The Secret To
A Great Butt
the secret to a great butt
The Secret To A Great Butt:
4 Tips To Get Started…
Without question the number 1 request I get today, is finding the best way to
get a great well-rounded backside. It is also the most misunderstood muscle
group to develop. A round, firm and shapely butt is attractive to both men
and women because it signifies strength and good health. The glutes are
among the largest muscles of the human body and are powerful and
dynamic movers. They are responsible for much of your hips movements
from rotation to extension and abduction…but most people don’t care about
any of that…most people just want their glutes to look amazing! Anytime you
involve the hips you are likely involving the glutes so it seems like they would
be an easy muscle to train and grow. Unfortunately this is not the case for a
lot of people. Your genetics do a play a role in how easily you can develop
your glutes however MOST of the issues I see today that involve glute training
revolve around 4 key factors. Most people miss these 4 factors, which is why
Follow these 4 steps to get started on an amazing and shapely butt.
FOR A FULL EXPLANATION OF MAPS - CLICK HERE
the secret to a great butt
factor #1
not doing the right exercises // there is a right way
ALMOST every single time I see a new “butt building’ program advertised to
women I cringe. Most of them are EXTREMELY ineffective for a few key reasons
but the main reason is that they DO NOT use the most effective exercises. They
typically don’t include the most powerful butt building exercises known to trainers
and coaches worldwide like the barbell squat, the deadlift, lunges, good mornings
and hip thrusts. Instead they prescribe exercises like donkey kick backs and leg
abduction exercises. Its not that these exercises are bad per se…they definitely have
their place (keep reading. I explain when..) but they are completely inferior when
they are compared to even just simple barbell squats. Not all exercise is created
equal…some build muscle faster and more effectively than others and if your goal
is to build round glutes they should make up the bulk of your butt workout. Barbell
squats, deadlifts, lunges, good mornings, and hip thrusts are considered some of
the greatest strength builders by powerlifters, bodybuilders and athletes for good
reason…they work exceptionally well at building strength and muscle. If you are
NOT doing those exercises weekly and you want to build your butt you will have a
long hard and frustrated road ahead of you.
the secret to a great butt
factor #2
not lifting heavy // learn to get a great butt the right way
A long time ago a horrible myth emerged that did more
damage to proper training methodology for women than
almost any other factor. Women were told that lifting heavy
weights would build a bulky looking body while lifting light
weights for super high reps would build a toned and sculpted
body. NOTHING could be further from the truth!!! It is very
true that heavy weights builds more muscle and it builds
muscle faster but this is a GOOD thing. Do you want to
workout for months and months with little results? Of course
not and since your goal is to DEVELOP your butt its logical to
do it in the most effective way possible which is with HEAVY
WEIGHTS. You see your muscles are primarily made up of two
types of muscle fibers…type 1 (slow twitch) and type 2 (fast
twitch). The slow twitch muscle fibers are very good at
endurance. They are low force and low speed but they have
a large “gas tank.” Think long distance runner. These muscle
fiber types adapt to training by becoming more efficient and
part of this adaptation means they do their best to NOT grow
and build. Bigger muscle fibers means more calories burned
and since low force long duration exercise doesn’t require
much strength they tend to not grow that much. This is why
when you train with high reps you notice improvements in
endurance with very little visible changes.
On the other hand fast twitch muscle fibers have an incredible
capacity for visible change. That is because these fibers are
responsible for high force production and strength….think
a sprinter. Due to their role as the fast force producers they
adapt to the right training by becoming BIGGER. Train with
heavy weights and you will see visible changes MUCH faster.
Side note…because these fibers grow they also burn more
calories. Train with heavy weight and you get a fuller and
rounder butt along with a faster metabolism.
Bottom line
If your goal is to build a butt then focus on the muscle
fibers that actually grow. Train with heavy weight and stay
within the 6-15 reps range.
FOR A FULL EXPLANATION OF MAPS - CLICK HERE
the secret to a great butt
factor #3
not hitting the glutes frequently enough // frequency matters
Study after study is demonstrating that frequency of training is a much more
important factor than we had previously believed it to be. We have been told to
hit a muscle hard and long but then to leave it alone for a full week to allow it to
recover so that it has time to grow. Although there is some truth in that belief its
been applied all wrong. Yes you need to allow for recovery but recovery does not
equal ADAPTATION aka muscle growth. When you train a muscle with sufficient
intensity you create a small amount of damage. The body aims to repair said
damage and overcompensate aka ADAPT so that next time the same movements
with the same weight and intensity don’t produce the same damage. The
problem arises when we confuse recovery with adaptation. They are two different
things!! Yes damage causes adaptation to take place but the adaptation process
is ever going and studies will show that after about 48-72 hours without more
training the body adapts by stopping the muscle building process and even
starts to REVERSE it. In fact studies show the muscle-building signal as measured
through protein synthesis PEAKING at 48 hours but then dropping sharply after.
the secret to a great butt
ADAPTATION is the name of the game…
its what we want to happen and its what we
should target with our training. In the case
of building the butt we want the body to
ADAPT to the right exercises and loads by
building bigger and stronger glutes. This
process happens much more effectively
when we increase the frequency of training.
This does not mean we need to train long
and hard every time…in fact that may be
counter productive as the body has a
limited ability to recover from damage.
Instead take your current total volume and
simply divide it by three days a week. In
other words if you train your glutes once a
week with 3 exercises for 5 sets each for a
total of 15 sets simply take that and divide
it between three days and do 3 sets of one
exercise 3 days a week. This is vastly
superior in muscle building terms for
most people.
the secret to a great butt
factor #4
poor recruitment patterns // do the exercise correctly
One of the MOST frustrating things is when a client does all of the above right yet they still don’t
get the results they want. They squat, deadlift, lunge, hip thrust and good morning with heavy
weight and they train with the right frequency yet their glutes don’t change. Instead they build
great quads and hamstrings, which make them, even more irritated!! The issue here is hard to see
but simple to fix. These people have a poor recruitment pattern and when they do those awesome
exercises their quads and hamstrings do most of the movement…so although they are doing the
right things their body isn’t “firing” in a way that is sending the ADAPT signal to their glutes.
Your body doesn’t really understand it when you do an exercise and say “build this muscle.” It truly
only understands movement and this is a good thing. This is beneficial to keep you functioning
when you have an injury. Most movements involve many different muscles and if one muscle is
weak or injured the other muscles work together to do the job. Your body also LEARNS patterns
and these patterns become our default when we do move or exercise. If your body learned to use
the quads and hamstrings more than the glutes when doing exercises then those are the muscles
that will build the most. Its that simple.
To remedy this you must first teach the body a new and more favorable recruitment for your goals
…you literally need to connect to your glutes better so that when you do squat, deadlift, lunge etc
the butt gets the brunt of the muscle building signal and responds…fast. To do this you must learn
how to prime the glutes before your workout. Priming gets the central nervous system to change
the secret to a great butt
how it fires so that more of an emphasis can be
placed on the muscles of the butt. Think of
priming as an advanced way to warm up.
Here is where those less than ideal exercises I
talked about early In this article come in handy.
Doing simple movements like donkey kick backs
and leg abduction for isolated high reps with a
special focus on the “squeeze” gets your butt to
connect. Do these for 5-10 minutes with targeted
intention to feel those muscles before your workout and over a short period of time you will see
results happen at a much quicker pace.
If you follow the advice listed in this article the vast
majority of you will have no problem with building
your butt. In fact in my 20 years of training people
I have yet to meet anyone who truly has a butt that
wont respond to training.
Take a peek at our YouTube video showing some
glute exercises:
GLUTE EXERCISES
about the author
sal di stefano
Sal was 14 years old when he touched his first weight
and from that moment he was hooked. Growing up
asthmatic, frequently sick and painfully skinny, Sal
saw weightlifting as a way to change his body and his
self-image. In the beginning, Sal’s body responded
quickly to his training but then his gains slowed and
then stopped altogether. Not one to give up easily, he
began reading every muscle building publication he
could get his hands on to find ways to bust through his
plateau. He read Arnold’s Encyclopedia of
Bodybuilding, Mentzer’s Heavy Duty, Kubrick’s Dinosaur
Training, and every muscle magazine he could find;
Weider’s Muscle and Fitness, Flex, Iron Man and even
Muscle Media 2000. Each time he read about a new
technique or methodology he would test it out in the
gym. At age 18 his passion for the art and science of
resistance training was so consuming that he decided to
make it his profession and become a personal
trainer. By 19 he was managing health clubs and by 22
he owned his own gym. After 17 years as a personal
trainer he has dedicated himself to bringing science and
TRUTH to the fitness industry.