This article originally appeared on DailyBurn.com.

Resistance bands are a priceless tool to have in your toning arsenal. For starters, they’re inexpensive and easy to take on the road. Even better: “They’re joint-friendly and provide a more functional movement in comparison to free weights,” says Bec Donlan, a certified personal trainer in NYC who teaches band-based classes at Bandier’s Studio B.

You can get these bands in different forms, too. Loop resistance bands — the kind that forms a circle, rather than one long strip — around your thighs or ankles during exercise. This makes them especially effective for pinpointing the muscles that make up your backside, says Donlan.

“[They] directly target your glutes, in particular your medial glute — which is a muscle that often refuses to fire for the majority of people,” explains the Australian native. “When it doesn’t activate, the muscles around it overcompensate and start doing all the work.” That can lead to imbalances (think oversized quads but a flat booty) and injuries. Whomp, whomp.

The bands also add ascending resistance to your weight room routine, meaning the exercises get tougher as you move through the full range of motion. That doesn’t happen with free weights, which give a constant resistance throughout the move. More intensity, more stability — aka efficiency at its best.

Convinced to join the band yet? Take on these five band exercises to fire up your glutes, and the rest of your lower body! We promise you’ll love the booty-toning benefits, and the strength upsides, too.

RELATED: 50 Butt Exercises to Sculpt Stronger Glutes

5 Band Exercises to Build a Stronger Butt

GIF: Mallory Creveling / Life by Daily Burn; Filmed at Bandier’s Studio B

1. Banded Side Step

This is one of the best band exercises to work your hips, abductors and the connective tissue in your legs, slashing your chance of injury. But it’s also a perfect way to prime your backside to work hard. Donlan recommends adding it to every warm-up to ensure your medial glutes fire up throughout your workout.

How to: Stand with feet hip-width apart, band around ankles and holding a dumbbell at chest height in front of you (a). Lower into a squat (b). Staying low, take one step to the right and back, then one step to the left and back for one rep (c). Do 3 sets of 20 reps.

GIF: Mallory Creveling / Life by Daily Burn; Filmed at Bandier’s Studio B

2. Deep Squat

Adding a band takes your typical squat to the next level. “Your glutes have to work seriously hard to fight against the band to ensure your knees don’t collapse,” says Donlan. Try it as a goblet squat (holding a dumbbell vertically at chest height in front of you) or as a bodyweight banded squat.

How to: Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, band around thighs right above knees (a)…

This article originally appeared on People.com.

A Virginia resident was bitten by a venomous snake inside a LongHorn Steakhouse before she even made it to her table.

Rachel Myrick and her family were heading into the foyer of the restaurant for dinner earlier this month when she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her foot. “My left foot felt a bee sting, a hornet sting — something similar,” Myrick told Washington’s Top News. “So, I reached down to brush my foot off to keep walking.”

Once she did so, she was bitten a second time and immediately began screaming as she dropped her cellphone, wallet, and let go of her 13-year-old son Dylan’s hand. When addressing the pain between the bites Myrick said, “[The second] was significantly more painful than the first time.”

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After she was bitten a total of three times—twice on her toes and once on the side of her foot—the 8-inch-long copperhead stayed clung onto her foot until she was able to shake free.

“I freaked out,” Myrick told Fredericksburg.com. “I got bit! I got bit!” she recalls yelling out loud.

Her boyfriend, Michael Clem, who was with her at the time, knows a fair share about snakes. “I’ve bred and raised reptiles for 15 years… there was no question what it was,” he said.

Myrick was hospitalized and administered antivenin, morphine and benadryl for the severe swelling and pain.

A spokesman for LongHorn Steakhouse, Hunter Robinson, says the restaurant believes the snake may have come from a nearby retention pond and called the incident a “highly unusual incident.”

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“We are working with our facilities team to see how this may have occurred and we are taking steps to prevent it from happening again,” he added.

Myrick estimates it will take her about three months to fully recover.

Attention, runners! Brooks Running just dropped a completely new silhouette.

Ideal for neutral pavement pounders, the Levitate ($150; brooksrunning.com or dickssportinggoods.com) is designed to be "responsive and springy to add extra lift to your stride," helping you run faster. And according to the folks over at Brooks, this shoe was built on seven years of research. In other words, they did their due diligence.

I’ve been wear-testing the Levitate for about six weeks now, and I can honestly say that I'm in love with it—but it wasn't love at first run. My initial reaction was that it was cute, and I liked the vibrant aqua hue (they're also available in silver). The shiny detail along the side of the midsole, which I eventually learned serves a purpose (more on that later), is cool-looking too. This shoe also gets major points for its knitted upper, which hugs the foot without being restrictive, and the plush collar that offers extra cushioning around the ankle. Plus, it has lifestyle appeal, so I wouldn't hesitate to rock it around town.

After my first run, a six-miler through the streets of New York City and across the Williamsburg Bridge into Brooklyn, I thought the Levitate was just OK. I wasn't thrilled with the shoe, but I also didn't hate it.

Luckily, I decided to give them another shot. The more miles I logged, the more these shoes won me over—and I noticed it was the shorter, faster runs where they really shone. Each set of push-the-pace miles had me feeling like I was Simone Biles propelling off of the springboard right before the vault. (OK, that might be an exaggeration, but you catch my drift.)

Which brings be back to that silver side strip I mentioned earlier. I learned it acts like a gatekeeper for all that springy energy generated in every step. "It’s a thermoplastic sheet, and as the foam or polyurethane tries to dissipate or disperse, the sheet holds it in so it doesn't lose as much energy," explains Carson Caprara, Global Director of Footwear Product Line Management for Brooks Running. "It’s like a compression sleeve; it prevents some of the vibrations and prevents energy loss and pushes it right back." In other words, if you want a feel-fast runner that thrusts you forward, this is your shoe.

The bottom line? I have grown very fond of my Levitates. In fact, I can’t wait to sign up for a 5K or 4-mile race to see how they—OK, and I—perform. I’m thinking all that Levitate energy return, paired with my own adrenaline from toeing the start line, will definitely result in a PR. One caveat: For now, I’ll reserve them for distances shorter than a 10K; anything longer, and they just don't seem to have the same oomph, at least for me.