Yoga is an ancient practice, one that seeks to transform both the body and the mind. If you’re seeking to transform your butt into the perfect booty, I’ve put together a list of some of the best yoga poses for the butt for you.
Do You Have What it Takes to be a Yogi?
Advanced yogis may claim it is more a spiritual and mental practice than a physical one, but there’s no reason you can’t approach yoga with selfish ambitions initially (like wanting to get an awesome yoga butt!). Who knows, after experiencing all the butt-tightening benefits first hand, you may grow to love the practice not just for its physical benefits, but the positive mental benefits as well.
How To Use These Yoga Poses
This list is intended to be a reference list of yoga poses which target the butt, as all of the poses listed either stretch the glutes and the surrounding muscles, or involve some form of glute activation to hold the pose.
The poses presented are of varying difficulty from beginner to advanced and not listed in any particular order. Each pose has been linked to a ‘how to’ guide which you can find by clicking the link in the pose name.
Yoga Poses That Stretch the Glutes & Hip Flexors
Forward Bends
Child’s Pose (Balasana)
A beginner level, relaxing yoga pose that stretches out the butt and shoulders (in the arms extended version of the pose).
Pigeon Pose (Kapotanasana)
Open up your hips and glutes with this stretch. Placing your front foot more forward (increasing the angle at the knee closer to 90 degrees) will deepen the stretch.
Easy/Cross-legged Pose with Forward Fold (Adho Mukha Sukhasana)
Folding forward from a cross-legged position can stretch out any tightness in the glutes. Remember to repeat the stretch on the other side by coming out of the pose and switching the order your legs are crossed in, then folding forward for a second time.
Stretching Poses
Eye of the Needle Pose (Sucirandhrasana)
Also known as the knee-to-ankle stretch, this supine relaxing pose will stretch out your glutes one side at a time and really relax any tension from your muscles after a hard workout.
Cresent Lunge Pose (Anjaneyasana)
This lunge will open up your hip flexors, which too often are tight in those who spend a lot of their time in a seated position. Tight hip flexors are the number one enemy of keeping a healthy butt, because they can wreak havoc to proper glute activation which inevitably results in weak, underdeveloped, and small glutes.
Garland Pose (Malasana)
Also known as the yogi’s squat, this pose will open up your hips and groin, and help you with flexibility to improve the depth of your squat.
Yoga Poses That Strengthen and Target the Glutes
Backward Bends
Reverse Table Pose (Ardha Purvottanasana)
The beginner version of the upward plank pose, this pose requires a constant engagement of the glutes to keep your hips up and level with the shoulders and knees, forming a parallel line with the floor.
Upward Plank Pose (Purvottanasana)
The upward plank pose will strengthen your upper body as well as the glutes. Your mantra during this one should be ‘hips up!’ and if you put this into practice you’ll feel your butt burning in no time.
Bow Pose (Dhanurasana)
Kick back hard and lift, lift, lift! your feet up as high as possible to fully maximize the butt-working potential of this pose. Use your glutes to lift and kick back with the legs.
Upward Bow/Wheel Pose (Urdhva Dhanurasana)
An advanced deep backbend, this pose requires the glutes to push and hold the hips upward in the pose. Don’t try this one unless you are experienced with yoga and have worked your way up to this pose.
Full Locust Pose (Poorna Salabhasana)
This is another one where you’ll need to squeeze your glutes and really use those to lift your legs up as high as you possibly can to get the best butt-burning results from this pose.
One-Legged Balancing Poses
Half Moon Pose (Ardha Chandrasana)
A standing balancing pose that will work into the side of the butt of the lifted leg.
Warrior III/Balancing Stick Pose (Virabhadrasana III/Tuladandasana)
A pose further popularized by Bikram Yoga, this standing balancing pose works the butt if you focus on activating the glutes in both the standing and lifted leg. Don’t forget to keep those hips square and hinge forward from the hips!
King Dancer/Standing Pulling Bow Pose (Natarajasana/Dandayamana Dhanurasana)
This is one of my favorite yoga poses that will test your balance, but is a great butt-blaster. Focus on kicking back into the hand to maintain your balance, and lifting the rear foot to get that tight yoga butt really working.
The hand grip can be confusing, so try following these steps in order to perform the pose with your right leg lifted behind you.
Start from a standing position (Tadasana) with your arms by your side.Rotate your right hand so that your thumb travels clockwise towards the outside of your body, until you end up with your palm facing outwards and thumb towards the back of your body. Now lift your right foot and clasp the inside of your ankle with your open palm. Your foot should be on the outside of your body and your hand is between your body and your foot. Kick back and lean forward into the pose.
Strengthening Poses
Chair Pose (Utkatasana)
The godfather of butt burning yoga poses. Hold this one as long as you can, then keep it going by transitioning straight into the twisted chair pose.
Twisted Chair Pose (Parivrtta Utkatasana)
Keep the hips low and the butt down during this move, and you’ll really feel it in your glutes. This is what tight yoga butts are made from!
Bridge Pose (Setu Bandhasana/Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)
This is another bread-and-butter yoga move that you’ll want to incorporate into your routine if you want to get that perfect yoga butt. Similar to the dynamic glute bridge exercise, this isometric yoga pose requires you to hold a static bridge, resulting in constant activation of the glutes for as long as you remain in the pose.
Once you’ve mastered this one, take it to the next level with the one legged bridge pose.
One Legged Bridge Pose (Eka Pada Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)
This yoga pose is basically an isometric version of the one-legged glute bridge exercise, so you’ll get all the benefits that come with constant activation of the glutes by holding this pose. Great for fatiguing the glutes pre-workout.
Three Legged Downward Dog (Tri Pada Adho Mukha Svanasana)
I couldn’t do a pose on yoga moves without a downward facing dog variation somewhere in the mix! ‘Down dog‘ is probably one of the most well-known yoga moves out there, but it is the three-legged version that will work the butt of the lifted leg. Lifting this leg as high as possible by actively squeezing your glutes hard is the secret to transforming this move into a real butt-blaster.
Extended Side Angle Pose (Utthita Parsvakonasana)
The side-angle pose requires a degree of balance and a lot of concentration to maintain correct alignment. For best results, focus on keeping your glutes activated in this move, while keeping the whole body strong and tight.
Once you’ve mastered this, try the more advanced revolved side angle pose to really stretch and work into the butt further.
Revolved Side Angle Pose (Parivrtta Parsvakonasana)
This twisting pose will challenge your whole body, but your glutes will really feel it as the twist stretches right into the butt at the same time as it your glutes are working to support your body in the pose. Tough but very effective.
Side plank (Vasisthasana)
Lifting the hips up does require some work from your butt in this yoga pose. If you want to work the butt further, perform a variation where you raise your top leg and hold it in mid air, to work into the side of the butt. Don’t let your hips drop!
Sequencing the Yoga Moves into a Butt Yoga Workout
Each pose may be used individually or you can sequence multiple poses together to create a butt-targeting yoga workout that you will really feel in your glutes.
If you are putting different moves together, note that they are not presented in any particular order, nor should they be performed in the order presented.
In general, when doing yoga, you should balance out forward and backward bends throughout your practice. As the majority of the butt-strengthening yoga poses are backward bends, you should follow up each backward bend move with a forward bend pose such as a Wide Legged Standing Forward Fold, Standing Forward Fold, or Child’s Pose to name just a few.
If putting multiple poses together you may also want to pay attention to how to transition from each pose to the next. To avoid the likelihood of injury, it’s wise to use the accepted/recommended way of assuming each yoga pose.
A Note For Beginners
These poses range in difficulty from beginner to advanced. If you’re just starting out with yoga, then be careful with some of the more advanced moves. Don’t push your body beyond its limits, and stop if something doesn’t feel right.
Consider taking a yoga class to get in-person instruction from a professional teacher, or check out some great resources online to get more practice.
Yoga is a slow, controlled practice that focuses heavily on breathing rhythm and movement with the breath, and you can get some good practice at this inititally by following video tutorials online, even if you aren’t performing the exact moves listed above.
Yoga Resources
- Yogaoutlet.com: A great resource that has heaps of how-to guides for the different yoga poses.
- Do Yoga With Me: Free yoga instructional videos, choose from hundreds of workouts of all different types.
- Yogajournal.com: Features an index of yoga poses (asanas).
- Yoga.com: Video demonstrations of some yoga poses which show how to assume the poses correctly.
Do you practice yoga to help you get an awesome toned yoga butt? If so, let me know your favorite yoga poses for the butt!
Wow what a well written article! So easy to follow and the poses on the side give a nice kick to it. Definately worth a read 🙂
Thanks Jesse! I could never find the best yoga poses for the butt in one spot, so I decided to create my own list in the end! Cheers!
Hi Jolie, great post! I practice yoga daily. I love to do chaturanga. Help tone my arms effectively. Pigeon pose and wheel pose are my favorite too, help tone my butt. Recently, I am into hot slim yoga, a cardio yoga that works on every part of the body. Slim me down and at the same time tone my body. Loving it.
Thanks for your feedback Fannetta! I love practicing yoga as well, it is a super stress-buster and makes you realize that even just the ability to move your body is a gift. I especially enjoy how centered and accomplished you feel after a good yoga class.
I’ve done a bit of Bikram hot yoga before and I didn’t even know it was possible to sweat that much! I’ll have to check out the hot slim yoga – thanks for the tip!
Hey thanks for the info – didn’t realize there were so many yoga poses that impact the butt! The butt is a big strong muscle that does a lot more work than people realise, so as well as looking good it’s also very useful for performance in sports
Certainly is Nate, you pretty much can’t go wrong with getting a better butt, lol. It definitely will help with performance in sports – being one of the most powerful muscle groups, the glutes will help with balance, power, speed.. benefits all round!
Yoga can be a great way to build muscle stability as well, which you may not get as much practice with through the usual dynamic exercises that require a range of motion like squat, lunges etc.
Hi Jolie – Good informative site. I own and run a JuJitsu club so I will probably introduce some of the techniques you have mentioned during the warm up routine.
Some of them poses look a bit to advanced for my classes.
Enjoyed reading the post and will pop back for a few more tips.
Thanks for sharing
Mark
Hey Mark, thanks for stopping by! Some of these moves can look a little intimidating! They might be more suited to those who have been practicing yoga for a little while so may not suit everyone. Glad to hear you could still take something away though!
Wow what an amazing article Lol. In addition to all the amazing butts, I am inspired to build a better butt for myself as well! I actually have been doing a weight lifting program that incorporates lower body, core, and butt exercises. I will have to book mark this as well!!!! The planks in particular I’m doing from the other program, but none of the other ones.. Thank you!!
-Stu
Cheers Stu, I am glad that you have found some inspiration here! 😛 Some of these moves are actually quite challenging, even though they are just isometric exercises (holding a static position). Thanks for stopping by!
This is a really good article. I have been trying to do more yoga to improve my flexibility and core strength. It is definitely not as easy as the girl in the photos makes it look. I find it very difficult, but I am getting better at it. I will keep reading your post for more exercises
Thanks for your kind words Todd! 🙂 Yoga is great, it really does have so many health benefits. And I think anyone who has tried it can understand what you mean when you say it is more difficult than it looks! Keep up the practice and you’ll find your strength and ability will improve with time!
Really enjoyed your page. Your profile picture with the better butt cookies is too adorable. My best friend is beyond butt obsessed and we recently became workout partners. I’m going to show him all of these moves. The moves seem to make sense if your trying to improve your rear. You seem to have some useful knowledge on this topic.
Thanks Bea! Your friend sounds a little like myself – hope you both enjoy these moves!
Your Post definitely makes it easier to understand how to do the yoga poses for the butt with the great list you have provided. You have really clear visual pictures that show just how your form should look when doing the particular exercise with the point by point break down of what you need to do for each exercise. Together with your pictures and text one can work towards the yoga poses to accomplish a better butt as you describe.
Thanks Travis, hope you found this useful!