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Need A Lift? Try This 5-Pose Yoga Flow For Strengthened & Toned Glutes
Yoga has so many benefits for the body, mind, and soul. And one of those benefits? Strong and lifted glutes. From your classic chair pose to more advanced moves like revolved half moon, you can work all the glute muscles in just a few minutes with this simple five-move flow.
And considering strong glutes make for easier movement, better posture, and improved balance, this isn't an area to neglect—especially if you spend a lot of time sitting down.
So without further ado, grab your mat (and maybe a yoga block) and let's get into it.
Chair pose
- Beginning from mountain pose with the feet hips-width distance, inhale to sweep your arms up and squat down into an imaginary chair.
- Contract your abdominal muscles to support your torso and prevent too much leaning forward in the upper body.
- Challenge yourself to sit down lower and use your core to help you arch your upper body back.
- Keep the weight evenly distributed in the feet, with the knees in line with the hips.
- Hold here for at least 30 seconds.
- From chair, bow into a forward fold, step back to plank, and take a chaturanga to upward facing dog, before coming into downward facing dog. Otherwise, just make your way to down dog.
Three-legged dog
- From downward facing dog, inhale your right foot back and up.
- Feel for the connection where the glute meets the thigh on the hamstring, lifting from there. Try to have no bend in the knee.
- Keep the two hips in one line, avoiding hiking the right hip up. To encourage even hips, try to angle the pinky-toe edge of your foot straight down to the floor.
- Imagine you could touch the wall behind you to extend the leg, and keep lifting where the glute meetings the hamstring.
- Hold for a few breaths or up to 30 seconds.
- Step the right foot forward to meet your hands and come up into high lunge.
High lunge
- With your right leg forward, keep the knee in line with the hip and bend deeper into the lunge. Keep your back leg straight, with the ball of the foot firmly rooted.
- Feel for a slight tuck in the tailbone, and engagement of the core muscles.
- Keep your arms active with the biceps by the ears, or for a backbend (pictured above), open up your arms to cactus arms on an inhale.
- Hold for a few breaths. On an exhale, float off the back left foot to make your way to warrior 3.
Warrior 3
- From your high lunge, immediately point or flex the back foot to help you lift the entire leg.
- Feel for the lift where the glute meets the hamstring on the back of the left leg.
- Keep the toe hips in one line, avoiding hiking the left hip up.
- Keep the body parallel to the floor, so from the side you look like a capital T.
- Options for your arms include holding them tight at the side body (pictured), extending them out in front of you, in line with your head, or out to the sides like airplane wings.
- Hold for up to 30 seconds, then make your way to revolved half moon.
Revolved half moon
- From warrior 3, reach down to the floor with your left hand. A block can be helpful here under your hand if the floor is too far away.
- Keeping the left leg active, inhale your right arm up to the sky, twisting through the spine.
- Feel your right shoulder blade squeezing back as you continuously activate the back leg.
- As you're ready, shift your gaze from the floor, to the side of the room, then up to the ceiling, past your top fingertips.
- To come out, set your right hand down and step the left down at the back of the mat. Step the right foot back to meet the left so you're in plank, and then take a chaturanga to get back to downward dog.
- Repeat the entire sequence on the opposite side, starting back chair pose.
The takeaway
As a yoga teacher myself, I always recommend taking a sequence slowly the first time. The longer we hold the pose, the more we activate those muscles in a deeper way than when we quickly flow through them.
But flowing is fun, so once you've done this sequence on both sides one time, you can absolutely pick up the speed and move through the poses using your breath.
Whether you're holding these poses for 30 seconds or just one breath, you can be sure your glutes will feel the burn.
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