‘Underbutt’ exercises are the leg-day heroes you never knew you needed

I’ve got a love-hate relationship with lower-body training. On one hand, strengthening my legs and booty brings out my inner badass—seriously, do a few deadlifts and try not to feel like a walking Beyoncé song. But on the flip side, there are only so many squat and lunge variations I can do before I get bored and start daydreaming about Dunkin’ Donuts. So when I recently came across an “underbutt” workout that promised to promote a perkier tush, I knew I’d found the antidote to my leg-day ennui.

According to fitness trainer and BURN workout app creator Rebecca Louise, your underbutt is basically the crease where your lower glutes and upper hamstrings meet. “When these muscles are toned and strengthened, it makes the booty pop out and up,” she explains.

This is obviously an aesthetic win, but there are a few other benefits to sculpting your lower cheeks. “When your bum is strong and toned it helps your posture, which is essential for healthy joints and movement,” says Louise. “Strong glutes will take some pressure off of your knees—and you’ll be faster and able to jump higher, too.”

Most exercises for your legs and buns will involve the underbutt in some way, but Louise recommends doing moves that isolate it, too. She suggests starting with the circuit below, where you’ll stack exercises together and add on after each move. If you want to intensify the action, you can hold on to dumbbells during the workout—just be sure to increase your weight every two to three weeks to keep seeing gains, says Louise. Yes, this underbutt workout involves squats (ugh times ten), but I suppose I can make peace with my fitness nemesis if it leads to a boost in my caboose.

For a stronger and more lifted booty, do this 4-minute underbutt workout by trainer Rebecca Louise.

1. Squat Walks (30 seconds): To start, place a mat off to your side and come into a squat position—and take a deep breath because you’re gonna be here for a while. “You’re going to walk forward and backwards in this position,” says Louise. Try not to come up out of the squat at all, and you’re sure to feel the underbutt burn start to intensify.

2. Squat Pulses (30 seconds): “You just went backwards and forwards, now it’s time to go up and down,” says Louise. “Get in the midway position and pulse for 30 seconds.” Again, for best results, don’t come out of the squat in between moves.

3. Squat Walks + Squat Pulses (1 minute): Stacking the previous two exercises together, do another 30 seconds of forward-and-back squat walks followed by another 30 seconds of squat pulses.

4. Kneel Down and Stand (30 seconds): Grab your mat and kneel down on it, one leg at a time—then stand back up again, leading with the opposite leg. “For this exercise, it’s like you’re picking something up from the ground but you’re alternating one knee down at a time,” says Louise. “You’ll use the other leg to lift you back up. That’s going to work your underbutt.”

5. Squat Walks + Squat Pulses + Kneel Down and Stand (1 minute, 30 seconds): To burn out your underbutt, do all of the moves in a sequence, spending 30 seconds on each one. (For the kneeling and standing, start with the opposite leg that you used in the previous round, to make sure both underbutt areas are getting an equal amount of love.) Finish it off with some lower-bod stretches—trust me, you’ll need ’em.

While you’re ripening that peach, learn how to get more from your donkey-kicks and ward off “dead butt syndrome” with this Hilary Swank-approved move.