellent tool to help gain both muscle growth and balance.

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Elizabeth Blasi is a New York-based lifestyle and travel writer who is often seen with a suitcase in hand, jet-setting to her next location. Her work has been featured on Elite Daily, Yahoo Lifestyle, Good Housekeeping, and more.