6 Exercises to Get a Smaller Butt and Thighs

Sprinting is a great way to work the butt.
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Unfortunately, you don't get to decide where you store fat in your body. You also don't get to decide where you burn fat. If you tend to carry weight in the lower half of your body, try the following exercises to reduce your buttocks. In a week or two, you may start to see more toned glutes and thighs and an overall reduction in body fat.

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The best exercises to reduce the buttocks and thighs also double as cardio exercises and burn calories, helping you lose leg and butt fat. Your leg muscles are large and require a lot of energy to keep moving. Some of the best calorie-burning exercises are lower body exercises.

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Read more: How to Lose Leg Fat in Thirty Days

1. Sprint for Lower-Body Strength

Running on the treadmill or solid ground will burn calories, rev up your metabolism and strengthen key lower-body muscle groups, including the quadriceps, calves, glutes and hamstrings.

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How to do it: Run at a high speed on a treadmill or flat ground for 30 seconds, rest for 30 seconds, and repeat. Continue this for at least 10 minutes. You should be running fast enough that you are tired, but not completely exhausted, by the end of each 30-second sprint.

2. Squat Using Body Weight

Squats are one of the best exercises to reduce the buttocks. Turn up the intensity on your legs with high-rep bodyweight squats. Do five sets of 20 reps.

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How to do it: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Squat down, like you're sitting down in a chair, bending your knees and sinking your butt down. Try to keep your torso as upright as possible. Go as low as you can and then stand back up straight.

Read more: Cardio That Blasts Thigh Fat

3. Complete Timed Step-Ups

Step-ups are a simple alternative to stair climbs that work primarily your quadriceps, hamstring and glutes. For five minutes, do as many reps as you can in 30 seconds and then rest for 30 seconds.

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How to do it: Find a box or chair around knee-height with a flat surface. Stand in front of it, plant one foot on top with your heel near the edge, lean forward and push yourself up with that leg. Tap the other foot on the box and then lower it back down to the ground. Bring the other foot down and step up with the opposite foot. Alternate feet until the time is up.

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4. Sprint on the Bike

If running isn't your thing, you can still get cardio by using a bike, which almost exclusively works your legs.

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How to do it: Using either a regular road bike or a stationary bike, perform sprints by pedaling as fast as you can in a high gear for 20 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds. Keep going for four minutes before taking a break. Repeat as many times as you wish.

5. Ramp Things Up With Burpees

The burpee is an old-school bodyweight calisthenic exercise that can be as taxing as running all-out sprints.

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How to do it: Start standing tall. Bend over with your upper body and touch your hands to the floor. Kick your legs back so that you're in a push-up position. Go down into a push-up.

When you reach the top, hop your legs back under you and jump off the ground as high as you can. Land and repeat. Do three sets of 12 reps. If you can't do a full push-up, do it with your knees on the ground.

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6. When in Doubt, Lunge

If step-ups and burpees aren't your thing, try lunges. They're a much more manageable movement.

How to do it: Start standing with your feet shoulder-width apart. Take a big step forward with one leg. Drop your back knee down until it's an inch above the ground.

Step up with your back foot so that your feet are together again, and then lunge forward with the other leg. Keep alternating legs until you've done 10 lunges on each leg.

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