6 Exercises to Get a Smaller Butt and Thighs

The best exercises if you want smaller 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. If you tend to carry weight in the lower half of your body, try the following exercises to reduce your buttocks.

1. Sprint for Lower-Body Strength

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.

How to Do It

3. Complete Timed Step-Ups

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

How to Do It

Find a sturdy box or chair around knee-height with a flat surface, making sure that it can support weight. 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.

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.

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

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 (or step back into a plank if it’s easier). 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.

6. When in Doubt, Lunge

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.

The Takeaway

• If your workout goal is a smaller butt or thighs, there are multiple exercises that can be done.
• Some of the best calorie-burning exercises are lower body exercises.
• Squats, sprints, burpees, and lunges are all great workouts for the butt and thighs.