Fire Hydrant | Illustrated Exercise Guide

Primary muscles: Hips, glutes
Secondary muscles: Core, thighs
Equipment: No equipment

FIRE HYDRANT INSTRUCTIONS

1. Get down on your hands and knees, with your wrists under your shoulders and your knees hip-width apart.
2. Keeping the knee bent, raise one leg up and out to the side, until it’s level with your hip.
3. Return to the starting position, repeat, and then switch legs.

PROPER FORM AND BREATHING PATTERN

While doing the fire hydrant, face the floor and avoid arching your back. Keep your elbows locked, and don’t let your weight shift over to the support side. Don’t rush through the exercise and don’t raise the legs any higher than your hips. Breathe out as you raise your leg, and inhale as you return to the starting position.

EXERCISE BENEFITS

The fire hydrant targets the outer glutes, core and hips. This is a great exercise to tone and firm your butt and thighs, strengthen the hips and also to tighten your core. For a perkier back side, pair fire hydrants with donkey kicks.

DEMONSTRATION

SETS AND REPS

To tone and tighten the buttocks start with 1 or 2 sets of 8 to 10 repetitions. Increase the number of sets and reps over time, until you’re able to complete 3 sets of 15 to 20 repetitions. If you’re looking for a bigger challenge, or if you want to build muscle mass, use ankle weights.

CALORIES BURNED

To calculate the number of calories burned doing the fire hydrant, enter your weight and the duration of the exercise:

RELATED LOWER BODY EXERCISES

Try these other lower body exercises to strengthen, sculpt and tone your thighs, hips, legs and glutes:
Standing leg circles
Lunges
Single leg bridge
Curtsy lunge