Summer is officially, finally, here. There’s nothing better than leaving work early on Fridays and heading to a friend’s barbecue. Or jumping in the car on a Sunday morning and heading up to the Catskills to go for a hike. Or sitting on the roof with a bottle of rosé until late in the night with friends. Or getting invited to a rad pool party, putting on your bikini and realizing… YOUR BOOTY ISN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE!

The long winter of too much work (and too many hours of Netflix) has taken its toll. What to do!?

“Many women that come in put having stronger glutes — aka “a nicer butt” — high on their list of priorities,” says Kristin Reisinger, owner of IronPlate Studios, a Jersey City personal training and nutrition studio. “We can whip them into shape, but it takes some work and a multi-faceted approach.”

1. Do cardio that strengthens your butt

While standard cardio is certainly helpful, you’ll burn more fat in your hips and thighs — the main place women tend to store fat — if you take it up a notch and do cardio that really works those areas. Stairs are fantastic, as is treadmill time at a steep incline. It hurts a lot more than walking or jogging on a flat surface, but the benefits will noticeable in no time.

And it’s good for the rest of your body, too.

2. Do extra leg/glute training

A comprehensive, full-body workout over the course of a couple of days is great for standard training and good health. However, if a better booty is a high priority, additional leg and glute training are highly recommended. The top three exercises to strengthen your legs and glutes are:

• Squats. You don’t need to do these every day, but a couple of times a week is a good start. If you’re beginning, do air squats (no weight added) to start. As you progress and find it easy, start adding weight. Glutes are, after all, muscles and need to be pushed to grow.

• Lunges. Lunges are a great butt exercise because you really have to use your glutes to stabilize your body. Start with 2-3 sets of 10-12 reps and as you progress, add weights and more reps. They also work your calves and hamstrings, so you’re getting a lot out of them.  Mix it up with different varieties of lunges including reverse lunges, forward lunges, curtsy lunges and make sure to use dumbbells or a barbell as you get stronger to increase the resistance and make that butt work!

• Leg Presses. You’ll need a leg press machine for these, so get into a gym if you don’t already go. Leg presses, while a compound exercise that work many muscles, strengthen the glutes primarily and should be a core part of your better booty building routine.  Mix up your foot position between hips width, sumo stance and narrow to target the muscles a little differently and keep them guessing.

3. Work out all the time… not just at the gym.

Going to the gym to do leg training and doing cardio regularly are both excellent approaches to getting that better booty, but look at the entire day as an opportunity to make further progress. If you’re at work, go outside and walk to get lunch instead of clicking on seamless. Get off the subway a stop earlier and walk a few extra blocks to work. There are a lot of opportunities to add to your gains in plain sight.

4. Eat right

“All the exercise and cardio in the world isn’t going to shape that butt of yours if you’re not eating right,” says Reisinger. “Our motto is ‘Eat Clean. Train Hard.’ and we try to educate our training clients that good eating habits are essential in conjunction with their training.”

“We encourage people to embrace a diet consisting of unprocessed foods, lean proteins, low sugar, more vegetables and a reduction of alcohol. It sounds joyless, but once you look into some of the things you can eat, you’ll realize it’s actually quite exciting. And you’ll see progress substantially quicker.”

5. Set goals — realistic ones

You’re not going to wake up tomorrow looking like a model, so before beginning, it’s always recommended that you jot down some short-term and mid-term goals to chart your progress and help keep you committed. Maybe you want to go down a dress size or two. Or be able to stay on the treadmill (without wanting to die!) for 5 more minutes. Or beat your best 5K time by a minute. Write down a list of goals and score some wins in order to keep your motivation level and spirit high.

Get on it now so that in a month, when you get invited to another great pool party, you grab that same bikini, put it on and walk out the door knowing you look great.

IRONPLATE STUDIOS IS AN ELITE AND PRIVATE personal training and nutrition studio with locations at the Monroe Center in Hoboken, NJ and the Brunswick Center in Jersey City, NJ. We specialize in strength and fitness, personal training, weight loss, physique development and transformation, sports nutrition, medical nutrition therapy and meal planning — all in a private and motivating setting. http://www.ironplatestudios.com