How Long Does It Take to Tone Your Thighs and Butt?

How long does it take to build a stronger backside?

If you're consistent with your workouts, you can start to see results when it comes to more toned glutes and thighs in about four to six weeks. However, modest muscle growth requires about six to eight weeks of consistent work — and in six months to a year, you can maintain increased muscle and strength in your butt and thighs.

But remember that how long it takes you to see results will also depend on your starting point and how hard you work.

How to Strengthen Your Butt

“A lot of people think, ‘If I work on my butt, my butt's going to get bigger,’” says Holly Perkins, CSCS, a Los Angeles-based personal trainer. But, that's not always the case, she says. The size of your butt and thighs (like many other areas of the body) is based on how often you exercise, your nutrition, gender, and genetics.

How Long Will It Take to Get a Toned Butt and Thighs?

Timing is the million-dollar question. According to Perkins, it depends on frequency (how often you're working out) and intensity (how hard you're working out). “In my experience, clients see the best results with heavier weights and lower reps.”

This means using a weight that is challenging to lift, but that you can lift for 8 to 12 reps without compromising on form.

Plus, you need to stay consistent.

“If you do it right, you're going to feel a change in your glutes and you're going to see more tonality after just one workout,” Perkins says. You’ll likely notice that things feel tighter and more lifted, but that effect might only be noticeable shortly after your workout.

But that immediate, post-workout pump is a good motivator to keep going. Plus, if you keep going, you'll keep seeing results.

Muscle mass will be maintained as long as you continue exercising that muscle. You’ll lose muscle mass when you stop exercising the muscle.

Should You Do Cardio if You're Trying to Tone Your Butt?

If it's really hard for you to gain muscle or your main goal is building muscle, you'll want to do less cardio, Perkins says. “But don’t cut it out completely, because you need cardiovascular activity for your overall health.”

7 Glute Exercises to Tone Your Butt

When it comes to picking a workout to grow your glutes and thigh muscles, there’s a benefit to choosing compound exercises (or ones that work multiple muscle groups at the same time): They’re effective and efficient. Because of their intensity, they burn more calories while you're doing them than isolation exercises (which only work one muscle group at a time).

The most effective workout for building your glutes involves a strength-training program that uses progressive overload — meaning that it involves you continuously increasing the weights, time, frequency, reps, sets, or intensity, Perkins says.

With progressive overload, it doesn’t matter where you start. In the beginning, it's fine to use lighter weights — or no weights at all — until you learn proper form. What’s essential is that you’re pushing yourself, and you continue increasing weight as whatever you’re lifting becomes easier, Perkins says.

The following exercises can help you achieve your goal. But the number of reps and the amount of weight you’re lifting will make the difference. Use a barbell, dumbbells, or kettlebell (or loop a resistance band around your thighs) to make the move as challenging as you need it to be.

For a bigger butt, aim for 8 to 12 reps, using a weight that's light enough that your form doesn't break, but heavy enough that you feel very challenged by the last rep of each set. Aim for completing 2 to 3 sets. Over time increase the weight as it becomes easier to lift the weight for all 12 reps. This will help increase muscle mass.

Note that the last two exercises on the list below are more advanced. If you’re new to glute and thigh workouts, start with the others and add the Bulgarian split squats and hip thrusts to your workouts after you’ve started to build some strength.

Don’t forget to warm up before your workout. You also need to be sure to include adequate rest in your routine because that's when your muscles repair and grow stronger and bigger. Take at least one full day off each week, and don't work the same muscle group on consecutive days.

And remember to ask your doctor before starting a new workout, if you’ve had any previous injury or you have a health issue, such as heart disease or diabetes, that might interfere with your ability to safely exercise — or if you’re pregnant.

1. Squat

1. Start standing, feet hip-width apart.
2. Extend your arms out in front of you and slowly bend your knees as you push your hips back to squat down. Focus on lowering your body as if you were going to sit on a chair.
3. Squat down until your thighs are parallel with the floor, or as low as you can go comfortably while maintaining good form. Your knees should be over your toes and your gaze should be straight ahead.
4. Pause for a moment at the bottom of your squat.
5. On an exhale, reverse the motion by pressing through your heels to return to standing. As you stand, lower your arms back to your sides. That’s one rep.

2. Deadlift

1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart holding a dumbbell in each hand in front of your thighs, palms facing your body.
2. Hinge from the hips, softening your knees as your hips sink enough to lower the weights toward the middle of your shins.
3. Check your posture: Your spine should be straight and long, chest up and open, shoulders back.
4. Engage all the muscles of your core to maintain this position as you push your feet into the floor to pull the weights up and return to standing. You’ll feel as if you are trying to push the floor away from you using your glutes and hamstrings. That’s one rep.

3. Glute Bridge

1. Lie on your back with your arms at your sides, feet flat on the ground and knees bent. If using a weight, rest it on top of your hips.
2. On an exhale, squeeze your glutes, press into your heels and drive your hips up toward the sky.
3. Raise your hips until you form a diagonal line from knees to hips to chest.
4. Pause here for a moment.
5. Reverse the motion and return to the starting position.

4. Walking Lunge

1. Start standing with your feet together.
2. Take a big step forward and drop your back knee down an inch above the ground. Make sure you take a big step, because short steps put a lot of pressure on your knees.
3. Step forward with your back foot, so that your feet are together again.
4. Then, lunge forward with the leg that you stepped up with. That’s one rep.

5. Step-Up

1. Stand facing a sturdy step, box, or bench with your feet close together.
2. Place one foot completely on the step. Brace your core.
3. Press through the heel of your front foot to raise your body and stand on top of the box.
4. Pause, then slowly lower your trailing foot back to the floor.
5. Repeat for the desired number of reps, then switch legs. That’s one set.

6. Bulgarian Split Squat

1. Stand about three feet in front of a workout bench or chair, facing away from it.
2. Keeping your right foot rooted on the floor, lift your left foot up onto the bench, toes tucked under. (Tip: Opt for a soft bench or use a towel to cushion your ankle. If you're doing the butt workouts at home, try a sofa or ottoman — stick to the edges to avoid having your foot sink in ‌too‌ much.)
3. With shoulders and hips squared forward, place the weight of your body mainly in your right heel.
4. Bend the right knee to a 90-degree angle. Simultaneously bend the left knee and lower toward the ground.
5. Press into your right heel and straighten your front leg to return to standing. That’s one rep.
6. Once you finish the desired number of reps, repeat on the other side. That’s one set.

7. Hip Thrust

1. Start seated on the ground with the bottom of your shoulder blades on the edge of an exercise bench or box.
2. Extend your legs out in front of you and roll a barbell up over your hips, placing a cushion underneath the bar for comfort if needed.
3. Bend your knees and place your feet flat on the ground.
4. Keeping your neck long, press into your heels and raise your hips off the ground, lifting the barbell up. As you bridge up, your neck and shoulders should move onto the bench.
5. Pause here for a moment, then lower back down. That’s one rep.

The Takeaway

• If you’re strengthening your glute and thigh muscles consistently, and lifting heavy enough weights, you’ll start to see a difference in strength and size in about four to six weeks.
• Don’t forget to include cardiovascular exercise and rest days in your workout routine.
• Exercises like squats, deadlifts, walking lunges, and hip bridges help work these muscle groups.