The buns are getting loads of press lately. It seems a perky posterior is as high a priority for many women as a pair of equally perky breasts. Some women are going to great lengths to achieve a more voluminous back-side, including undergoing buttock implants, augmentation and fat injections – extreme procedures when trying to eradicate a saggy, unimpressive derriere.
Haven’t these people heard of weight training?
With fitness and muscle development trends today, women can readily, and easily, achieve a tightly tones rear-end without having to consider surgical alternatives. When you think about it, who would want to get cut with a scalpel when you can get the results you want with weight training? Most of you are already incorporating weight training into your fitness and body-shaping regimens, so it’s just a matter of focusing more on what’s behind you.
You really have to make an extra effort to train the glute muscles. They do come into play when doing other muscle-building exercises, but to truly shape your posterior you must add a few specific butt-shaping exercises. The good news is the three muscles making up the glute region – the gluteus maximus, the gluteus medius and the gluteus minimus – respond very well to direct training. Like the abdominals, the glutes can withstand a lot of punishment, so think of it in terms of incorporating a dedicated glute-training program twice a week to lift and tone.
Choose two glute exercises per workout session, 4 or 5 sets of each exercise, 12 to 15 repetitions per set to totally work the muscles. Not sure if you are doing the exercise correctly? Reach around behind and touch your muscles during the exercise. You should be able to feel them contracting.
The Exercises
Prone Hip Raises – A good exercise to lead off with, prone hip raises can be done with or without weights. Lie on the floor on your back with knees drawn up, feet planted shoulder-width apart. Raise your hips off the floor so that your bodyweight is supported by your shoulders and feet. Squeeze the glutes as you raise your hips so that you feel a good contraction. DO NOTlet the buttocks rest on the floor between repetitions. Try to complete 4-5 sets of 12-15 reps.
If you want to increase the degree of difficulty, incorporate “burns” into your hip raises: Raise your hips, contract the glutes and do pulses or mini hip raises, at the top of the movement. Do 12-15 burns after doing the full-ranges hip raise. You will soon discover why I call the “burns.”
Putting a weight on your abdomen creates an even greater challenge. Hold the plate securely on your midsection so that it won’t slip down and hit you in the face. Really feel those glutes working. Squeeze the muscles. You will eventually be able to use two 45-pound plates.
Lunges – As far as I’m concerned this is the grand-mommy of all glute exercises. When performed properly NOTHING adds shape to the tush faster than the lunge. The problem is that most people do not do lunges correctly and never receive the benefits from such a tremendous movement. Lunges can be performed with or without weights, walking, with one leg up on a bench, reverse lunges on a Smith Machine, etc., etc. The variations are limitless.
Most often when you see someone attempting to do lunges they kneel down and touch their knee to the floor, come back up and repeat the same motion with the other leg. The exercise is called lunges, not “kneel downs!” If you were supposed to simply kneel down the exercise would be named accordingly.
Proper execution of the exercise requires you to lunge out (hence, the name) as far as possible, keeping your upper body perpendicular to the floor (erect). As you move forward from this position you must squeeze the glutes tightly to completely activate all the fibers of the glute region. This squeeze, or contracting of the muscles, is what makes the exercise so effective. This contraction cannot be achieved by simply kneeling down.
Squats – That’s right… Squats. “But Rick, squats are hard.” That’s right, they are. And your butt will be hard too… if you do them. Plain and simple.
I prefer for women to perform squats on a Smith Machine. Position yourself under the bar and place you feet out in front of you (anywhere from 1-2 feet). The reason for this is simple. If your feet are directly beneath you and you perform the exercise, your knees will pass forward of the position of your feet. This places a lot of undue stress on the knee joint, and is a recipe for disaster. The knee is not made to handle the amount of weight that your quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings and hips can handle combined. But when you attempt to squat with your feet directly under you in the Smith Machine this is exactly what you are asking your knees to do. This is a recipe for injury. So, with your feet out in front of you to avoid injury, begin your descent to the floor slowly and deliberately. Descend all the way to the floor. That’s right… take your bootie all the way down to the floor. The glute muscles are activated during the lower part of the exercise. As you begin your rise back to the top, push with the heels of your feet and squeeze your rear-end tightly. This little tip will create more activation of the glute muscles than you can imagine. As you reach the finish point of the repetition, do not lock out at the top. Instead, stop just short of locking your knees out, pause for a moment and begin the next repetition. Four to five sets of 10-12 repetitions will be plenty of this exercise.
REMEMBER: Take your butt all the way to the floor, push with the heels of your feet, and squeeze the hell out of your butt to get the most out of this exercise.
Kneeling Cable Kickbacks – Want to hit all three glute muscles with a bang? Nothing does it better than the kneeling cable kickback. A variation of the standing cable kickback, kneeling demands more effort from the glutes because the range of motion is greater. It also works against gravity.
Place a flat bench in front of a weight stack. Attach a cuff to one of your ankles and attach that to the weight stack. Kneel on the bench with the free leg. Bring the cuffed leg far forward, then slowly back and as high as possible. Like with the squats, try to push backwards with your heel to generate more contraction to the glute region. Contract the glutes tightly as you work.Place a hand on the working glute periodically to feel the muscles working. This helps to keep your effort honest. Perform 4-5 sets of 12 repetitions for each leg. Begin with a moderate weight like 30 to 40 pounds to perfect your technique and build a strength base. Progress to more weight in two to three weeks once you feel you can handle it.
A machine that is found in many gyms these days is called the “Butt Blaster.” This machine simulates the motion of the Kneeling Cable Kickbacks since it is designed to place you in the proper position for the exercise.
Other effective glute-training exercises to consider adding for variety are stiff-legged dead-lifts and good mornings.
Cardio – If you want a rear-end that stops people dead in their tracks you must do your share of cardio training. Let’s face it… you can have the greatest ass in the world, but if it’s covered by layers of fat nobody will ever be able to admire it, much less want to admire it. Stair-climbing and elliptical trainers are both effective modes of cardio exercise that target the glutes, but as far as yielding the highest results, nothing works better than walking on a treadmill at a high-grade incline. The higher the incline, the more the glutes are activated. Forty to sixty minutes per session, 4-5 times per week.
Nutrition – This one is pretty obvious, isn’t it? If you don’t want junk in the trunk, then you can’t eat junk. This should be a no-brainer. If you’re not sure what to eat CLICK HERE.
Eat properly most of the time, perform direct butt-shaping exercises and put in your time on the treadmill, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised how quickly your butt becomes an object of affection. Trust me… in today’s society, with breast implants being as commonplace as make-up, any woman can have a pleasing upper body. But, a tight, toned, jaw-dropping backside is truly something to behold… a REAL show-stopper. So, what are you waiting for… get your ass in gear!
Rick Streb
